Quality Time with Kacey, image of a koala wearing a Maryland EXCELS T-shirt, sitting in front of a clock

Quality Time with Kacey

Quality Time with Kacey: Activities and Questions for Families and Providers

Kacey the Quality Koala and Maryland EXCELS will be sharing daily fun and educational activities and mealtime discussion questions for families and child care programs.

Be sure to visit this page or social media each day!

Share your activities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using the hashtags #MarylandEXCELS and #KaceyEXCELS.

The Maryland State Department of Education’s Division of Early Childhood understands that activities described on this page and in website links are not suitable for all ages. Ultimately, all activities require adult supervision and are not endorsed by the Maryland State Department of Education or Johns Hopkins University.

Monday

Items lined up and with yellow labels for each letter of the alphabetCreate a homemade scavenger hunt for your child. Draw pictures and/or write words. Have your children check the items as they search for them indoors or outdoors. There are so many scavenger hunts to try, such as colors, shapes, and letters! For ABC scavenger hunts, have your child find one object for each letter of the alphabet. Write each letter on a piece of paper and lay them out on the floor. As your child finds an object, they place it next to that letter. The same can be done for shapes and color hunts. To make this a little more challenging for older children, you can make clues for each item. For example, “You use this to unlock a door.” Then your child would search for a key.

Mealtime discussion question:  If you were riding in a car, what items could you search for?

Tuesday

IMPORTANT note: Discuss with your child the dangers of looking directly at the sun.

Make shadow drawings on a sunny day! Have your child place a toy or object next to a piece of paper so that the sun casts a shadow. Using a pencil, have your child trace the object’s shadow. Trace the pencil outline with a crayon or marker. Chalk can also be used to make shadow drawings on a sidewalk or driveway.

Three small toys placed on a sheet of paper to create shadows A young child traces another child's shadow with chalk on pavement

Here are some questions you can ask your child:

  • Are the shadows the same size as the toy?
  • What happens to the shadow if you move the toy?
  • What do you think makes a shadow?

Mealtime discussion question: How can you make shadows indoors?

Wednesday

Using empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls, make creative objects, animals, or sea creatures. Share your projects with us on social media!

Three octopuses made out of paper towel rolls Toy cars made from paper towel rolls Toy butterfly made out of a paper towel roll

Mealtime discussion question: Would you rather have a car that flies in the air or travels underwater? Why? 

Thursday

Find smooth rocks for your child to paint images on. Then they can use the rock characters to tell a story from their imagination or based on a book they like.

Three small painted rocks

Mealtime discussion question: What is your favorite book or story and why?

Friday

Pasta play! Using dried rigatoni noodles, have children thread straws through the noodles. Dried spaghetti can also be pushed through the holes of a colander.

Two young children playing with dried spaghetti and a colander A young child playing with dried pasta and straws

For babies, cook spaghetti and let it cool. Let babies play and explore their sensory skills with the noodles.

Mealtime discussion question: What is your favorite kind of pasta?

See more activities from past weeks: