Play activities

Mark-making refers to the different lines, dots, shapes, patterns and drawings that children create before they can write letters or words. It can include scribbles with crayons or handprints in paint.

Find tips on encouraging mark-making on the CBeebies Parenting website.

Barnardo's run regular sessions for families at their Child and Family Centres in Peterborough. The sessions are free to attend and promote early play, learning and development. Sessions include:

• Stay and play (suitable for children aged 0-5 years)
• Babbling babies (suitable for children from birth to walking)
• Song, rhyme and story time (suitable for children aged 0-5 years)

Visit the Barnardo's Peterborough website to view activities and sessions.

Throughout the summer, Barnardo's are running family events at their Child and Family Centres and parks in Peterborough. Themes include pirates, princesses, space, jungle safari and more! View Barnardo's Child and Family Centres' summer locality events.

Each month, Peterborough Museum runs a Tiny Tots session for children under the age of 5. The session lasts an hour and includes:

• Sensory and messy play activities
• Songs and games
• Story time

You have to book your child a ticket for the session, which costs £4. Parents are required to stay during the session and accompany their child for free.

For more information and to book a ticket, please visit the Peterborough Museum website.

Peterborough Library Service runs story time, rhyme time and craft club sessions for children of different ages:

• Story time and rhyme time sessions - for under 5s, must be accompanied by a parent or carer, take place weekly at various libraries across the city on different dates
  
  
• Children's craft club - for children aged 4+, must be accompanied by a parent or carer, take place monthly at Central Library, costs £1 per child and requires advance booking due to capacity

Visit the Peterborough Libraries website for information on sessions and events.

You know what they say when parenting gets tricky – just add water! Children of all ages love playing with water – here are a few ideas to get you started.

Always supervise children closely when playing with water.

Splish splash! (0-3 years)

You will need:

• Bowl or tray of water
• Baby cups, bowls and spoons
• Bath toys (optional)

Lay your child on their tummy with access to the water you have prepared.

Encourage your child to splash, stir, pour or pick up toys in the water.

Talk to your child about what’s happening with the water and how the water feels on their hands and arms.

You could also try collecting petals from safe flowers such as daisies and dandelions and sprinkling them in the water.

Aqua artists (1-5 years)

You will need:

• Brushes
• Sponges
• Bucket/bowl of water
• Pavement or outside wall, or a large piece of cardboard or coloured card

Encourage your child to paint using the water on the surface you have prepared.

Join your child in painting with the water.

Share what you are doing and encourage your child to talk about what they are painting.

For older children, encourage them to draw different shapes, patterns, lines, letters or numbers.

Bubble mania (1-5 years)

You will need:

• Bubble solution
• Bubble wand

Blow bubbles and encourage your child to run, jump, reach and chase the bubbles and popping them with their fingers, arms, head and feet.

Count the bubbles together and describe what you see together - big, small, floating, blow, high, low...

Encourage your child to try and blow the bubbles while you chase them!

You can even make your own bubble solution and bubble wand. Use water, washing up liquid, sticks and string. Mix water (300ml) and washing up liquid (50ml) in a bucket and create your own bubble wand by looping bits of string to sticks/straws.

Little ones love to make music – even if to us, it sometimes just sounds like noise!

DIY instruments (0-3 years)

You will need:

• Child-safe sealable container e.g. water bottle
• Dry rice/pasta/lentils

Carefully pour the rice/pasta/lentils into the container (older children can help with this, and it will help with their fine motor skills). Put the lid on the container and seal it.

Sit or lie with your child and gently shake the instrument, encouraging your child to watch, reach or copy.

Sing nursery rhymes and accompany your singing with the shaking of your instrument.

Let your child hold and explore the musical instruments and talk about what sounds you can hear and if they’re loud or quiet.

Make your own playdough (3-8 years)

You will need:

• 8 tbsps flour
• 2 tbsps salt
• 4 tbsps warm water
• 1 tbsp oil
• Optional: 1 cap food colouring
• Mixing bowl
• Mixing spoon

Recipe:

1. Add flour and salt to your bowl
2. Add in the water, oil and food colouring (if using)
3. Mix with a spoon until combined
4. Tip out onto a floured surface and knead until no longer sticky
5. Store in a bag or container in the fridge to keep fresh when not using

Support your child to measure out the ingredients.

