Stickers (Part 1)
We love stickers!! We seriously love them and get a little too excited when we find a new shape or colour to add to our collection. Such a versatile, engaging resource that we use for so many of our experiences. We mostly steer towards geometric shapes and plain coloured stickers as we find we can get the most out of them across a variety of experiences.
Here are a few of our favourites for you to try but first a handy tip:
If using sheets of stickers, remove the sticky frame or background as this makes it much easier (especially for younger children) to remove the individual stickers themselves. Sheets can also be cut up into smaller sections as required.
Character creation with stickers
This is a great one to engage in with your child no matter their age. The older the child, the more creative these little characters get. Building a story around them is also really fun and extends the experience even further.
Provide a variety of different coloured and shaped stickers and begin by peeling off and sticking down the start of what will be a little character of your imagination. You may want to start with a triangle head, a circle body and star shaped legs - it really doesn’t matter. Use a marker, pencil or crayon to add detail to your character (hair, eyes, clothes - you get the idea). Encourage your child to do the same and add different elements to build upon their personality. Create more characters or build your character into a story or larger picture. Stickers are fun, enjoy the randomness of the conversation that flows through the process of building these little characters.
What you will need? Paper, markers, crayons, pencils, stickers. Half an hour and a sense of humour.
Upcycled sculpture
Need some time to get a couple of chores down around the house? Grab a couple of objects out of the recycling bin and a huge bunch of stickers and give your child permission to cover the whole thing in stickers - inside out/ outside in/ underneath/ on top! Set achievable challenges depending on your child’s age. For example, Can you cover this whole side in green stickers? How about making the inside blue with all your blue stickers? This is a simple yet engaging experience for little people. Definitely one that will help build on fine motor skills like finger dexterity and coordination as they manipulate the recycled product and the stickers. The more interesting the shape of the recyclable, the better the challenge.
What you will need? Stickers (lots!), recyclable object or two
As an extension of this concept and if you have any large boxes lying around, how about turning the box into an “obliteration” space? Sitting inside the box or outside of it, a child could cover the box with as many stickers as possible. This is a good experience for children to continuously return to over a couple of days. Even adding paper shapes and a glue stick adds to the fun of this experience.
Follow the line
Patterning is a great concept to introduce to children through stickers. Depending on your child’s age you could start a pattern and prompt your child to continue it. The older your child the more challenging the pattern can become. How about drawing a couple of lines across a page and prompting you child to cover the line. For older children writing their names can help build their literacy skills, eye-tracking skills and letter recognition. For even older children past this stage, they can focus on the decoration elements of recreating their name with stickers.
What you will need? Stickers (lots!), paper and marker pens.
Want even more sticker activity ideas? Check out Stickers (Part 2)