Toddler Activities for the Letter M: Moons and Marshmellows

We've always pointed out the moon to our kids and they love finding it on their own now at night-time or even during the day. I figured it was time to explain a little bit about what it is and why it changes (plus, last week was the letter M!)

Before we did our craft, we read through a book about the moon. This book is a favorite of mine:

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
We found a kid's science book about the moon at our local library that looked something like this one:

So That's How the Moon Changes Shape!

Materials:
black construction paper
white crayon
glue
mini marshmellows

I drew the different phases of the moon onto our black paper with a white crayon.

We applied glue to the outline of the moons and covered them with marshmellows.

While we worked on this craft, I reminded them about the different things we'd learned about the moon--how the moon itself never changes, but how it reflects the light of the sun in different places which makes it look bigger or smaller. We talked about a crescent moon, half moon, and full moon.


For older kids, you can have them go outside each night before bed and draw a picture of what the moon looks like, keeping track of its phases.
So fun!

Summer Activities for Toddlers and Preschooler: Grassapillars

Remember around Earth Day we planted these Grassapillars? Well lo and behold, I can grow something. Every plant I try to nurture usually ends up...well in the trash. It's so sad, but just not my forte. So after we planted these grassapillars in our egg cartons, I started to feel discouraged when nothing was growing. Then my husband stepped in and helped us remember to water the seeds twice a day and voila! They grew. It was a good chance for my girls to see a plant from start to finish and have part in the growth.

We're so proud.

Stay tuned for a lesson on the moon and a post about an amazing program called The Power of Moms. I have so much to tell you! And I've received a lot of questions lately about activities for 12-18 month old toddlers, so remember to type in "For the Wee Ones" in my search box. There's a few ideas there and I'm going to update that series with some new ideas soon.

Send in your activities; I love to see what you're doing out there.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend. We're off to Colorado tomorrow...

Toddler and Preschooler Activities for the Letter L

Last week we studied the lovely letter "L." Here's two activities we tried out:

Lemon Stamps:
We talked about lemons--their texture, color, smell and taste. Then we cut the lemons in half and dipped them in red paint to make "love notes" for friends and family of ours. The "stamp" resembled ladybugs (if you added the black spots and a head) and lips for kisses.






And eventually the lemon stamps were abandoned for finger painting and major mess making...




(I still have two perfect red hand prints on the white table that I'm keeping for a little while.)

"L" Books:
This is an activity we've done in the past for various letters. Take a small stack of construction paper, fold it in half width wise and staple the folded edge to create a small book. Write the letter you're studying on the front and ask your toddler/preschooler to draw pictures of things that start with that letter on each page. We usually do this activity after a lesson on the letter so it's fresh in their minds.

My three year old is showing me her ladybug.



You can use this for any letter, of course. You could also use this idea for shapes, colors, or numbers. Have a lesson on a specific topic (the color red) and then help them think of objects that relate to that topic and draw them on the page (red apples, ladybugs, cherries, cardinals, etc.)

Hope your spring is warming up! We're still stuck in the upper fifties out here...

Toddler and Preschooler Activities for the Letter K

The letter of the week last week was the letter "K." We talked a lot about koalas and kangaroos, kisses and kids, and then made kites to fly outside. We made kites last year, but I have to admit that these are my new favorite. Apparently they were created by a kid in Hawaii who prided himself in getting 20 kids to make 20 kites in 20 minutes. Well, it took us about 20 minutes to make two kites, but they were quite easy and they fly!

Materials:
construction paper (8 1/2 x 11)
pencil
ruler
scissors
bamboo skewer
wire snips
masking tape
surveyor's tape or streamers
hole punch
string
piece of cardboard

Step One: Have your toddler decorate his paper to his heart's desire (we skipped this part and got straight to business, but it would be fun to color first). Fold the paper in half widthwise.


Step Two: Measure and mark 2 1/4 inches from the bottom and 1" on the top.





Step Three: Use your ruler (or a puzzle) to draw a straight line, connecting your marks. Crease the top layer of paper along the line.




Step Four: Once the top layer is folded back, tape along the fold and trim any excess tape.


Step Five: Trim the skewer to eight inches with the wire snips (or strong scissors) and tape it across the wide end of the top of the kite.


Step Six: Tape on your decorations (surveyor's tape, streamers, or curling ribbon, etc) along the bottom of the kite.


Step Seven: Flip the kite over and fold the flap back and forth until it stands straight up. Fold a small piece of tape over the flap about 3 inches from the top. Punch a hole and tie your string in the hole.

Tape the other end of your string to the piece of cardboard and wrap the rest of the string around it until it's a length your child can handle.



Go fly it! Make sure it's windy enough out there...my three year old had a small meltdown (that's weird...) because there was no wind the first time we tried to fly these kites. We took them to a park a few days later and they flew beautifully.

P.S.
Fun snacks for this letter: kiwi and Hershey's kisses.
YouTube videos: Cullen's ABC's and Sesame Street
Book: Kipper