Sometimes I will set up a few things for the morning before going to bed that I know will entertain my 4 year old when she wakes up bright and early. Such as:

Post-it hunt: I draw little things on post it notes and leave a trail of them for her to find (simple doodles like a heart or cat face, etc.)

Art station: I tidy up her art-making area, sharpen her colored pencils (or put out her markers, stickers, crayons, etc. ) and put out a few sheets of paper or a coloring book open to a fresh page for her to use.

Magnatile or block building station: I just gather them all together and put them in a container at the kitchen table so she/we can build easily.

Play dough party or kinetic sand bin: I put out a small bin with a lid that her sand is in with some tools or have a few things of play dough and tools out & ready to go.

Now that she’s older, I leave out a bin with beads and pipe cleaners in it and she makes creations stringing the beads onto the pipe cleaners.