Month: March 2019

 

Dinoduo have some great active play ideas for St Patricks Day. Have fun with the following ideas over the St Patricks weekend.

 

Find the Leprechaun Gold.

Cut out some gold coins from cardboard and hide them around the house or out in the garden.  Count how many coins you have hidden so you know when all the coins have been collected. Remember to hide some coins where they are easy to find and some coins in more difficult places.  Give your pre- schooler a bucket or basket and set them off to find all the gold.   Give your child hints like “getting hotter” or getting colder” if your child is getting frustrated.    You can have a small treat or prize for your pre-schooler if all the coins are found.

 

The Shamrock Trail.

Using green chalk, draw a trail of green shamrocks on the floor or out on the footpath, spacing them 12” apart approximately. Have your child step along the shamrock trail, one foot on each shamrock to get to the end of the trail. If they step off the shamrocks then back to the beginning.

Using the shamrock trail, have your pre-schooler jump from one shamrock to the next. Remember to bend the knees and use the arms.  See how many shamrocks they can jump to without stopping.

Have your child jump on the shamrock and then “stick”, trying to hold their balance so they don’t step off the shamrock.

 

Green Balloon trail

Hang a string the length of a room; make sure there is a clear pathway beneath the string. Hang green balloons along the length of the string, just out of arms reach of your pre-schooler.  Have your child walk beneath the balloons, jumping up to bat each balloon.

Roll up newspaper and secure with tape to make a bat, give your child the bat and have them walk the trail, batting each balloon with the bat.

 

Marching Band

Put on the  music and pretend to be marching  in a marching band in the parade, lift the legs and “ 1, 2 3, 4 “ of you go marching.

Get two saucepan lids and bang them together as you march along.

Dance a jig  

No St Patricks day is complete without dancing a jig, so on with the Irish music. Point those toes and dance your “1, 2 3’s” together with your pre-schooler.  Guaranteed to have you both laughing and out of breath in no time.

Happy St Patrick ’s Day to everyone from Dinoduo. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Copyright Dinoduo 2019

 

 

Hankle and Roary share lots of their favourite rolling games for you to try with your pre-schooler.  Remember; make sure your child rolls to both sides equally.

Rolling  Skittles

Set up some skittles (some empty milk cartons will do if you have no skittles) at the short end of a mat. Have your child lie down at the opposite short end, lying length ways to the short end.  On go, have your child roll along the mat , try and knock down the skittles.

Pencil Roll

Have your child lie across the short end of a mat, with both hands into their side. On go, have your child roll the length of the mat like a pencil, keeping the hands into the side.

Jigsaw roll

Place an insert jigsaw puzzle at one end of the mat and the insert pieces on the other end (use the short end of the mat).   On go, your child has to take one of the jigsaw pieces and roil the length of the mat to place the piece in the insert jigsaw. Your child then rolls back for the next piece. Your child keeps on rolling until all the pieces are in the insert jigsaw.  You can change the position of the hands to have your child work different muscles.

Tunnel Roll

This is a great one for out in the garden or for a big open space. Have your child lie in a canvas tunnel.  Encourage your child to roll the tunnel in different directions.  Close supervision is needed.

Sausage Roll

This is Hankle’s favourite. Fold a blanket in half or in thirds depending on the size.   Place the folded blanket out on the floor and have your child lie on one end of it. Taking the end of the blanket, roll your child up in the blanket. When you have your child completely rolled up in the blanket, take the end of the blanket and on a count of three, lift the blanket edge up so that your child rolls free of the blanket.  Be prepared to play this over and over again!

Bubble Wrap roll

Place some bubble wrap on the mat. Have your child lie down on the bubble wrap and roll backwards and forwards trying to pop as much of the bubble wrap as possible.

Rolling Train

Have you more than one pre-schooler? Have them all lie side by side on the floor or at one end of a large mat.  On go, have them all roll together, trying to keep up with their friends. Sure to get a few giggles going.

 

So off ye go, get rolling around and remember to have fun.

copyright Dinoduo 2019

Hankle and Roary love rolling around on the ground. Together with all their pre-school friends, they love wriggling and rolling, getting into all sorts of fun shapes. To them they are just messing around, having fun.  Little do they know that all that rolling is also so good for developing their motor skills and great for brain development?  Rolling is great for the following

• Crossing midline—as your child rolls, they reach across their body and they cross their midline. Crossing midline is a very important developmental skill. Crossing midline allows co-ordination of both sides of the body. Crossing midline is a fundamental motor skill for writing, tracking a moving ball, and reading and for lots of sports activities such as hitting a ball with a racket.

 

• Developing core muscles—– when rolling, your child will use their core muscles to move from back to tummy to back. When your child starts to roll, it is initially a fast flip (something like a pancake) with their body rigid. As their rolling skill develops, your child typically can roll in segments, first their head, and then either the hips or shoulders will follow until they have completed a roll. As your child gets stronger, they are able to put their hands above their head or down by their side and roll like a pencil which really works those tummy muscles. The slower your child rolls, the more those core muscles have to work. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself!

 

• Developing balance –—- Rolling on the floor is a balance activity, the action of the shoulders following head movement is a reflex activity that is very important for developing balance. The rolling action stimulates the balance centres in the head (The vestibular system) and helps your pre-schooler develop their sense of balance.

 

• Developing body awareness-—– Rolling on the floor works lots of muscles and your child gets lots of feedback from their body and how it is interacting with the ground. All this sensory information helps your child develop good body awareness and awareness of where they are in relation to the world around them (spatial awareness)

 

• Developing asymmetrical bilateral integration —– or a fancy way of saying two sides of the body working together.   When bilateral integration is asymmetrical, both sides of the body are doing different actions to complete a skill. This is a fundamental development block for activities such as eating with knife and fork, tying shoe laces, writing, kicking a ball etc.

 

• Sorting out those muscle imbalances—– Your child may have a preference to roll to one side over the other . This may be due to hand dominance, and may lead to one side of their body being stronger and more co-ordinated than the other. Making sure your child rolls to both sides helps reduce this difference in muscle development between the two sides.

 

• Settling the giddy child —–Your child needs lots of movement, some days more than others. If your child is giddy, rolling on the ground is a great way to get lots of movement sensation to settle the wiggles and giddiness. Perfect for those wet and rainy days.

Dinoduo have lots of great fun rolling activities for you and your pre-school child.

copyright Dinoduo 2019