Helping Hands Activity & Printable
By: Emily Hawkins
Bring the lessons of responsibility and kindness to life through this Helping Hands activity. Follow the prompts below, and you’ll help your child explore what it means to care for their home and family.
Download the Helping Hands Activity Printable!
Materials: Helping Hands template and props for various household tasks (e.g., toy broom, dish towel, rag, small bucket)
Prep: Create a role-playing area with the props.
Instructions:
1) Read the story aloud. Show the pictures and encourage your child to pay attention to what Andy is doing.
2) After reading, ask questions about the story. Discuss the importance of helping each other and the sense of pride that comes from completing tasks.
3) Ask your child to role-play various helpful tasks from the story (e.g., sweeping, washing dishes, wiping windows).
Playful Learning With the Helping Hands Printable
Kindness Learning
Explain what it means to be responsible and take care of one’s home and environment. Provide tangible examples of how you take responsibility for your home and space to help your child’s understanding.
After the role-play fun, ask your little one what the experience of helping at home was like and how it feels to contribute. Explain how it makes you feel to be responsible and take care of your space. Reinforce the idea that even small actions can make a big difference in your family.
Math
Create a responsibility chart where your child can track being helpful, such as cleaning up after snack time, putting books back on the shelf, helping you tidy up or prepare meals, etc. Routinely ask your child to count the number of chores completed.
Creativity
How else can we be helpful at home? Discuss with your little one additional chores that extend beyond the story that can be added to the chart and completed, such as setting the table, watering plants, or sorting laundry. Have fun with it!
Arts and Crafts/Gross Motor
Have your child create “Helping Hands” by tracing hands and decorating them with pictures of chores.
Emily Hawkins is the General Manager of Early Learning at Highlights for Children. With more than a decade at the company, she leads its early learning initiative, supporting providers and families with supplemental curriculum and family engagement solutions, and serves as the primary external partner to community and education organizations.
