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)

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!

Texture Turtles

Our toddlers just finished a month focusing on our five senses, and this was one of the many fun projects we made! 

Of course we try to incorporate our five senses in what we do all throughout the year, and this simple activity would be fun for an animal unit, learning about colors or shapes, enriching a study about textures, and more.

Toddler Name Paintings

The beginning of the school year is a time of getting to know one another’s names, and this is a fun way for toddlers to be introduced to the look of their own names!

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 Flower Wall

This was one of the fun things we did when we learned about flowers. (More coming soon!)

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.

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.

Wintry Fun for Florida Toddlers

It’s been a busy 2 weeks in our classroom since we returned from Christmas break! Even though the thermometer has read 80 degrees most of the time, we’ve been learning all about winter! No, our toddlers couldn’t go out and play in the snow, but we did learn about the cold!

Our playground is in the beating tropical sun, so to cool off a bit, we usually play with water. These past 2 weeks, though, we’ve been playing with ice! The toddlers have had so much fun scooping ice into cups, placing the ice cubes back in the tray, watching the ice melt, rubbing the ice on their faces, trying to lick the ice, throwing ice, burying ice in the dirt, etc. They are talking up a storm these days, and “Ice is cold!” has become the new saying.