Let them pour, stir and explore the feeling of the dough.

Encourage your child to knead and squash the ingredients to form a dough.

Talk about how the dough feels, looks and changes as you play.

Use your hands or simple tools, if you have them, to shape, roll and squeeze the dough.

As a challenge encourage your children to make different things with the dough from animals, people and even their name.

Magic wardrobe (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Clothes from your wardrobe such as: coats, dresses, shirts/tops, scarves, glasses, shoes, bags etc – you could ask friends and family to lend clothes too.

Encourage your child to choose clothes and dress up in their own way.

Join in by dressing up too!

Layer different items, the sillier the better.

Talk about the clothes and how you put them on, you can demonstrate how to put them on too.

Ask your child if they are dressing up to be someone like an alien, princess or a superhero.

Can they walk and strut like they are on a catwalk?

Listening walk (0-12 months)

Listen for noises outside.

Tell your baby what’s making the noise and repeat the noise. For example:

• Birds – tweet, tweet
• Traffic - brum, brum
• Wind – whoosh (use gentle hand movements too)
• Dog barking – woof, woof
• Car horn – beep, beep
• Ambulance – nee naw, nee naw

Nature moves (1-3 years)

Find different surfaces to walk, run, skip or hop across.

If your child asks for help to balance , you could offer your hand for them to hold. If the child does not want any support, let them have a go.

Name the different surfaces that you walk on: grass, soil, bark, leaves, twigs etc.

Mindful walk (5-8 years)

Walk slowly together. Talk about what you notice: ‘I can hear the wind in the trees’.

Encourage your child to notice what they can:

• See - colours, shapes, movement
• Hear – birds, footsteps, leaves
• Smell – grass, flowers, rain
• Touch – bark, stones, leaves

Ask your child:

• What is the quietest sound that you can hear?
• Can you find something tiny?

Walk back calmly ask:

• Can you tell me one thing that you heard?
• Can you tell me one thing that you smelt?
• Can you tell me one colour that you saw?

Pastabilities (1-3 years)

You will need:

• Large tub/tray
• Uncooked pasta
• Spoons, cups, containers, small bowls

Encourage your toddler to feel the pasta. Describe to your toddler what you can feel, can they describe what they can feel?

Encourage your toddler to scoop, pour and transfer the pasta between your selection of containers.

Encourage your toddler to count the pasta or the scoops you are making.

Talk about the shape and the sound of the pasta.

Sensory seekers (1-3 years)

You will need:

• Large tub/tray/box
• Selection of safe household items with different textures e.g. spoons, fabric, pegs, pasta, tinfoil, plastic bottles

Place a small selection (6-8) of textured items in your tray/box.

Encourage your child to feel and explore the objects have you have selected.

Discuss with your child how it might feel. Is it soft, hard, rough, noisy, quiet, smooth, bumpy, fluffy, squish, prickly, lumpy, crunch, cold warm?

Encourage your child to sort the items by texture, size or colour.

Loop de loop lab (1-5 years)

You will need:

• String or ribbon
• Anything you can thread - pasta, buttons, cereal, crisps, cotton reels, cut toilet roll tubes, beads (check for choking risk) etc

Give your child a selection of things to thread with different size holes.

Encourage your child to thread the objects onto the string or ribbon. You can tie the end in a knot to stop the items threading all the way off.

If your child is finding threading a challenge you can stick some uncooked spaghetti into some play dough, clay or blu-tack and they can thread onto it.

As an extra challenge encourage your child to count the things they are threading. Can they make a pattern?

Shape searchers (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Card or paper
• Scissors

Draw different shapes with your child to look like a magnifying glass.

Cut out the outlines of your shapes.

Encourage your child to choose a shape searcher and choose one for yourself.

Get yourself hunting inside or outside and see if you can find shapes that match your shape searcher.

