Published: 27 July 2020
Creating maps is a fun mark-making opportunity where your child will have to make marks and create drawings for a specific purpose. You can also develop lots of mathematical vocabulary related to position such as under/behind/next to.
With your child, choose a particular toy that will be hidden and the space it can be hidden within - for example, are you restricting to just one room? Or you could choose to use several rooms to make it more challenging for older children.
You may like to go first so you can model the process to your child. Hide the toy without your child being aware of where it is and draw a simple map for them to follow. E.g. if it is behind the sofa you may draw the sofa with an arrow or an x marks the spot, behind it. You can add other features of the room to your map if you wish.
Then ask your child to follow your map to find the toy- can they manage? For an added challenge, set a time limit and use a timer or stopwatch to count down the time they have left to find the toy.
Then switch roles and your child can create a map for you and you get to go on the hunt! See who can find the toy the quickest!
What you need Latex water balloons
