Ravina Sewani

Things you will need: Just a story in your mind. How to:<ol><li>Choose any story which your grandchildren love.</li><li>Take turns to act out the story line by line.</li><li>You can make this activity more interesting by using props or doing it at a suitable location, similar to what is mentioned in the story you are acting out.</li></ol> Fun fact: You can do this activity on a family get together with all the family members.

Significance:This will improve your grandchildren's non verbal communication and imagination.

Act out a story

Things you will need: Inflated balloon(s) How to:This activity can be done in groups, pairs, or just by a single child. <ol><li>If it is groups or pairs, ask the children to stand at a sufficient distance. Give one inflated balloon to each child. Start the timer and ask them to hold the balloon on their palms without the support of their fingers. The child who can hold the balloon on the palm the longest, wins the game. You can also do 'best of the three' to make it a fair game. Moreover, if your child does not have a sibling and his/her friends can't come over, you can do this activity with your child.</li><li>If it is only a single child doing this activity, make him/her hold the balloon on their palm against the timer. Every time, push your child to hold the balloon longer than the previous round.</li></ol> Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity will improve your child's concentration and hand-eye coordination.

Balloon on Palm

Things you will need: a balloon, 1 litre plastic bottle, funnel, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3 tablespoons of vinegar How to:Make sure that all the steps are carried out by your children. You can keep an eye on them for protection.<ol><li>Wash and dry the 1 litre. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the bottle using the funnel.</li><li>Pour vinegar in the balloon by placing the small end of the funnel into the opening of the balloon. Be careful while adding the vinegar.</li><li>Carefully stretch out the open end of the balloon and place over the mouth of the bottle. Leave the rest of the balloon hanging. Your child(ren) will need assistance at this step.</li><li>Hold on to the balloon at the point where it is attached to the bottle. Lift up the rest of the balloon to pour the vinegar inside the bottle, do not lose the hold at the mouth of the bottle and balloon.</li><li>Observe the bubble formation and balloon inflation.</li></ol> Why does this happen?Carbon dioxide gas is released when baking soda and vinegar mixes. Due to this gas, the balloon inflates. Happy Exploring!

Significance:This activity will interest your child further in exploring science and will enhance his/her observational and motor skills.

Self Inflating Balloon

Things you will need: a few small marbles, big marbles depending on the number of the children playing the game, masking tape How to:<ul><li>Collect big marbles according to the number of kids participating in the activity. If 5 kids are playing, collect 5 big marbles.</li><li>Using a masking tape or string, make a circle 3 feet wide out.</li><li>Place 3-5 marbles at the centre of the circle.</li><li>Each child will then take a turn to flick his/her big marble with their hands towards the marbles in the centre. If the child knock out any marble, (s)he gets to keep the marble and get a chance to shoot again. If the child misses, then they have to leave their big marble until it is their turn again.</li><li>The winner is the kid with the most marbles when all marbles are knocked out of the ring.</li></ul> Happy Gaming!

Significance: This activity will improve your child's coordination, observation, and motor skills.

Marbles

How to:This is a very fun activity and it is bound to bring about a lot of laughter with it. Give simple instructions to your child, for example, “Simon says sit”, “Simon says clap”, “Simon says jump”, and so on. Your child has to listen to these instructions carefully and enact the instructions.The catch here is: If you give the instructions like “sit”, “clap”, “jump”, the child is not supposed to do anything. Only when the instructions begin with “Simon says”, does the child have to follow it. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity will enhance your child’s brain’s processing ability and focusing skills.

Simon says

Things you will need: Just the thinking ability of your minds. How to:Introduce your child to the concept of homophones. Here is a definition to help you - Homophones are words that have different spellings, different meanings but the same pronunciation. Example of such words are:<ul><li>Ate, eight</li><li>Bare, bear</li><li>Buy, bye</li><li>Eye, I</li><li>Flour, flower</li><li>Hear, here</li><li>Knight, night</li><li>Pair, pear</li><li>Right, write</li><li>Son, sun</li></ul>Ask your child to come up with more such words. Fun fact: You can also give this as an entire week’s task and observe how excited your child get.

Significance:This will enhance your child’s vocabulary and pronunciation.

Homophones!

How to:Give a soft ball to your child. Mark the start and the finish line. Ask your child to roll the ball from the start line to the finish line. To make it more interesting, set up a timer and encourage your child to finish the rolling as fast as they can. Fun fact:For older kids, you can also tape down a maze on the floor and ask your child to roll the ball from the starting point through the maze to the end point. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This game will improve your child’s motor skills.

Roll the Ball

Things you will need: moulds (ice cream or Popsicle or egg moulds with holes), water, food colouring or water colour, Popsicle sticks, white thin cardboard How to:Make sure that all the steps are carried out by your children. You can keep an eye on them for protection. <ol><li>The night before you plan to do this activity, fill a Popsicle mould or an ice cube tray with water and place the Popsicle sticks in place.</li><li>Add a couple of drops of different watercolour to each section of the mould or tray. Remember the more colour you add, the more vibrant and intense your ice paintings will be. Add at least 2 drops of colour to each section of your ice mould.</li><li>Freeze the ice-cube or Popsicle mould tray overnight.</li><li>Run your frozen trays under a cold tap, or set them in the sunshine for a brief minute.&nbsp;This will be enough to loosen your paint pops and will slide out easily.</li><li>Take a large piece of white cardboard as the canvas on which your child(ren) can paint on together.</li></ol> Note: You can use this activity as a fun way for kids to practice writing numbers or letters, or to practice writing their names.

Significance:This activity will improve your child's motor skills and introduces an interesting way of painting.

Coloured ice painting

You will need nothing for this activity. How to:This activity needs to be played in a group and can be played either indoors or outdoors. This activity is an alternative version of the age-old hide-n-seek game. In this version, only one person hides and everyone else does the seeking. In the game of Sardines, as soon as a seeker finds the hider, (s)he must join the hider in the hiding spot. Hence, it’s a fun challenge for the hider to find a hiding spot that can fit the whole crowd! The last person to find the spot becomes the hider for the next round. Happy Hiding!

Significance:This activity will greatly improve your child's logical and analytical skills.

participant wise activities

Activities are an interesting way to teach important life skills to children. Here are a few suggestions for you.