With the wildlife theme activities that we rolled out in the beginning of March, our children here at EAP had tremendous fun with all the activities. We hope you and your child enjoyed it too! As Malaysia moves into CMCO/ RMCO, the relaxation of some restrictions grants us some freedom to leave the house and it definitely feels wonderful to be able to bring your children out after being at home for almost 2 months! With that being said, the fight against the pandemic is still ongoing, and despite the decreasing number of cases each day, let’s continue to stay vigilant and only go out when necessary. Great job to all of you mums and dads out there for weathering through the storm with your children cooped up at home during the MCO season!

So what comes after a storm? None other than the famous epitome of colours, the rainbow! This colourful icon that is well-known and favoured by kids of all ages is a great enhancer, making everything much more interesting and stimulating. On that account, for the second half of March, we have prepared a series of rainbow themed activities that you can carry out with your child at home!

Music & Movement Mondays

Vital to the development of motor skills as well as maintaining health and wellbeing, movement activities help to build attention and imitation skills. It is also a great opportunity for you to engage and have fun with your child!

1. Learn Colours with Rainbow

Materials: 

• Device to play video
• Colour papers (one for each rainbow colour)

Steps: Place the colour papers on a table. Play the video and get your child to raise each colour paper according to the video.

2. Rainbow Dance!

Materials: 

• Device to play videos
• (Optional) rainbow outfits and props
• Video: Colors of the Rainbow – Kids Song | Learn Colors, Teach Colours | Colors song for children

Steps: Dress up with you child, play the video and dance together!

Crafty Tuesdays

Arts and Crafts activities help to nurture your child’s creativity and fine motor skills! With these activities, your child could occupy their time meaningfully, and also feel successful and accomplished with a self-made craft piece!

1. Rainbow Decoration

Materials: 

• Paper plate
• Cotton balls
• Colour paper (one for each rainbow colour)
• Glue
• Scissors
• Hole Puncher
• String

Steps:

1. Cut the paper plate in half.
2. Glue the cotton balls onto the paper plate.
3. Cut out long strips of colour paper.
4. Glue the strips of colour paper to the back of the paper plate.
5. Use the hole puncher to make two holes at the top of the paper plate.
6. Tie the string to the hole and you are done!

2. Rainbow Fish

Materials: 

• Paint (rainbow colours)
• Marker pen
• Paper
• Celery Sticks

Steps: 

1. Draw a fish with the marker on a piece of art paper
2. Prepare the paint in the colours of a rainbow
3. Dip the celery stick in the red paint then stamp it onto the body of the fish to make it look like fish scales
4. Repeat step 3 with orange, yellow, green, blue and purple until you have filled the body of the fish with scales
5. Let the paint dry and you have a rainbow fish now!

Wild Wednesdays

Water and sensory play has always been one of the favourite play activities for most of our kids here in EAP. Other than building and strengthening motor skills, water and sensory play also provides an opportunity for sensory exploration for your child.

1. Rainbow Skittles Experiment

Materials: 

• Skittles/M&M chocolate coated candy
• A white plate with raised edge
• Warm water

Steps:

1. Place the skittles/ M&M candy in a circle on the plate.
2. Pour warm water to the center of the plate just enough to cover the bottom of the candies.
3. Let the magic happen! After a while, the colours from the candies shall come together towards the center of the plate, and you have your plate of rainbow!

2. Rainbow Bubble Foam

Materials: 

• A plastic tub/ container
• Dish soap
• Water 
• Water spray bottles (a few)
• Watercolour/ food colouring 

Steps:

1. Add some dish soap into a plastic tub/ container, then add in water to create bubbles.
2. In each water spray bottle, make different coloured water using watercolour/food colouring and water.
3. Get your child to spray the colour on the bubble in the tub and swirl it!

Tasty Thursdays

Other than sharpening attention and motor skills, preparing snacks can also empower your child with independent living skills. Participating in the making of meals may pique your child’s interest and develop a new hobby. For children with autism that have food tolerance issues, this is also a fun way to engage and encourage them to try new foods!

1. Rainbow Cookies

Materials:

• Plain butter cookies
• Whipped cream 
• Food colouring
• 5 different colors of M&M chocolate coated candies

Steps:

1. Colour the whipped cream with food colouring.
2. Spread some coloured whipped cream on the butter cookie.
3. Make a rainbow on your cookie using the M&M chocolates and you’re done!

2. Rainbow Pizza

Materials: 

• Pizza base
• Pizza/tomato sauce
• Cheese
• Onions
• Broccoli 
• Corns
• Sausages
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kid friendly knife

Steps:

1. Cut the vegetables into small pieces.
2. Spread pizza/tomato sauce on the pizza base.
3. Add some cheese on it.
4. Arrange the vegetables on the pizza according to the colour of the rainbow.
5. Preheat your oven to 245°C and bake the pizza in the oven for 10 minutes. Your rainbow pizza is done!

Funtastic Fridays

Coming to the end of the week, why not take up a notch and go on for some adventures with your child? Here are some activities to make your Fridays extra “Fun”tastic, where you can go on virtual tours, treasure hunts or do fun and interesting science experiments with your child!

1. Colour Scavenger Hunt

Materials: 

• White paper
• Colour papers (or craft paper, paint swatches, stickers)
• Double-sided tape/Glue
• Marker pen

Steps:

1. Cut out squares of colour papers (you can also draw boxes and colour them using crayon/colour pencil/colour markers).
2. Stick the pieces of colour papers onto a white paper.
3. Label the colours.
4. Get your child to hunt around the house for items that match the colour on the paper.

2. Sidewalk Chalk Game

Materials: 

• Chalks (of various colours)
• Sidewalk

Steps: 

1. On a sidewalk, in a grid pattern, draw various shapes of different colours using the chalks.
2. Draw a start and finish line.
3. From the start line, get your child to hop according to the colour and shape you called out. You can customize the action (e.g. walk, crawl, twirl) as well as the instructions (e.g. Do NOT touch ___).

Learning can take place in many forms, and we believe that having a fun element could really add the spark in your child’s learning journey. To learn more about adding fun into learning, do check out our new Autism At Home module on Making Learning Fun!

With all the activity ideas above, we hope this helps you in planning productive daily activities with your child! Feel free to try out the activities, share your photo and tag us at @eapmalaysia, with #EAPMalaysia and #WelcomeToHope on Instagram or Facebook! Stay tuned and do check us out on Instagram for more kids activities and updates!

References:

1. Learn Colours with Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybt2jhCQ3lA&feature=youtu.be
2. Rainbow Dance: https://youtu.be/nkN6MPJSzAs
3. Rainbow Decoration: https://teachingmama.org/rainbow-craft-for-toddlers/
4. Rainbow Fish: https://www.craftymorning.com/celery-stamping-rainbow-fish-craft-for-kids/
5. Rainbow Skittles Experiment: https://www.mombrite.com/skittles-science-experiment/
6. Rainbow Bubble Foam: https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/rainbow-bubbles-outdoor-art-and-water-play/
7. Rainbow Cookies: https://pintsizedtreasures.com/easy-rainbow-cookies/
8. Rainbow Pizza: https://gimmedelicious.com/rainbow-cauliflower-crust-pizza/
9. Colour Scavenger Hunt: https://ohjoy.com/my_weblog/2018/08/a-color-scavenger-hunt-for-kids.html
10. Sidewalk Chalk Game: https://www.heytherehome.com/sidewalkchalk-toddler-activity-shapes-and-colors