Animal Fun

Have your kids pretend to be different animals. Have them walk, crawl, or jump like the animals and imitate their noises. Have them try to be like a variety of different animals. You can do farm animals, zoo animals, or pets. Teach them about the different animals while they are playing. Tell them about the animals habits, what they like to eat, etc.

Paper Bag Puppets

Make paper bag puppets. You can do this by decorating the bags with construction paper cutouts or get more creative with other art supplies. (ex: buttons, yarn, glitter, etc.) Need more help?

Try making farm animals like a cow, pig, sheep, or chicken.
Make domestic animals like a cat, dog, or bunny.
Make zoo animals like a lion, penguin, or bear.
Make people.

Old MacDonald

Sing Old MacDonald had a Farm with your kids. This is a great interactive song for your little ones to learn the different farm animals and the sounds they make. If you are lucky enough to have animal hand puppets, use them as you sing the song. Don't be afraid to use any animal even if it isn't a traditional farm animal. Your kids will love making all sorts of critter noises with you. :)

Hokey Pokey

Do the Hokey Pokey with your kids today. Need the Lyrics? Don't be afraid to add your own twist to the song and dance like "You put your teddy bear in, you put your teddy bear out..."

Playdough Fun

Using playdough, have your kids make shapes. You can give them direction and make it a teaching opportunity or just let them freestyle. Young kids will enjoy using cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the pressed playdough. You can find playdough cutters at the dollar store, or make some basic shapes out of old cardboard tubes or boxes. You can also work on color recognition with your playdough time.

Ideas for themes:
Learn parts of the body - make all the body parts - feet, legs, body, arms, head - then assemble them.
Learn shapes - make circles, squares, triangles, rectangles
Zoo animals
Pets
Farm animals
Learn sizes - long/short, big/small

Simon Says

Play Simon Says. You as the parent should be Simon. You say "Simon says..." and fill in the blank with an action for the kids to imitate. (touch your nose, stomp your feet, etc.) Keep the actions more simple for the indoors. Do things that will help with them learning to identify arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. If you play outdoors, you can get even more creative since you may have more room to roam. (run in a circle, roll down the hill, etc) Then if you give them an action without saying 'Simon says' that child is out. This is a good game for older kids to help them with their listening skills. For young children, always say 'Simon says.' They enjoy doing whatever silly things you can come up with.

Paper Dolls

For your craft time make paper dolls. You can either design them yourself, or get some help online. (paper doll link) Keep it simple for the younger ones - maybe make a simple bear. You can use colored construction paper for clothes, or plain paper and let your kids color them.

Sponge Painting

Cut shapes out of sponges - circles, squares, triangles. You can use old ones or buy new ones at the dollar store. Wet the shapes but wring out the excess water. Dip the sponge in paint or use a brush to apply the paint. Press the sponge onto canvas or paper.

If You're Happy and You Know It!

Sing the song If You're Happy and You Know It with your kids. Find the music and lyrics here. Have fun with this one by making up your own actions to perform. Let your kids come up with ideas too - they can be quite fun! Examples: If you're happy and you know it...
stick out your tongue
nod your head
flap your arms
yell yahoo!
jump in the air

Pictures from Shapes

Get out construction paper and glue. Cut out a bunch of circles, squares, and triangles from different colored paper. Then let your kids glue the shapes onto a sheet of construction paper. They can either do a collage or use the shapes to create pictures, like a tangram (a tangram uses 7 geometric pieces to create different forms) only with as many shapes and pieces as they want.