Og® the bookworm represents caring and literacy, and is the perfect Primrose Friend to bring your child's school experience to your home. Over the next few weeks, we will provide specially designed interactive activities for children and parents as we navigate at-home learning together. If you have questions or comments on this site, click here. 

Og® the bookworm represents caring and literacy, and is the perfect Primrose Friend to bring your child's school experience to your home. Over the next few weeks, we will provide specially designed interactive activities for children and parents as we navigate at-home learning together. If you have questions or comments on this site, click here. 

Swirl Art 

Gather an 8” x 10” baking dish, water or milk, food coloring, liquid dish soap, toothpick, and paper. Fill the baking dish with enough water or milk to cover the bottom. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap and then a few drops of food coloring and swirl around. Give your child a toothpick and encourage them to swirl the colors together very gently to make a tie-dye design. Carefully place a piece of paper over the top of the water or milk and slowly lift to show the unique swirl design they made!  

Match the Music

Select one of your child’s favorite songs. Throughout the song, adjust the volume so it is loud or soft. As the volume changes, encourage your child to do movements that match the volume. For example, when the music is loud, they might march, stomp, jump, or swing their arms back and forth. When the music is turned low and soft, they might sway, pat their knees softly, or do small bunny hops. Let your child create their own movements and have other family members imitate. 

Nest to Rest

Use modeling dough, or homemade salt dough to create a bird’s nest and bird eggs. Point out the round shape of the nest and the eggs. If your child struggles to roll a round egg shape, make some eggs with them by rolling a small piece of dough between the palms of your hands. Ask for their help to place the “eggs” carefully in the nest. Ask "questions" such as: Who can fit in our little nest? What do you think birds do in the nest? Remind them that we should never touch real animal eggs from a nest.  

Billy's Playlist

Billy^® the duck has a new song all about recycling! Click here to sing along to "Glass, Bottles, and Cans!"

Planet Puppet Play

Use a variety of art materials to create puppets (such as stick puppets on popsicle sticks, brown lunch bag puppets, sock puppets, etc.) Together create a skit about saving our amazing Earth!  

Animal Sounds

Select a group of toy animals and arrange them in a row. Help your child roll a soft ball to one of the animals. When the ball touches an animal, ask your child to help make that animal sound. Emphasize the beginning sounds of each animal sound. 

Nature Writing

Fill a bin with age-appropriate outdoor nature items. Describe the bin of items and encourage your child to touch and feel them. Write what your child says about each item on a sheet of paper and tape the item to their quote. Ask questions to spark discussion such as What color is the _______? What do the blades of grass feel like? After the activity, you can read back their words and point to the object.  

Keep Our Planet Clean

Discuss the importance of a healthy planet and clean water. Our bodies, plants, and animals need clean water to survive. Clean water helps keep our planet beautiful. Create movements to accompany the song, “Let’s Keep Our Planet Clean.” 

Name That Food Game

At snack time, start a conversation related to healthy eating habits by playing a game. To play, take turns saying the name of a fruit. Try not to repeat a fruit that has already been shared and continue to play until you can’t think of any more fruits. Play again changing categories such as vegetables, meats, or salad ingredients.  

Color-Mixing Fun

Gather six clear plastic cups. Fill three of the cups with water. Drop red food coloring into one cup, blue into another and yellow into the third. Talk about the colors. Continue the color fun by mixing some of the blue water with red water in one of the three empty cups. Mix yellow and red in another and blue and yellow in the last empty cup. Ask your child what changes they notice? Make connections to rainbows by pointing out the spectrum of colors. Can they put the cups in the order of the rainbow? 

Magic Ice Activity

Your child will enjoy engaging in sensory play with these magic, fizzing ice cubes!  

Rain Art

Use paper and washable markers to create springtime designs. On the next rainy day, grab your artwork and take it outside to observe how the raindrops transform the artwork (you can also use a spray bottle). What happens to the colors? Introduce vocabulary words such as absorb, combine, drip.

