Toddler Tuesday: Snowmen in Snowglobes

When my kiddos saw this ball sitting in the paint, their eyes lit up! This multi-step project (another Pinterest success) was a big hit with our 18-23 month olds, and they enjoyed making their very own paper snowglobes, complete with snowmen.

Toddler Tuesday: Stocking Stuffers

Christmas is coming! Our 19-22-month-olds had so much fun stuffing their stockings, and they learned some great things in the process!

What We Used:

• Mini stockings – I got a pack of 10 at Walgreens for a few dollars, so there was enough for each child to have one.
• Bells – large red, green, and gold ones (make sure they’re big enough not to be choked on, because we did have some mouthing attempts)

Preschool Advent Song Book

When I was a child, I went to “Junior Church.” We didn’t run around the gym or have a snack every 30 minutes – no, we had our very own church service. We all sat in chairs and listened to the “program leader” announce each hymn (and we would sing every stanza!) before hearing our teacher give the lesson and ending with the song, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” We had several Christmas traditions in Junior Church too – we always lit an Advent candle each week, there would always be a birthday cake for Jesus, and… we would always sing this version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that would tell the nativity story.

a 4th grade mini-me with Mr. Yates (December birthday buddies!)
and the birthday cake for Jesus in Junior Church, Christmas 1996

I wanted to pass on this song to my 4-year-old class a few years ago, so in preparation for Christmas we made a simple page every day leading up to our Christmas break. Then I bound them in books for each child to take home and teach the song to their families!

Toddler Tuesday: Thankful Bags

Here’s a quick, easy, simple Thanksgiving gift that even toddlers can make for parents, grandparents, family, friends, neighbors… whoever!

Toddler Tuesday: Picasso Turkeys

This is one of the simplest art projects that has turned into a classic in my classroom. It is so easy, but each child’s always turns into a unique keepsake.

First, just prepare what you will need for one turkey. I cut out a pear-shaped body (kinda looks like Mr. Potato Head!), and each child also got 2 googly eyes, a triangular beak, a little red gobbler, 2 feet, and some colored feathers.

Toddler Tuesday: Autumn Sensory Bin

For the last several weeks, my 1½-2 year old students have enjoyed playing in our autumn sensory bin! This was super easy and cheap to throw together, and the children had so much fun – not to mention sneaking in some learning!

CONTENTS:

• packages of fake autumn leaves (I think about 7 packs of 50?) from Dollar Tree
• plastic leaf-shaped dishes from Dollar Tree
• assorted Styrofoam and plastic pumpkins and gourds from Dollar Tree (or real mini pumpkins & gourds!)
• large acorn bells from Michaels
• tongs and scoopers from Dollar Tree

Toddler Tuesday: Smelly Bottles

I don’t want to neglect this severely forgotten sense, and this is a cheap and easy way to get toddlers learning with their noses!

Toddler Tuesday: 13 Ways to Play with Pool Noodles

We don’t have a swimming pool in our classroom, but pool noodles are a big part of our play and learning! I bought 3 different colors from the Dollar Tree and cut them up, and even I was surprised how much fun we got out of them! Some of these were my ideas, but the toddlers contributed some ideas of their own too. 

Here were the stages of our play with pool noodles! Odd numbers were toddler ideas; even numbers were my ideas.

Toddler Tuesday: Sensory Balloons

How would you like a simple activity that will captivate your toddler, calm them down, teach them about different textures, and exercise the muscles in their fingers at the same time?! Well, you’ve come to the right place! Introducing the sensory balloon for toddlers!

Western Roundup for Toddlers

Howdy, y’all! A few weeks ago (I know, I’m just catching up), our toddlers enjoyed a 2-week wild west theme. We enjoyed creating several process art projects together, and I wanted to share them here!

Fireworks for Toddlers

Happy Fourth of July! I’ve been hearing the fireworks all day and look forward to more tonight. Until then, here are some fireworks crafts that our toddlers painted last week! These projects are both great ways to practice fine motor skills, talk about colors, and get in some sensory play.

Toddler Stars

I have so many things to blog about and ideas to share that I am just now getting around to our toddler class’ shape for December, which was predictably the star. (My new full-time job is a little bit of a distraction too… in a good way!) Anyway, as with our other shapes of the month, it is all about fun and learning through play. Here are 4 things we did with stars in addition to all our other Christmas activities.

Toddler Color Bottles

Toddlerhood is so exciting – everything they do is a learning experience. The explosion of vocabulary manifests itself all throughout the day, so they are able to verbalize the things they are discovering. (Of course, it helps to have attentive adults who can assist in labeling experiences and objects for their ever-growing minds.) With all this comes the beginning of learning the “things they need to know,” such as animal sounds, body parts, numbers, letters, shapes, and… COLORS!!!

DIY Magnet Boards

Magnets are something every child should get to play with, and I wanted to incorporate them into our science center, but they’re just so expensive! Then I saw this idea on Pinterest, and I knew I had to do it! So I did!

Make Your Own Resurrection Eggs

If you’ve never heard of Resurrection Eggs, they are definitely worth investing in. Inside each Easter egg is an object for kids to handle that symbolizes a part of the Easter story. Our class used a simple devotional book to go along with it and opened a few every day. 

At the end of the week, we made our own for the students to take home and share with their families! 

4 More Easter Activities for Preschoolers

I’ve shared ideas for Easter crafts and Easter displays; here follows a conglomeration of ideas from the 3 Easters I’ve spent as a preschool teacher.

Pom-Pom Color Fun for Toddlers

All year we’ve been having fun with colors, but these past few weeks we had a fun pom pom center! This included a pompom drop and a place to sort the pompoms by color.

I came across some great ideas for pompom drops on Pinterest, but this was just a quick throw-together. I would love to attach these to wood instead of just paper!

Valentine Sensory Bin: Treasures from the Dollar Tree!

I know this is a little after the fact, but we are still going to be playing with some Valentine stuff next week, and it can always be saved for next year too! (That’s what Pinterest is for, right?) I present: a cheap and fun Valentine sensory bin! 

Yep, I found all this (and a few more things) at the Dollar Tree.

3 Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

A keepsake, a writing exercise, and fun with paint – here’s what we’ve been up to this week!

#1: Valentine Keepsake: We painted feet on cardstock, then I outlined them with marker and added the words for our parents.

Simple Mitten Craft

It’s not that cold outside, but we are talking about warm clothes that we wear, and today we’re decorating paper mittens! 

I freehanded some simple mitten shapes beforehand, cut them out, and glued them to white construction paper. The kiddos got to choose from foam rectangles (our shape of the month), craft jewels (with stickies on the back), and sequins (who doesn’t love sequins?!) to place anywhere on their mittens.