Feed the Monster

If you have any extra moving boxes and about 15 minutes, this is a perfect activity.

Materials Needed:

- moving box

- tape

- markers

- colored construction paper

- old magazines/newspapers

- knife and/or scissors

Directions:

1. Draw eyes and a mouth onto the box using a marker.

2. Use a knife to cut out the mouth.

3. Draw eyes and a nose onto construction paper. Cut them out and tape/glue them on. Have your child help pick the paper colors or even draw the eyes/noses themselves, depending on how old they are.

4. Have your child help you scrunch up newspaper or old magazines. Tape around the scrunched up balls to hold everything together. Make 3-4 newspaper balls.

5. Decorate the monster. We used blue tape to make the monster have long hair. You could also use streamers or really anything around your house. The possibilities are endless.

6. Start feeding the monster! Your child may want to feed the monster more than just the newspaper balls. 🙂

You can make your child stand in a specific spot (closer or further away depending on age)...

or you can just let them get as close as they want.

We also had speed rounds to see how quickly we could feed the monster.

Once you're done playing, sitting in a monster box is also pretty cool.

Grade: A

This is another easy, fun, motivating activity that fosters a lot of language development. If you don't mind getting messy, this could also be a fun painting activity. Your child could paint the entire box (after you cut out the mouth) and then design a scary monster using paint and other things from around your house. You could also add teeth, ears, arms... this can be as simple or complex as you want.

Language Development:

Vocabulary words that I introduced or reviewed during this activity were hungry, thirsty, squish, scrunch, throw, and eyeballs. We also reviewed body parts while we talked about the monster and reviewed color words as we decided what colored paper to use. We practiced saying short sentences and phrases (2-4 words), like "Monster has a blue nose," "Pink has curly hair," or "feed the monster." We also named the Monster (his name is Pink :)).