“You’re Gonna Get A Cold!”
Help your child to learn which clothing is appropriate in different situations. You can use a paper doll (you can make one yourself or you can find one in a magazine that can be cut out), cut out objects from magazines that are appropriate in certain situations (e.g., an umbrella for the rain), and/or you can make them yourself with construction paper. Make sure you have a variety of items for different weather/situations (e.g., warm winter coat, bathing suit, hat, scarf, gloves, shorts).
- Tell your child you are going to play a game. Show your child the paper doll and all the other accessories/clothing. See if your child can label everything. If not, tell him what everything is.
- Make sure your child understands what the temperature generally is at different times of the year (e.g., ask “When it snows, is it hot or cold outside?”).
- Give different scenarios and ask your child to choose the appropriate clothing. For example, say “It is raining very hard and you need to walk all the way home from school. What clothes/accessories would you need to help keep you dry?” (your child may choose rain boots, raincoat, hat, umbrella)
- If the appropriate items are chosen, encourage your child to explain to you why they were picked.
- If your child is not able to choose the appropriate items independently, prompt him by giving choices or let your child respond to “What” questions (e.g., If it was raining outside, would you wear a raincoat or a sweater? Or… If it’s sunny outside and the sun is bothering your eyes, what would you need?)
For the next activity, have your child:
- Cut out pictures (with child safety scissors) from catalogs/magazines/brochures that show different types of weather (rain, snow, sunny, warm, wind). Ask things about the pictures to show understanding (e.g., what time of year is it? What types of things would you do in this weather? etc.).
- Next ask your child to cut out a variety of different clothing for the different weather conditions that have already been cut out. Ask your child what clothing someone would wear in each type of weather (e.g., shorts when it is hot).
- Lay the pictures of weather out on the table. Put the pictures of clothing together in a pile.
- Have your child take a picture from the clothes pile. Now ask your child to point to the correct weather picture for that clothing picture (if he takes a raincoat, he needs to point to the picture with the rain in it). If he guesses correctly, your child gets to keep the picture. If not, it goes to the bottom of the clothing pile again. Now it’s your turn.
- Continue until all the clothing pictures are held by either you or your child. The one with the most pictures wins. It would probably be better if you can find another child to play the game with your child.
