Activities for Toddlers

I gave you guys the chance to give me some topics to discuss on my blog and one by one I'm slowly knocking them off my list. Mason and I have a list of fun activities that we do/have done. Enjoy!

Pudding Paint: (Edible paint) 

Materials: Instant pudding, food coloring, small container for pudding, heavy duty paper, soap, and water.

Directions: Prepare pudding and tape the paper to a table. You can let the child help prepare the pudding. Then start finger painting! Talk to them about how it feels, the taste, smell, ect

Making creatures with paper:

Furry Bird: Cut out the shape of a bird and let the children glue feathers to the bird.

Sunflowers: Pre-cut yellow triangles and a brown circle. Ask each child to glue the yellow triangles around the brown circle. Then ask them to add a green streamer to the bottom of the flower. 

Froot Loop Sand: 

Materials

• Froot Loops cereal
• Food processor or rolling pin
• Construction paper
• Glue stick

Directions

1. Make Froot Loop Sand by crushing Froot Loops cereal in a food processor or with a rolling pin.
2. Rub the glue stick onto a piece of construction paper, then sprinkle the Froot Loop sand onto it.
3. If your child dumps the sand onto the picture all at once, that's okay; just tip the picture onto another piece of paper and the excess will slide off.
4. For variety, try using a clean, empty spice container to shake the Froot Loop sand onto the glue.

People Puppets

Materials

• Photos of family members
• Glue or tape
• Clear contact paper
• Popsicle sticks

Directions

1. Use glue or tape to attach a Popsicle stick to the back of a photograph.
2. Cover with clear contact paper for an instant puppet.

Toddler Bowling

Materials

• Empty plastic soda bottles or unopened paper towel rolls
• Large rubber ball

Directions

1. Line up three or four (or more) empty plastic soda bottles or unopened paper towel rolls.
2. Show your toddler how to roll a large rubber ball to knock them over.

Learning About the Mailbox

Materials

• Shoebox with lid
• Scissors
• Unopened junk mail

Directions

1. Cut a large slit in the lid of a shoebox.
2. If you like, cover the box and lid (separately) with colored paper, or decorate with paints, markers, and stickers.
3. Place the lid on the box and show your toddler how to "mail" letters.
4. If you don't mind her doing so, she may enjoy ripping open the letters as much as mailing them.
5. Store the mail inside the box when play is over.

Texture Touch

Materials

• Materials of varying textures: sandpaper, old carpeting, fabric, cotton balls, fun fur, and so on
• Metal lids from frozen-juice cans
• Glue
• Magnets

Directions

1. Cut the various materials you have gathered into a round shape that will fit the frozen-juice-can lids.
2. Glue the material onto the lid.
3. Younger toddlers will enjoy simply feeling the textures.
4. Magnets glued to the back of the juice lids will allow your child to play with them on the refrigerator or on a cookie sheet placed on the tray of her highchair.
5. For older children, make two sets and have them sort the lids by matching the materials or sorting by texture (smoothest to roughest, softest to hardest, and so on).

Here are just a few ideas to get you all started. I have found that Mason loves gluing things together. For example if I precut a christmas tree out and cut some decorations and a star to put on it, he loves to glue it to the tree even though he may not be completely correct about where the pieces go. Same with pumpkins, cats, ect. 

This Christmas we also made ornaments with Mason's hand and foot prints and he thought it was so cool to see. We also did a mural with paint. You can buy kits at places such as Target, Walmart, KMart. 

Happy Holidays Everyone!