The activities listed below are easy, require little preparation, and promote learning while you are playing with your toddler!
Adopt a letter - Choose a letter of the alphabet and show it off. Draw a fancy design using the letter. Promote the letter. Tell what is great about it. Have a beauty contest and enter your letter against other letters.
Alphabet Soup Name Bracelet - It's fun to make name bracelets out of alphabet egg noodles. Spell out your name with some uncooked noodles. Then cut out a small narrow strip of thin cardboard, just big enough to fit your name on. Paste the letters of your name on this strip. When the paste is dry, paint the whole bracelet with poster paint. Carefully poke a hole at each end of the bracelet and pas a small string through both ends. Just slip the name bracelet on your wrist and tie the two ends together. You can make name bracelets for your friends too.
Color Shopping - Pick a color. Carry a basket (or plastic shopping cart) and go from room to room looking for things to put in the basket that is the color you picked. When you are finished unload the basket naming each item. Make sure you repeat the color every time you name an item. "a green cup," "a green book," etc.
Family Mobile - Illustrate a picture of each member of the family. Include the pet if the child has one. Cut out each family member. Glue each picture on strong paper or cardboard. Hang your pictures on a hanger with yarn or string to make a mobile. Print the last name on a piece of paper and fasten it to the hanger.
Habitats - Prepare a large wall chart divided into three sections. In one section, have a picture of a meadow (or flat, grassy area), in the second section, have a picture of a tree, and in the third section, have a picture of water. Distribute pictures of animals to children and let them tell where the animal usually lives. Examples: cows, sheep, goats, birds, squirrels ,fish, crabs, lobsters, etc.
Pom-Pom Sorting - Materials: Variety of pompoms in different colors and sizes. Pompoms are a fun thing to sort. They can be sorted by color or size and they are just fun to feel. When your child tires of sorting they make great additions to art projects.
Shape Search - Materials: Index cards, washable markers or pens. Draw basic shapes on the index cards – one shape per card. Show your toddler one of the cards. Tell him the name of the shape. Have him repeat it back to you. Show your toddler objects in your house that have the same shape. Once you have shown him a few objects, ask him to help you find more.
Look for more ideas soon!
