Activity Inspiration – Children
Activity suggestions for children
There are many activities to help keep kids busy while practicing social distancing.
- Build a cubby house with blankets, sheets and a heap of pegs.
- Cook something simple together like pikelets – click here for a recipe.
- Draw portraits of each other. Set a timer and enjoy the hilarious or spectacular results. Click here for a video with drawing some tips.
- Make pom-poms with scrap wool – click here for a YouTube video with instructions.
- Do a family jigsaw puzzle together. You can even have your own puzzle made from a family photo.
- Have a family photography challenge where you all have to take a photo of the same object e.g. an apple and see who can be the most creative.
- See our other great suggestions below which include craft activities, stories read out loud, zoo animal cams and much more!
Printable Activity Sheets
Animal Cams
Check out zoos who are streaming their animals live.
Symbio Zoo is running educational programs, live feeds, letters from your favourite animal and more click here.
Craft Activities
- 29 Easy Craft Ideas For Kids (by Canvas Factory)
- Garden pinwheel (by makesandtakes.com)
- How to make play dough (by Play Group NSW)
- Hand and footprints (by Play Group NSW)
- Junk Sculpture (by Play Group NSW)
- Creating Paper People (by the Frick, Pittsburgh, USA)
- Sock Bunny Art Project (by the Frick, Pittsburgh, USA)
Links to Educational Programs/Videos
- ABC Me
- Discovery at Home videos (by UOW Early Start)
- Digital Lunchbreak (produced by Advocate for Children and Young People)
- Ethics Bites for children
Get Active
Doing physical activity is important, especially during a lock down (practicing social distancing of course).
- Check out some great videos and activity sheets for kids from the Office of Sport.
- Visit your local council website to discover parks and bike paths that you might not have visited before.
Children’s Stories
- Storybox Library is a great resource that features authors and others reading children’s story books. You need to sign up with your library card number (from participating libraries) to get access.
- You can find videos of people reading books on YouTube e.g. The Very Brave Bear – by Nick Bland
- Story about Coronavirus by Kim St Lawrence called Time to come in bear.
- Noni the Pony read by Alison Lester.
Celebrities reading children’s books
Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
Cooking
Cooking is a great way to teach your children important life skills.