For example, the TV is a rectangle, you can use your rectangle shape searcher to match up to the TV.

Encourage your child to count the sides and corners of the shape. How do they match the shape searcher?

Can your child name the shape they have found? Can you group the shapes together?

Repeat the names of the shapes together.

Design and drive (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Masking tape/decorators tape
• Toy cars
• Cardboard boxes
• Cardboard tubes
• Pens/pencils/crayons

Encourage your child to create their own roads for their cars to drive on using the tape.

Use cardboard boxes and tubes to create bridges, tunnels, garages or obstacles.

Support your child to create roads and routes for their cars.

As a challenge encourage children to extend and add more detail to their roads – can they use different furniture or props to create different levels and spaces?

Ask your child where their cars might be going.

Flying high (5-8 years)

You will need:

• A4 paper or card (junk mail works too)
• Pens/pencils/crayons
• Tape measure if you want to have a competition

Let your child decorate their bit of paper or card and decorate one yourself to join in on the aeroplane race fun.

Search on the internet for images of aeroplane folding styles and follow the instructions.

Take it in turns to see who can throw their plane the furthest. Whose flies the quickest/slowest? Do they fly straight or curve? Do they fly up or fly down?

Treasure tummy time (0-12 months)

You will need:

• Playmat/blanket/rug
• Toys/rattles/sensory books
• Baby-safe mirror

Place playmat/blanket/rug on a safe flat surface.

Place toys within easy reach of the baby.

Carefully place your baby on the playmat/blanket/rug ensuring they’re on their tummy.

Encourage your baby to look at themselves and reach and grasp the different toys you have laid out.

Talk to your baby about what they are reaching for and holding, what they can see in the mirror using kind, gentle and caring words to support their development through encouragement.

Sensory scarf peekaboo (0-12 months)

You will need:

• Range of different coloured lightweight scarves
• Playmat/blanket/rug

Lay a playmat/blanket/rug in a clean safe space.

Place the collection of scarves around the mat.

Cover your face with the scarf and then remove while saying ‘peekaboo’.

Cover your baby’s face and remove it while saying ‘peekaboo’.

Encourage your baby to touch, pull or hold the scarves.

Talk about the colour of the scarf when you gently brush it over your baby’s face.

If your baby is able to hold themselves up using their tummy, hide the scarf and encourage your baby to search for it.

Encourage your baby by interacting with smiles, words and gestures to support play.

We're going on a bug hunt (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Pen
• Paper

Heading out to your local park?

Or do you have an outside space to explore? Perfect!

It is time to become a Bug Detective.

Look high, look low, peek under leaves, and tiptoe around trees to see how many different bugs you can spot. Each time you find one, make a tally mark or add a fun little dot on your sheet.

Older children might like to write the numbers themselves – or even sketch the bug they have discovered.

Habitat hunting (5-8 years)

You will need:

• Outdoor clothing and boots/trainers
• Magnifying glass (if you have one – don’t worry if you don’t)
• Brush or a spoon to help you dig
• Gloves if you want to keep your hands clean

Find a place where a mini beast might…

• Hide (under a log, bush, stones)
• Find food (flowers, seeds, insects)
• Get water (puddles, damp soil)
• Rest or sleep (tree holes, long grass)

You can ask questions, such as who might live there or why is it a good home?

Encourage your child to look closely, listen and feel for textures if they want to

Sun and shadows (1-3 years)

You will need:

• Objects from nature (sticks, leaves)

Show children their shadow and how it moves.

Place sticks or leaves and notice their shadows.

Encourage stepping, waving, or moving to see changes.

Use language like “big shadow”, “small shadow”.

Rolling challenge (5-8 years)

You will need:

• Sticks – different lengths/thickness
• Stones – smooth/rough, round/flat

Find or create a gently slope – grass bank, wooden plant, thick twig.

Mark a starting line and a finishing line using leaves or flowers.

Choose a stick, twig or stone.

Roll it down the slope.

Observe what happens.

Questions to ask:

• Why did some objects roll further than others?
• What makes something roll well?

Daisy chains (5-8 years)

Show children how to identify daisies (white petals, yellow centre).

