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Introduction
Newspaper is one of the best resources for humankind, and I have many memories related to newspaper from my childhood. The highlight is opening up the new newspaper every morning and reading it. Until I started doing activities with my daughter, I look at every material from a single perspective (The view as the primary purpose of that particular material). But after I become a DIY activity mom, I am looking at everything from a different perspective. I haven’t dropped the newspaper also from the list. We won’t get the daily newspaper in the country we live in, but we do get flyers on our mailbox, and I try to utilize them in many ways. Are you interested in knowing them? Let’s scroll down and travel with me?
Kids activities using news paper
1. Cutting and pasting
Reading is the primary purpose of the newspaper. But after adults done with the task, we can use it for activities. The first and foremost activity is to cut and paste the newspaper. Kids love cutting and gluing things. We can leave them to do the random cutting and cut the newspaper as per their imagination and paste it in a cardboard or any background. Cutting the paper with child-safe scissors is an excellent fine motor skill activity for kids.
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2. Cut the shape as per the reference
After random cutting, we can encourage proper reference cutting to children. Draw any shape in the newspaper and ask the child to cut through the body. Once the child gets well versed in cutting, draw a few shapes/patterns on plain paper and ask the child to cut the same shape in the newspaper. This time, the child will cut it without any outline on the newspaper, but by looking at the shape. Scissor cutting is an excellent fine motor skill and mind game as the child has to calculate the exact size /shape and cut it.
3.Storytelling
We can use the newspaper images for storytelling. We can ask the child to link all the photos on a single page and narrate a story. They can either share a story as it is. Or cut and paste in a separate sheet and tell a story. Storytelling is an excellent language development skill activity.
4. Reading
For older kids, we can use the newspaper for reading. We can start with small paragraphs and slowly increase the volume based on their interest. This activity develops the reading skill.
5. I-Spy
We can play an I-spy game with the pictures/words depends on the child’s age and interest. Select any page and ask the child to find any particular image ( Find all red color pictures, Find all fruits, etc. ). We can use it to find the sight words as well. As newspaper has lots of words, we can use it to learn and find sight words. And we can ask the child to find all words that start with any particular letter name or sound.
6. Crafts
Instead of purchasing any specific materials, we can use the newspaper for creating beautiful crafts as well. I still remember doing the “ship craft” during my childhood days. We can fly our imagination level and create anything.
Summary
Using readily available material for creating activities saves us money. It helps the child to incorporate the idea for themselves in the future. As I do many DIY activities, my daughter does the same for her pretend play. This kind of activity helps them to develop imaginary skills and learn to repurpose the resources.