August Monthly Activities

Talk about what the word imagination means. Point out and say aloud each letter in the word "imagination."

Make a fort or castle with blankets and play in it together.

Have your child pretend to be a bird such as a sandpiper and fly around the house.

Make up a recipe together and cook something fun. Try to use healthy ingredients.

Make a hat out of things in your house. Decide where or for what event your child would wear their hat.

Song Day!

Have a real or imaginary tea party with your child and sing I'm a Little Teapot.

Visit Your Library!

Check out some books about imagination. If possible get Harold and the Purple Crayon, It Looked Like Spilt Milk and Pete's a Pizza from this month's booklist.

Go outside, lie on the ground, and look up at the clouds. What shapes do you see? If you have a copy, read It Looked Like Spilt Milk.

Have your child imagine what it might be like to live on the moon. Have them draw a picture of what they imagine.

Ask your child what they would like to be when they grow up and have them draw a self-portrait of themselves as an adult.

Use a broom or stick as a pretend horse. Ride your horse around the house, driveway or yard.

Make up a song about the month of August and sing it together.

Bath Time!

Bring some objects with you into the bath. Use them to tell a story about their life in the water.

Pretend to make a pizza. If you have a copy, read Pete's Pizza. Act out the book after you read it together.

Read a book and ask your child to imagine what would have happened if the characters in the story made different choices.

Science Day!

Pretend that you are seeds planted in the ground and then grow into a flower. Talk about what seeds need to grow.

Imagine something amazing and then draw it with a purple crayon. If you have a copy, read Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Paint on the sidewalk or driveway with water and watch it evaporate.

Make bubble solution (find recipes in Websites to Explore, below). Sit outside and blow bubbles. Look for shapes in the bubbles that float by.

Set up a pretend kitchen and cook something with your child.

Make a guessing box from an empty tissue box. Pick out items together to put in the box. Let your child put his hand into the box and without looking, guess what each object is.

Play dress up using old clothes. Put on a little show in costume.

Use your imagination to go on a trip. Where would you go and what would you see? Get out a state map and plan your pretend trip.

Read a book together. Have your child imagine what happens after the book ends.

Use dolls, action figures, or stuffed animals to act out a story.

Mother Goose Time!

Hickory, Dickory, Dock!
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The mouse ran down.
Hickory, Dickory, Dock.

Song Day!

Sing and do the motions to "London Bridge".

Set up a pretend grocery store and let your child go shopping. Talk about choosing healthy foods.

Cover the floor with paper and have everyone make one large picture together.

Imagine that a laundry basket or box is a car for your child. Make car noises and drive them around the house.

Read a fairytale together. If you don't have any fairytale books, make up your own story about a character from a fairytale.

Mother Goose Time!

Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

Ask your child what kind of pet they would have if they could have any animal in the world.

Dough Animals!

Make salt dough or play dough (find recipes in Websites to Explore, below) and have your child use it to mold an imaginary animal. Have them describe what their animal is and what it is called.

I Spy Outside Take a walk outside and play I Spy.