Working with children can be difficult when you are trying to catch and keep their attention. In particular, young children can be easily distracted if they’re partaking in an activity that is too difficult, involved or boring for them.

When you have an activity table, you will want to keep the children engaged and interested in what they’re doing. Classroom Essentials Online has many plastic folding tables and daycare furniture that can withstand the wear and tear from these 10 fun activities.

Engaging Activities for Children

1. Coloring Sheet Center
Children love to color, especially when you have a wide selection of characters and scenes they like. Character pages, car pages and even blank sheets where they can explore their creativity are all great color sheet ideas. Markers can be messy and they dry out when they are not recapped, so you may want to forgo them and invest in a large pack of crayons that are far cleaner and offer easier clean-up.

2. Manipulatives
Manipulatives are learning exercises that are so fun for children they don’t even realize they are learning from them. Some activities include sorting, pinching and counting, all while doing something fun.

3. Puzzles
Puzzles are another great idea if you’re looking to capture the focus and mind of a young child. Having different, age-appropriate puzzles is a fun activity for them to try.

4. Jewelry Station
Set out strings, beads, noodles and other trinkets on a folding table and watch children explore and create something they are proud of or even make a gift for mom.

5. Free Paint
If you are in a position to let children don some aprons and cover a plastic folding table with painting paper, then it is a great idea to try with little fingers or little paint brushes.

6. Shaving Cream
Another messy but incredibly entertaining activity for young children is shaving cream! Use those aprons and squeeze out a bottle on a plastic table to let them feel and play.

7. Playdough
Having Playdough and tools for cutting and shaping will keep children engaged while focusing on their motor skills.

8. Games
There are many table top games that are easy for young children to set up. Games such as Memory will provide focus and fun.

9. Blocks
Whether children play with building blocks or blocks that lock together, they will have unlimited joy building and rebuilding.

10. Seasonal Craft
Let children make something they’re proud of that expresses their creativity with a time-relevant craft. They can decorate a paper Christmas tree or glue tissue paper squares onto a fish for summer.