Encourage children to pick daisies carefully, leaving some behind for wildlife and others to enjoy.

Hold a daisy stem and carefully make a small slit in the middle of the stem using your fingernail.

Take another daisy and gently push the stem through the slit.

Repeat this process, adding more daisies to create a chain.

Encourage children to create necklaces or bracelets with their chains, work together and help each other with the threading and compare lengths, patterns, or designs of their chains.

Gentle breezes (0-12 months)

You will need:

• Soft blanket or mat
• Safe outside space: garden, park, courtyard etc
• Nearby trees, bushes or long grass
• Shade if needed
• Light scarf or muslin

Lay the blanket or mat on the ground.

Sit or lie with baby and watch the shadows created by leaves moving in the grass.

Gently describe what baby can see. The leaves are moving; the wind is soft, etc. Use a soothing voice, facial expressions along with a gentle touch.

Follow baby’s cues, pause, continue or adjust depending on baby’s engagement.

If baby shows an interest, slowly move a scarf or muslin above them to mirror the movement of the leaves.

Petal play (1-3 years)

You will need:

• Flower petals (rose petals, daisies, dandelions)
• Bowls or trays
• Water (optional)

Collect petals from safe flowers.

Place petals in shallow containers or scatter them on a tray or ground.

Add a little water for extra sensory play if desired.

Let children touch, pick up, and move petals.

Encourage sprinkling, pouring, or floating petals in water.

Talk about colours and textures (“soft”, “light”, “yellow”).

Nature post box 1-3 years)

You will need:

• Empty containers, boxes, or tubes
• Natural items (sticks, leaves, pine cones)

Place containers or tubes upright in a safe outdoor space.

Gather a small selection of natural items.

Show children how to ‘post’ items into containers or holes.

Encourage dropping, filling, and emptying.

Repeat actions to build early coordination.

Use simple words like “in”, “out”, “more”.

Exploring nature (1-3 years)

You will need:

• Pine cones
• Stones
• Twigs
• Bark
• Feathers
• Conkers
• Leaves
• Petals

You can collect all of these things on a walk together if you like.

Place the items on the ground.

Let the child choose and explore the items freely.

Name the objects and describe the textures – soft, round, big, small.

How does your garden grow? (1-8 years)

You will need:

• Small plastic plant pot/plastic bottle
• Seeds (cress or beans)
• Paper towels
• Bowl/jug of water

Create a clear space, indoors or outdoors.

If using a plastic bottle, cut the top off.

Wet a paper towel, but don’t squeeze out the water.

Place the wet paper towel in the your container.

If you are using a bean, bury it in wet paper towel. If you are using cress seeds, sprinkle these on the top of the wet paper towel.

Add a splash more water and place in a windowsill or somewhere with lots of light.

Talk to your child about what might happen to their seeds if they look after them.

Once the seed has started to sprout you can plant it in some soil if you’d like.

Mud and water play (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Mud, water, sticks and leaves and/or stones
• Old pots, spoons or containers
• Clothes you don’t mind getting wet/messy
• Outside space, park or a garden

Add water to mud to explore different textures.

Let you child scoop, mix and experiment freely.

Encourage them to describe how the mud feels when wet or dry.

Support your child if needed with imaginative play such as cooking, building or mixing potions.

Obstacle course (3-8 years)

You will need:

• Obstacles such as chairs, rope, cushions, items of clothing, blankets, rug, basket/container
• Stopwatch (or app on smartphone)

Arrange resources into an obstacle course in a safe open space.

Include areas to crawl over, jump or duck under.

Encourage your child to help set up the obstacle course and ask them what sort of challenge they want to try.

Once all set up, time your child to see how long it takes them. Can they complete it again but quicker?

Ask them if they think they can make the course harder for an extra challenge.

Some ideas:

• Roll up a rug to tiptoe across
• Can they jump, crawl or hop between obstacles?
• Can they balance socks on their head?
• Make a tunnel with a blanket and chairs
• Weave around different items
• Jump from cushion to cushion
• Army crawl under a table or chairs
• Throw socks into a basket