Things you will need&nbsp;Just the thinking ability of your minds. How to:Introduce your child to the concept of compound words. Here is a definition to help you - Compound words are formed when two or more words are joined together to create a new word with an entirely new meaning.&nbsp;Example of such words are:<ul><li>Butterfly</li><li>Treehouse</li><li>Fireman</li><li>Rainbow</li><li>Grandmother</li><li>Ice cream</li><li>Video game</li><li>Peanut butter</li><li>Roller coaster</li><li>Full moon</li><li>North-east</li><li>Part-time</li><li>Sun-dried</li><li>Left-handed</li><li>High-tech</li></ul> Ask your child to come up with more such words. There are 3 types of Compound words:<ul><li>Closed compound words:&nbsp;Compound words written as a single word without space or a hyphen. Examples - football, haircut, sunflower.</li><li>Open compound words:&nbsp;Compound words that are written as separate words with space. Examples - high school, living room, school bus.</li><li>Hyphenated Compound words:&nbsp;Compound words that have a hyphen between two words. Example - over-the-counter, merry-go-round</li></ul> You can introduce these different types of compound words depending on the age and vocabulary of your child. Teaching compound words:<ol><li>Visual learning:&nbsp;You can create flashcards of the compound words and the corresponding 2 images. Children can then match the two images with the compound words that they form. Example - draw 'tree' and 'house' on two different flashcards and write 'treehouse' on one flashcard; ask your child to match these then.</li><li>Kinesthetic learning:&nbsp;Give your child a compound word and ask them to draw the 2 parts of that word. Example - fireman; your kid would draw 'fire' and 'man' separately.</li><li>You can prepare a worksheet of compound words, and your child can write the answers. Make sure to instruct them on which kind of compound words exercise you are giving to them. This will make them notice the different types of compound words.&nbsp;</li></ol>Example:fire + man = firemanice + cream = ice creamover + the + counter = over-the-counter Fun fact:&nbsp;You can also give this an entire week’s task and observe how excited your child gets. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This will enhance your child’s vocabulary.

Compound Word Game

Ravina Sewani

Thing you will need:Large transparent container, toy dinosaurs, water, shells, stones, bowl of hot water, salt, tweezers or something similar which is heavy and can break the ice, blue food colouring (preferably powdered colour)Activity should be done with a group of 5-10 kids. 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>Fill about 1/3rd of the container with water and freeze it.</li><li>Place a few toys, stones and shells.</li><li>Pour another layer of water above these toys and freeze it again.</li><li>Place remaining toys, stones and shells.</li><li>Pour the last layer of water and freeze it again.</li><li>Place the ice block you prepared out in the open or on a table.</li><li>Mix salt and the blue food colour in sufficient quantity. Sprinkle this mixture on your ice block. You will see that the ice block is starting to melt.</li><li>Pour the hot water over your ice block so that the ice block melts faster.</li><li>Using tweezers break the ice so that you can recover your dinosaur toys, stones and shells.</li><li>Repeat the steps. Add more salt, more hot water, break the ice with tweezers.</li><li>This activity will definitely keep children busy for a good 2 hours. Let them discover how they can recover the toys faster.</li></ol> Note:Carry out this activity in your backyard or veranda so that your house does not get messy. Why does the ice melt by adding salt?Salt helps in melting the ice faster because salt decreases the melting point of ice. The kids also have fun as they see a blue stream of water running down. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity helps children bond well and develop their co-ordination of fine motor skills.

Dinosaur Dig

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

Things you will need:Water, cooking oil, blue food colouring, 2 litre transparent bottles, funnel. 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>Fill about half of your bottle with water using the funnel.</li><li>Now, add several drops of blue food colouring. If you are using liquid colouring, you can directly add 3-4 drops. If you are using powdered food colouring, mix the powder with a small amount of water. Now add these coloured drops to the jar.</li><li>Shake the bottle properly so that the food colouring mixes well.</li><li>Next, using the funnel, add vegetable oil in the bottle but leave a few inches at the top. Close the lid of the bottle.</li><li>Turn the bottle over slowly fro 2-3 times and observe what happens!</li><li>You can make this activity more interesting by adding a few shells, water animal toys, glitter colour. You can also mix blue and green food colouring to produce a more ocean-like colour in the bottle.</li></ol> Happy Gaming!

Significance:The activity will greatly enhance your child’s motor skills and help them learn about ocean and its life in a fun way. It also teaches about different densities of oil and water.

