GATE Enrichment Activities for Kids
How to Create a Comic Book in 6 Steps. Everyone loves a good comic, whether you’re a comic book geek or just the casual reader of a comic in your local newspaper – Comic Strips are great! While some comic strips just take a few minutes or less to read, don’t underestimate the difficulty of creating one!
Let your child’s imagination soar with a jar of story starters! This fun activity gives your child a jumping-off point on the road to storytelling. What twists and turns will your child take? Creativity and sequencing skills combine to create wild stories that will have the whole family in stitches!
DIY finger cone puppets are extremely good for creating dialogue between characters. You can make some quick finger puppets out of paper, using this tutorial. Your paper puppets can be any character you like, such as some fairy-tale characters or even family members. Try practicing dialogue between the characters in different scenarios.
Story stones are smooth rocks that you can find at the beach or purchase at a craft store. You can use stickers, paints or magazine cut-outs to decorate your story stones. Depending on what is printed on the stone, you can use it in many ways. For example as characters in a dollhouse or as building blocks. Similar to the storytelling prompts jar, you can randomly pick up a story stone or multiple story stones to tell a story.
Make your own tessellation. A tessellation is a pattern of one or more shapes that fit together with no gaps or overlaps. A tessellation can continue on a plane forever.
The tessellations of M.C. Escher are the inspiration for this art project. Using a post-it note, make a beautiful piece of art.
Tangram is one of many rearrangement puzzles that have appeared throughout the ages. The origins of Tangram stretch back to the third-century Chinese mathematician Liu Hui. Among many other accomplishments, Liu Hui used rearrangements of geometrical shapes to elegantly explain mathematical facts such as the Gougu Rule, also known as Pythagoras’ Theorem. Use these seven geometric shapes to form different animals.
In this game of strategy, players scoop up stones and count them out one at a time into the pockets on the board. Drop a stone into an empty pocket on your side to capture all the stones in the opposite pocket. Collect the most stones to win! You only need items from around the house.
The ancient Egyptians are one of the few cultures in the world to develop their own writing system. The word hieroglyph means “holy carving.” The Egyptians used hieroglyphs on their temple walls and public monuments. They carved them in stone but also painted them on wood and other smooth surfaces. Use this resource to write messages in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Explore The H.O.T. Spot by Jason S. McIntosh, Ph.D., a weekly publication for curious kids. The topic for this issue is the rainforest. Learn about the rainforests, finish a story, take a virtual field trip, or choose a project.
Explore The H.O.T. Spot by Jason S. McIntosh, Ph.D., a weekly publication for curious kids. The topic for this issue is Australia. Learn about Australia, finish a story, take a virtual field trip, or choose a project.
Explore The H.O.T. Spot by Jason S. McIntosh, Ph.D., a weekly publication for curious kids. The topic for this issue is coding and computer science. Learn about coding and computer science, finish a story, explore top coding sites for kids, or choose a project.
Looking for very simple origami for kids? These easy instructions will help your children fold fun origami in just a few simple steps. Make dog, lion, cat, butterfly or bird.
Here are some very easy origami for kids, and build our way up to some slightly harder models for older kids, or children that need an extra challenge. Create a drinking cup, hat, lucky star, fortune teller, or horse.
Historians believe the game of, Tsoro Yematatu, meaning stone game played with three, originated in Zimbabwe over 1,000 years ago. Today it's played in other Southern African nations. Some consider it to be an African version of tic-tac-toe but played in a triangular layout.
Creating games can be an incredibly enriching activity. Use the strategy of SCAMPER to improve or design a new game. Use random items from around the house to build your design. Don’t forget to share your game with family and friends.