Go Play! Activity Cards: Play & Grow's Activity Cards Are Fun, Educational and Earned the 30Second Mom Loves This Award! by Mike Prochaska

Have you heard of Go Play! Activity Cards? They’re these amazing play cards for kids invented by Karen Whittier, aka Teacher Karen, founder of Play & Grow. Teacher Karen is a play advocate and she developed these cards to help busy parents find fun, educational activities for their children. Go Play! earned the 30Second Mom "Loves This" Award! 

Go Play! Activity Cards emerged out of Karen's belief in play as being essential for a child's overall health and wellness, but also witnessing it as becoming an endangered activity. Because she considers herself a child advocate and knows play is needed for children to thrive, she decided to create something to facilitate play.

Children learn via play-based, hands-on activities and that's just what Go Play! Activity Cards offer. There's an emphasis on exposing children to STEM activities. In early childhood, STEM is easily transformed into a more complex and comprehensive approach and that's STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, Math). The cards are STREAM in practice!

The cards foster literacy skills while providing step-by-step plans for parents – or grandparents – with meaningful activities to do at home. Best of all, the cards can grow with children – from baby through toddler to preschooler! The cards offer numerous literacy learning opportunities: 

• Use the cards to teach the fingerplays, songs/chants or nursery rhymes.
• Create stories or ask questions around the photos on the cards.

The cards offer math readiness activities: 

• Highlight what's alike and what's different in the photos on the cards.
• Count the number of children playing on each card.
• Sort cards into categories.

On each card there is a QR code that corresponds to a dedicated webpage/card where parents will find:

• video of the fingerplay, etc.
• recommended book(s)
• step-by-step plans for activities (minimum two activities per card)

Go Play! Activity Cards are available online at PlayAndGrow.com and currently come in four season-themed sets: autumn, winter, spring and summer. Each set is contained in a drawstring, muslin bag for ease of storage and transport, making them easy for parents to pull out when needed!