The Hat Game

By far and away the most popular game in our house at the moment... After 3 weeks, the novelty hasn't yet worn off (except of course for me). You could play it with any hats you have in the house or have a look around charity shops etc and get together a collection of funny hats. It is another great rainy day game, although would work just as well in the garden/park.

You will need:

• A selection of hats (e.g. Policeman, fireman, builders, crown etc etc).
• Small pieces of card
• Felt tip pens
• A small bag or box

Preparation (adult or older child):

• Draw pictures of the hats on the small pieces of card - one for each hat - and label each one.
• Put the pictures into the bag.

To play the game:

• Either adult or another child: hide the hats around the house.
• Get your child to take a card from the bag. They must search for the hat on their card.
• Once they have found the hat, put it and the card next to each other in a place where you can display all the hats together.
• Repeat until all the hats have been found. Look at the hats and cards together and talk through each one.
• To play with more than one child:
• Either take it in turns to take cards and find hats, or give cards simultaneously and make it a race to find the corresponding hats. You can make it as competitive as you like!
• Repeat ad nauseum...

Or you could...

• Of course it doesn't have to be hats. You could play with items of clothing (perhaps to dress a doll or even a person!), necklaces and bracelets, soft toys, cars and trucks. It really would work with almost anything you can hide.
• Take the hats and cards out with you and hide in a park/garden for an outside game

Winter Flowers

A quick activity to brighten up a grey day. This is easy to create and play with and you can keep the bits to bring out on another rainy day (essential to have a few of these for the relentless grey-dom that is the British winter). We made the flowers on a big window - looking out on our drab winter garden - but a wall would work just as well. Educationally, it can help with learning colours and developing fine motor skills (if you are at all concerned with that sort of thing...).

You will need:

• Card of various colours - green essential.
• Scissors
• Blu-tac

Preparation:

• Cut out large flower shapes from card in one colour.
• With another colour, cut out middles for the flowers.
• Cut out long strips of green for stalks and, finally, some green leaves.
• Stick small pieces of blu-tac to the back of each piece and stick to your wall or window randomly.

Activity

• Show your child how to make a flower using a stalk, a flower shape, a middle and leaves.
• Encourage them to copy the flower you have made, reinforcing the language and the colour of each piece.
• See if they can make more flowers to stand in a row.

Or you could:

• The possibilities are endless... Make different coloured flowers, add plants and trees, make a whole garden!
• Use the same idea to 'build a picture' of something e.g. a train, a car, a person.
• Make it into a game by putting little pictures of the pieces into a bag and drawing one out at a time to show which piece to take. The first person to make a flower...