Toddlers love anything with firetrucks, so I make sure to add firefighters to our community helpers theme. We have a fire station in the block area with a nice variety of fire trucks and small firefighter figurines. In our dramatic play area we include firefighter jackets, hats, masks and oxygen tanks. For art we drive firetrucks through red and yellow paint, and we create flames using shaving cream and watercolors....
Inside: Looking for easy toddler Halloween activities? Here are 45 that they will love! There are so many Halloween activities for older children, have you noticed? But trying to find those for younger children is a bit of a challenge. Or so I thought, until I started exploring. Before I knew it, I had collected over 45 toddler Halloween activities! Yes, 45+ activities! And even if your little one is no longer a toddler, these would still be fun....
If you are like many busy parents, teachers, and caregivers, when you are probably searching for Christmas ideas for little kids that are fun and simple. We’ve found that activities that are easier to set up are more open-ended, allowing the children to add their own touches. Easy ideas also keep the adults from having to spend long lengths of time shopping and prepping. Time is always valuable, but this is even more so during the holiday season....
Free fall fine motor printable! Scroll down towards bottom of post to find them. Pumpkins! Leaves! Pine Cones! Apples! Ah yes, fall is here. You will find all of these in our favorite collection of fall fine motor activities. Once I started searching, I was amazed at the variety! I enjoyed putting together this collection. These fine motor activities can be done in a classroom or at home. Each of these preschool fine motor activities for fall helps develop fine motor muscles that will be necessary for writing later on....
Fall Playlists Winter Playlists Spring Playlists Summer Playlists Evergreen Playlists (Any Time of the Year) More Collections of Toddler and Preschool Songs Circle Time Songs Music can be a key ingredient for a smooth preschool classroom. Songs can provide relaxing background noise for when toddlers need a calming moment, or energetic beats for when children need to shake their sillies out. This is why I love having my playlists pre-made and on hand for whenever I need them....
Inside: This spider web art activity is actually two different projects wrapped into one. The result is a colorful tape-resist web with painted spiders attached! Fall is a great time to explore spiders, so why not include them in an art activity? We took my free spider printable and squeezed paint onto them, then created a vibrant, colorful web. Once we added our spiders to the web, we displayed them on our classroom wall....
Inside: Add some simple counting with this free count and clip printable reindeer activity. A fun way to work on counting skills! Looking for a fun and easy reindeer activity that works on math and counting skills? I created a set of count and clip cards that can be done at home, in the classroom, or placed in a busy bag while you are traveling! All you need is a copy of the free printable and some clothespins....
One of my favorite learning domains to write about is fine motor, so I decided to put together a post with fine motor skills activities for every season of the year. There are so many ways to strengthen the shoulders, arms, wrists, hands and fingers before actual writing takes place. I prefer to use a variety of activities that allow plenty of exploration and open-ended play. While these activities are intended for preschoolers, some can be used with toddlers as well, perhaps adapting them a bit....
Inside: This fish counting activity for preschool builds simple math skills and can be done in a variety of ways. A fun addition to your summer or ocean theme! I love using circle time to build a variety of skills, especially when they connect to a fun picture book. Not only does it countdown from 10 to 1, but it also engages the children with its rhyming text. I decided to create a simple printable to go along with the book that also works on one to one correspondence....
Inside: This collection of healthy snacks for toddlers includes tasty, simple treats! Toddlers can picky eaters, right? You are wondering how to get all those good foods into their little (very busy) bodies. I know with my own toddler children, they did love their snacks. I wish I had this collection of healthy snacks for toddlers back when they were little, but am happy to pass it along to you parents now....
One of our science activities in October is learning about owls. Our preschoolers were intrigued that owls slept during the day. That was a perfect lead into our unit on nocturnal animals. After talking about how the owls spread their wings to fly, we moved over to the art table where we made owls. This paper plate owl craft has wings that can move up and down by attaching them to the body with brads....
Inside: Wondering how you can put together fine motor strengthening activities in your home or classroom? Here are some of our favorites for toddlers and preschoolers! You are a parent wondering why your child isn’t writing his name yet. Or you are a teacher who is looking for ways to strengthen your young students’ hands and fingers in the classroom. I understand your concern, because I’ve been there. And over the years I’ve found age-appropriate activities that help develop fine motor skills....
We love using bells year round, but especially before Christmas, when we actually devote a week to it. We have bells at the science center, bells in the sensory bin, even bells in the block corner with Magnatiles! So when I saw the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell, I knew it would be a great way to add some literacy to this theme. I thought of a way to turn a jingle bell craft into an instrument that we could use while reading the book....
Inside: This preschool Valentine’s painting is a blast! Freeze water into a big heart tray and shake paint on top. Watch what happens when it starts to melt! Are you looking for something a bit different than the usual Valentine’s crafts for your preschoolers? Well then, you will LOVE this preschool Valentine’s painting on ice activity! Actually, we’ve thought outside the box before with Valentine’s ideas. We have painted hearts using a salad spinner and also with frozen confetti paint....
Color Matching Gingerbread Cards 6 pages If you add a gingerbread theme to your December activities, you are going to love this printables pack! We’ve created an entire set of signs, coupons, and menus for your dramatic play area, plus activities you can do during circle time or centers time. So much fun in one packet! There are so many learning opportunities through hands-on play! Since we love this theme so much, my daughter Rachel created clipart and added them to a packet of printable activities that we could use in our classroom....
15+ Fun Fall Playdough Ideas for Preschoolers Free Fall Playdough Counting Mats Click on the photo below to get your free pdf download: Playdough is a staple in our toddler and preschool classroom, always part of our learning centers. Because of this, I am always looking for ideas that go with different seasons, to compliment our themes. This collection of playdough ideas is perfect for fall, with different colors and textures!...
You know those art activities that look so nice online, but once you actually try to put them together, they require too many different materials? Yeah, that’s not what this collection is. Thank goodness, right? We love art activities for kids that are easy. Art activities that require stuff we already have at home, like paper tubes, foil, corks, and Q-Tips. Ideas that don’t take a lot of steps to complete....
This page contains ideas for that theme along with other All About Me resources. Because this is the first theme of our school year, things are really simple. I don’t put near as much out during this time because I don’t want to overwhelm the children, plus we are showing them how to handle materials, work together, and clean up when we are finished with centers time. Preschool All About Me Ideas CLICK HERE to see the video of my classroom during the first day of school!...
November is all about leaves, squirrels and acorns! After exploring acorns at the science table, I decided to invite my 2 and 3 year olds to make a collage on an acorn printable. The best part? They got to squeeze the glue from glue bottles. Tinted glue! This acorn craft was so loved that I will be adding it to our November art table for years to come. I started it earlier in the school year with this group because they didn’t love painting with paintbrushes as much as my previous classes have....
One our favorite activities is painting with frozen sparkly watercolors, year-round! However, this activity was extra-special recently during our Frozen (the movie) theme camp. It was a hit with each of the 3 age groups (3, 4 and 5) and simple to set up. We love to paint in preschool. We’ve tried many different types of paint, on different types of paper, with all kinds of brushes and utensils. This frozen sparkly paint activity is also a science experiment, as we see what happens when we put the sparkly paint into the freezer and notice how it’s changed when we remove it the next day....