Sound Exploration

Gather 4 or 5 clear, small plastic containers with lids. Place materials that produce different sounds in each container. You may use tissue for a soft sound, and cereal or crayons to elicit a louder sound. Tape the lids to the container so they don't come loose as your child shakes them. Ask your child to describe the sounds they hear. Point out the different items in the containers so your child makes connections between the size, weight, and materials of the objects and the sounds they produce. For nonverbal children, describe the sounds for them.

Baby Animal Fun

Explain that many baby animals are born in springtime. Your child may pretend they are a baby animal and “act out” how their favorite baby animal learns to walk, fly or swim. 

Mia's Dance Party

To celebrate International Dance Day, Mia the mouse is hosting a dance party!  

Rain Boot March

Grab your child’s rain boots and put on some music. Encourage your child to march, skip, and stomp in their rainboots for a little springtime variety. Can they create their own spring songs and record a video wearing their boots to share with family members?

Bend Like a Robot

Bend body parts together with your child (e.g. fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles). Demonstrate how to bend opposite body parts in different ways (e.g. one arm up at the elbow, the other down). Play music and create a dance where your child bends body parts to the beat of the music. It will be fun to bend like robots! 

Recognizing Numerals and Counting

Using dot cards 1-6, mix them up and ask your child to choose a number. Your child may then collect that number of an item (toy, sock, crayon) and place them in a basket or bag. Encourage your child to count along with you and touch each item as they say the number out loud.

Recycled Robot

Discuss with your child that reusing materials is one way to save resources. Save and wash food boxes as you go throughout your week. Boxes in a variety of sizes such as cereal, pasta, fruit snacks, raisins, etc. will help add dimension and creativity to this project. Once you have an assortment of boxes, ask your child to reuse and repurpose the food boxes into a robot. You can add construction paper, tape, and paper towel rolls to add other features to your robot. 

Og's Story Time

This week's Og's Story Time is with Meg O'Keefe reading her book "Are You a Magic Maker?" As you read along, think about some good deeds you plan to do this week or encourage your child to write or draw about a time they were brave. Take a break to walk outside and observe what "magical" things are in your own backyard. 

Og's Story Time Book List

Og has added some conservation-themed books to this week's reading list!  

Dr. Laura Jana's Story Time with Save the Children

Dr. Laura Jana, a member of the Early Learning Council for Primrose Schools reads, "Duck on a Bike" by David Shannon, published by Scholastic, Inc., in partnership with Save the Children to #SAVEWITHSTORIES. Click here to learn more about the Primrose Schools Children's Foundation's $100,000 pledge to Save the Children.  

Checking the Weather with Benjamin^®

Benjamin the bear is happiest when he is playing outdoors! Have your child look out the window and give a weather report for the day with Benjamin. Sing along here! 

#PaperPercyChallenge

Each week we'll be giving a new challenge to take on with your very own Paper Percy. The author in this week's Og's Story Time, Meg O’Keefe, discusses the magic in everyday experiences in her book, "Are You a Magic Maker?" Percy challenges you to go outside and find something magical together with your child. Is listening to the breeze magical to you? Are the flowers in your back yard magical? Take a video or photo and share your magical moment by tagging @PrimroseSchools on Instagram. 

Pledge of Allegiance

Each morning, we start our day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Say the Pledge with Percy^®! 

Continuing Conservation Efforts with Megy^®

Megy’s conservation work is never done, but now it’s time to have some fun! Create a wind chime with recyclable materials to hang outside and each time you hear it “magically” jingle, you will be reminded to care for the Earth! (For the base, select a thick twig. Your child may hang various small objects along the twig with short sections of yarn or fishing line. Hang outside of your child’s reach and enjoy the beautiful sounds!)  

Problem-Solving through Design Thinking

Encouraging design thinking early helps children learn how to fully understand a problem in order to creatively design and test solutions. This helps foster an understanding of how experimentation and the struggle to solve challenges can lead to the best solution.

These additional resources provide even more activities to continue the learning for this week's theme!