Toddler Ideas Tuesday: September 30, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! I hope you will join with me again in sharing the fun activities, crafts, and lessons that you are doing with your young children. 

I apologize for there being a few weeks between posts again. I do mean for this to be a weekly link up, but between trying to get organized and internet/computer issues, it hasn't been happening. Hoping for a better future of Toddler Idea Tuesdays!

It has been difficult to find time some days to get the one-on-one time I would like to have with the younger two children. I am still working out our schedule and my organization to have things run smoothly. However, last week, I did make some new learning activities for them. This was to go along with our Poppins Book Nook theme of The Wild West. Our focus was Wild West Fairy Tales, though our trays were mostly inspired by the main ideas in the tales themselves, so there really wasn't a western theme there.

On Tuesday we read "Little Red Cowboy Hat" by Susan Lowell, along with "Little Red Riding Hood", so our learning activities centered around the color red.

Harold hasn't had much of a chance to use these yet, but Hannah's favorite was the Bead Counting on Pipe Cleaners.

For this simple activity, Hannah placed beads on the pipe cleaners to match the counting chart I made. She was able to work on counting, number recognition, and fine-motor skills.

I also put together a Block Counting Basket.

For this block counting activity, I added 1-1 peg block, 2- 2 peg blocks, 3- 3 peg blocks and 4- 4 peg blocks for them to sort and count and build with. We haven't had much time to use this one yet though.

Next, I put together a Red Sensory Bin.

Unfortunately, this was one they didn't have any time to use.

I was quite happy with the way my new Word Family Tray turned out. I have always enjoyed coming up with activities that will help the children learn to read, and we like to focus on word families.

I have found that these Tupperware trays are very good for some learning trays. For this activity I set out the "at" in the top left-hand corner using felt letters, then I placed more consonants in the lower corner, letters that would make words when added to the "at."  In the middle compartment, I set out blank index cards on top and a pile of "at" family words on the bottom. On the right, is a red pencil (to keep with our theme).

Hannah was to build the word directly on the index card, covering the written letters.

Then she wrote the word on a blank card.

On Tuesday we read "Dusty Locks and the Three Bears," also by Susan Lowell, along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I made a theme-related size sorting activity.

And I also brought out the Bean Sorting.

I had some other ideas for learning trays, but I just ran out of time. However, they were kept quite busy with our craft projects during the week. In addition to the two books mentioned above, we read two other books by Susan Lowell: The Three Little Javelinas (The Three Little Pigs) and The Bootmaker and the Elves (The Shoemaker and the Elves).

If you would like to see all of the craft projects and food ideas that I had to go along with this theme, I invite you to check out this month's Poppins Book Nook post, Fun With Wild West Fairy Tales. At the bottom of the post, you will find a linky with many other great Wild West Themed posts linked up, plus a wonderful giveaway. For this post, I wanted to focus on the Toddler/Preschooler Learning Trays/Sensory Activities.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

On my last Toddler Idea Tuesday post, there were 5 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post. 

This week's randomly selected post is:

Katie's August Tot Trays, posted by Greatly Blessed.

The following post received the most clicks.

20+ Busy Bags to Entertain the Littles, posted by Embark on the Journey.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized.

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Toddler Ideas Tuesday: March 11th, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! Have you been busy with your young children?

This week I would like to share our St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin.

In this tub you will find:

Green rice

Colored pasta (in all 6 colors of the rainbow)

Pompoms (small, medium and large of all 6 colors)

Pipe cleaners (again, in all 6 colors)

Gold coins

The children loved placing the pasta on the pipe cleaners. 

I had hoped they would match the colors, but that hasn't really happened yet. Hannah may have been trying, but she did get some blue in with the green.

Now that they have had a chance to use the color sensory tub I have buried some of the items in the hopes they will go digging for it.

I just wanted to share that the children also help dye the pasta and the rice. It is a great opportunity for counting one-to-one and also for observing color mixing.  We used the same instructions for dyeing the rice/pasta as we did the last time we did this. 

You need 1 cup of rice or about 15-20 noodles

1 tsp of rubbing alcohol (much better results than vinegar)

6 drops of food coloring

plastic zippy bags. 

All you need to do is pour the alcohol in the bag, add the food coloring and mix it together. Then you add the rice/noodles, zip the bag shut and shake. You have to be a bit more careful with the pasta so it doesn't break.

Pour it onto a cookie sheet lined with foil or wax paper and let it dry.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

Lisa from Our Country Road shared her Preschool Totschool Wrap Up post filled with fun Fruit Themed Tray ideas.

There are color matching and fruit matching activities, along with sorting and counting. She also shared some great Montessori activities, including fruit prep. 

Jennifer from Hint Mama shared 7 Easy & Frugal DIY Ball Pit Ideas Beyond Plastic Swimming Pools.

There are so many great ideas, sure to keep kids busy for a while.

What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? How about some fun St. Patrick's Day activities or crafts?  I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

R is for Rice and Rainbow Sensory Fun

In the past we have had some fun with rice in our sensory tub. One day I decided to make Rainbow Rice.  I followed the instructions for dyeing noodles. I took 6 bowls and poured 1 cup of rice into each one. 

Next I found it was easier to mix 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol with 5-6 drops of the desired food coloring, then mix it into the rice. Then we stirred. 

We set it outside on cookie sheets covered with wax paper until it dried.  

One of the first things we made was a rainbow rice "r." All I did was trace the r with white glue and the girls sprinkled some rice, one color at a time in the order of the rainbow, onto the glue.

Then we poured our rainbow of rice into the white rice in our sensory tub.

The girls swirled it around and mixed it in.

Then they played in it. 

(Yes, this was a while ago.)

They love playing with their construction vehicles in the rice.

Another fun sensory experience was making Rainbow Stew (no, it is not edible).

I found this idea on about.com under Family Crafts.

Materials Needed:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup corn starch
• 4 cups water
• Food Coloring

Instructions:
Mix together all of the ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir constantly and heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.

Divide the mixture into three bowls. Add a different color of food coloring to each bowl. Put approximately three tablespoon of each color into a zip-lock bag. Seal the bag and tape the top closed.

Knead the baggie to mix colors just enough to look like a rainbow. Lay bag down on a hard surface and gently press to flatten it. You can hang it in your window when finished. You can also just play with it and see wht happens to all of the colors!

For more color mixing rainbow fun we played with colored ice cubes. 

We used only the primary colors to dye the water in each compartment of the ice cube tray.

After it was frozen, I put about an inch of hot water in our tub.

We used two colors at a time to see them mix and make the secondary colors as we swirled them around. This would be a great activity for a hot day, come to think of it. 

After the ice cubes were melted and the color was mixed I dumped the water and we started again.