Ocean Bottle

Things you will need: grapes, bowl How to:<ol><li>Remove the larger stems from your grapes and wash them thoroughly with water.</li><li>Spread the grapes out evenly so that they aren't touching each other on a baking tray and cover them. You can use a wooden, wicker, bamboo, or plastic tray that is slatted, so air can circulate around the fruit. Use a kitchen towel to cover the grapes.</li><li>Your cover should be effective at keeping insects away from your grapes. Make sure that whatever you use to cover the grapes won’t get blown away in the wind. If your cover is light, you may need to weigh it down on its corners.</li><li>Place the tray outside in the sun during warm, dry weather. Put the tray in a location where it will get lots of sunlight during the day. The warmer and dryer the climate (temperature is at least 75 °F (24 °C)), the easier your grapes will dry out.</li><li>If your area gets foggy or dewy at night, take the tray inside at the end of the day and place it outside again the next morning.</li><li>Allow the grapes to sit outside for 3-4 days, rotating them occasionally. The grapes may take up to 96 hours to become sufficiently dry. However, they should be left outside for at least 3 days. Rotate the grapes twice each day to make sure the grapes are completely exposed to the sun.</li><li>After 3 days, feel free to conduct a taste test on 1 or 2 of the grapes to see if they’re sufficiently dry. If they’re to your liking, go ahead and bring them inside. If they’re not quite dry enough, leave them out for another day.</li><li>You can leave grapes out in the sun for up to 5 days, though you shouldn’t need to leave them out any longer than this.</li><li>Take the dried raisins inside and store them in an airtight container. Store the container in a cool place or refrigerate them. Suggested storage containers for air-dried raisins include mylar bags, tupperware, and glass canning jars with an oxygen absorber.</li></ol>

Significance:This activity is an early and interesting exposure to science.

Turning grapes into raisins

Things you will need: 6 zip lock bags, 6 bread slices, water, various additives (sugar, vinegar, oil, and salt.), warm location, marker How to:Label 6 bags as follows:<ul><li>Only bread slice</li><li>Bread slice and water</li><li>Bread slice and vinegar</li><li>Bread slice and salt</li><li>Bread slice and sugar</li><li>Bread slice and oil</li></ul> <ol><li>Prepare sugar solution and solution by adding 2 tablespoons of sugar and salt in 2 tablespoons of water.</li><li>Coat the bread slices with different liquids and place them in the appropriate bags.</li><li>Place the bags in a warm location with sufficient sunlight or place the bags in a warm, interior closet.</li><li>Use a tape to fix the positions of the bags so that the the heat exposure is consistent.</li><li>Observe the mold growth for the next 2-3 weeks.</li></ol> Expected results: You can expect to observe the following:<ul><li>Mold growth is the quickest in warm and moist conditions hence mold first appears in the bag with bread and water.</li><li>Next, you might observe mold growth in the bag with bread and sugar. Once the mold grows on sugar containing bag, the growth will explode because mold uses sugar as food.</li><li>You might or might not see the mold growth on the plain bread as it is too dry.</li><li>The bread slices with oil, vinegar, and salt will not any growth as all three act as preservatives.</li></ul> Note: DO NOT open the bags of moldy bread! Throw the bags out once the experiment is over. Mold is too risky and can cause infections. Happy Exploring!

Significance:This experiment will introduce your child to microorganisms and will teach them to maintain hygiene with their food.

Growing mold on a bread

Things you will need: paper and pencil How to:You will have to write these words down on a piece of paper for your child to do this activity. Here is the list to get you started with the activity: <ol><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing you write in? - OKBO</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the place you live at? - EHOUS</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the insect that makes honey? - EEB</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the vehicle with 4 wheels? - CRA</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the body part we use to clap? - NADH</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the food that is white and round? - GGE</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the place where many animals live? - OZO</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the colour of the tree? - EENRG</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the food you drink in the morning? - LIMK</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing that shines in the sky? - ARTS</li></ol> You can think of more such words depending on your child's vocabulary. Happy Gaming!

This activity will enhance your child's thinking ability.

Unscramble the words - Medium

Things you will need: apples, several liquids - plain water, salt water (1/8 tsp of salt, 1 cup of water), sugared water (1 tbsp of sugar, 1 cup of water), honey water (1 tbsp of honey, 1 cup of water), lemon juice, apple juice, orange juice, 7 bowls, one plate, lables to label the liquids How to:<ul><li>Keep different types of liquids ready for the activity.</li><li>Pour each liquid in different bowls and keep the quantities of the liquid same.</li><li>Slice an apple into small pieces.</li><li>Immediately place one apple piece in each liquid such that the liquid completely covers the white part of the apple.&nbsp;</li><li>Leave one piece of apple out of the liquid as the control variable.</li><li>After 3 minutes, remove the apples from the liquid and place them on a plate and observe the differences.</li><li>After 6 minutes, observe the apples again and record any further differences.</li></ul> What to look for:<ul><li>Under normal circumstances when the apple is cut and kept open in air, it turns brown. This is because oxygen from the air reacts with the apple and a process called oxidation occurs which causes the apple to turn brown. Oxidation spoils the fruit very quick.</li><li>Record the results as to in which liquid the oxidation process is the slowest (it would be in citrus liquids, example - lemon juice and orange juice).</li></ul> Happy Experimenting!

Significance:This activity will improve your child's curiosity, observation skill, and intellectual development.

Apple Oxidation

Things you will need: paper and pencil How to:You will have to write these words down on a piece of paper for your child to do this activity. Here is the list to get you started with the activity: <ol><li>Can you unscramble this word to the animal with big ears? - PEHLAETN</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the fruit which is big, round, and green? - LEMONTWARE</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing you use to call? - OBLEIM</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing that you eat? - TOPOTA</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the cloth that you wear? - COKSS</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the name of a major body part? - MOTSCHA</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing you use to eat food with? - PSNOON</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the food you eat on your birthday? - KECA</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing that flies in the sky? - ETKI</li><li>Can you unscramble this word to the thing that transports many people? - NRAIT</li></ol> You can think of more such words depending on your child's vocabulary. Happy Gaming!

subject activities

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