Inside: Fun Jump and Jam Tunes with Toddlers – Perfect to Get the Wiggles Out Recently we were not able to go outside during our toddler class due to the air condition from local wildfires. Now for those of you who are with toddlers – toddlers with lots of energy, I might add – you know how important it is to get outside. And when you can’t? And you just learn about this as you are starting your day?...
Inside: It’s so easy to make 3-dimensional apple tree art. Simply grab some paper tubes and paper and invite your toddler or preschooler to stamp apples on the tree. A fun fine motor experience! When was the last time you introduced 3 dimensional art to your toddlers or preschoolers? There are so many fun ideas, including this apple tree art activity, and yet many teachers overlook the importance of adding 3 dimensional art to their lesson plans....
Festive Preschool 4th of July Discovery Bottles CLICK HERE for 4th of July crafts! An easy patriotic craft for kids is creating red, white and blue discovery bottles! We love using recycled water bottles, such as when we made our rainbow name bottles. Kids love measuring and pouring the ingredients into the bottles and then admiring the colors once they are finished. If you are looking for a quick and simple patriotic activity you can do with your children, gather an empty water bottle and some confetti and get to work!...
Inside: Recycle cookie tins to make this easy toddler Christmas art. Lots of big movement happens as the shapes are stamped onto large sheets of paper. Process art fun! While I know there are so many fun crafts out there to try this time of year, I am still mindful of the process when I plan toddler Christmas art. Yes, we can be a bit crafty this time of year, but as you saw with our snowflake ornaments and our gingerbread ornaments, I still try to keep them as open-ended as possible....
Ice Painting for Kids I love activities that can be done year round. Especially process art that doesn’t require loads of prep work (who has time for that?) and doesn’t require step-by-step instructions. In the winter it can tie in with a snow and ice theme and in the summer it can be added to a cool outdoor activity on a hot day. It’s also great activity for the beginning of the school year when young children are learning how to use paints Ice painting is probably one of the most simplest painting activities around, and yet it is always popular with kids....
Inside: Download this free Itsy Bitsy Spider printable activity and create props for music and movement or circle time! A favorite finger play, year after year, is the Itsy Bitsy Spider. In fact, you might recall reciting this during your childhood, too! It’s always included in our collection of fall songs . Bringing familiar materials into your classroom environment is comforting to young children, especially those who are experiencing separation anxiety....
Inside: Setting up a transportation theme in the toddler and preschool classroom is so easy, because there is such a wide variety of activities to try. We added some favorites that our children loved! The transportation theme is one that I could spend weeks on. There seriously are so many fun ideas! We had a car wash in our dramatic play area, a construction zone in our sensory bin, lots of transportation toys and fun matching games to try....
I once worked with a teacher who was a genius at using recyclables. She amazed me at the ideas she came up with! Each year she would come up with simple ornaments made with recycled materials. Many years later, I hope these ornaments still adorn those family Christmas trees! For this particular ornament, we used recycled plastic lids and Christmas wrap. Simple, right? Read on to see just how easy these are to make!...
Inside: Teaching colors to toddlers and preschoolers – while creating a color wheel! When teaching colors to our toddlers and preschoolers, we use the same approach as teaching other skills. We offer plenty of exposure in a variety of ways. Hands-on exploration that they can tie into their everyday lives. One of my favorite examples is our giant color wheel. While we are learning about the colors of the rainbow, we ask the children to contribute by bringing in items from home....
Painting in a box lid? Tipping the box lid back and forth? Yep, that’s what this toddler painting with balls activity is all about. And it’s fun. Real fun! This technique is very similar to our golf ball painting, except we use sensory balls. These types of activities involve the upper body as the children focus on not only holding the tray or box lid, but also move it back and forth to move the balls around....
Shamrock Foil Prints Mix colors right on top of foil using Q-Tips and then make prints onto shamrock paper. There are so many fun ways to add shamrocks to your St. Patrick’s Day activities! Actually, more than I even realized until I started poking around Pinterest. While so many of them can be adult-led crafts, I searched for shamrock ideas that can obviously be done by toddlers and preschoolers, with very little help....
15+ Spring Butterfly Activities More activities about bugs: During the spring time, thousands of butterflies emerge from their cocoons and begin to migrate together towards the west. If you’ve never seen footage of this, I suggest that you look it up sometime- it’s quite unique! Every year, our classroom orders caterpillars of our own so that we can watch them create their cocoons and hatch into gorgeous butterflies. Releasing them into the world is always so exciting for our preschoolers!...
20+ Super Fun Toddler Spring Activities MATH Spring is one of the best times to bring nature into the home or classroom. Adding fresh flowers (or fake for something that lasts longer!) to the play-dough table or sensory bin adds a fresh, colorful element. When searching through spring activities on the internet, I noticed that most of them focus on art elements that are a bit too complicated for young toddlers’ little hands....
Inside: Get inspired with these preschool weather activities – including dramatic play, fine motor, art ideas, and more. 30+ Preschool Weather Activities Our days here in Oregon are unpredictably rainy, sunny, cold, or windy. This provides us with the perfect time to discuss the different types of weather, as children get to see so many examples of it within their natural environment! Below is a compilation of weather themed art activities, creative sensory bins, fun dramatic play area ideas, and more for your preschool weather theme....
Gingerbread Sensory Table with Kinetic Sand Smaller gingerbread molds can be held in one hand while the other hand is used to scoop the sand. If you are looking for theme ideas for the month of December, consider the gingerbread theme! We love kicking off the month with all things gingerbread, including this gingerbread sensory table that offers lots of fine motor exploration. The main ingredient is kinetic sand, and if you haven’t use this stuff yet, you are in for a treat....
Just mention the word birthday and you get a super excited toddler or preschooler. Seriously, there is nothing like turning 3 or 4 in their lives. If we just mention the word, our 3 year olds get so excited, all telling me at once how old they will be, or what they want, or what kind of party. That means celebrating birthdays in the classroom is important. Super important! The key is keeping it simple and yet special....
Inside: Short on space? Come see how we set up our preschool science area using a small area on top of a bookshelf! It’s amazing how we are quick to think we are limited when our classroom or living space is small. “I can’t do that. My room is too small.” But you can be creative with small areas, especially when it comes to creating a preschool science area. All you need is a small table or the top of a counter or bookshelf....
Literacy Lego Letter Puzzles: Build the outline of a letter and invite your child to fill it in. (Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls) If you have children in you are at home or in a classroom, there’s a good chance you have Lego-type toys. They are amazing for creating buildings, vehicles, landscapes … truly, the list is long. And while they are great as block toys, I’ve found over 15 other ways to use them while building important skills....
Each year, the week before Mother’s Day, we put together a special celebration with our toddlers. We call the event “Muffins for Mommy”. We make muffins and a special gift. The mommies join us during the last 15 minutes of our class and we celebrate by opening the gifts, eating the muffins, and singing songs together. . . This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. . Making the Muffins ....
We’ve done plenty of rainbow painting activities, but painting with a sponge on the easel was new. Painting rainbows with sponges has been featured on many blogs, such as Teach Preschool and Hands On As We Grow. However, I was looking for something we could do on our easel. It occurred to me that sponge painting rainbows on a vertical surface could be pretty cool! And it’s also a great lesson in color mixing, as you will see in this post....
