Toddler/Preschool Activities

Letter-Sound Puppets
    I make animal puppets that teach a letter and sound. Mr. M. Mouse for example, is a mouse that only likes things that start with 'm'. Mr. M. Mouse has a one track mind and will only talk about things that make a /m/ sound. We sit or walk around and talk to Mr. M. Mouse about things he likes. We have conversations with him, but everything involves the sound and the letter M. This is so much fun! M loves to talk to these puppets. He really catches on to letter-sounds fast when it involves these conversations with the puppets!

"Mr. M. Mouse do you like giraffes?" "Oh, no! I like mmmmmonkey's though!"

Counting Machine
  M painted two bowls for me to make our counting machine. We used playing cards and counters. How we play the game: M draws a card and counts the right amount of counters into the counting machine. Then I open the machine to count the counters and tell him what number his card was. Then it's my turn to draw a card and count and he checks the machine. So much fun! A great counting activity!

Toss-A-Color
   I taped 4 different colors of paper on the floor and put a chair on it's side for M to stand behind. His job is the try to toss a bean bag onto a color. When his bean bag lands on a color, we graph the color on our Toss-a-color graph sheet. This is great for hand-eye coordination and also exposes him to using bar graphs. After we're finished, we talk about which color got the most tosses and which color got the least.

If I had a....
   This is a great car game. I ask M "If I had a motorcycle I would...." and he has to tell me what I could do with a motorcycle. "If I had a peach tree I would...." Then he gets to ask me! Fun to see what he comes up with!

Hunt and Climb
  M's mission is to find the hidden objects (letters, shapes, colors, toys) and then climb up the stairs to put them in the correct bag. Make it fun and have him/her be a knight, hunter, rescuer that must save the hidden objects and bring them back to their rightful homes.

 

 

 

 

Number lines everywhere!
  I made a number of vertical and horizontal number lines and put them up all over the house. M loves to count them whenever he passes one. It's a quick and easy way to get him counting, matching the numeral to the number, and practicing using number lines. We also do this with his name.

Queen Mama, Queen Mama!
   We make a crown and a throne to sit on. I sit on the throne and M asks "Queen Mama, Queen Mama, what do you need?" Then I say "I need 4 blocks!" He goes and gets me four blocks. When he brings them, we count them to make sure we have the right number. We do it again with cars, books, socks, spoons and with different numbers. Then it's his turn to be the king! Super fun. This is a great game to practice counting out a quantity. (Note: The amount that kids can count out and bring to you will most likely be less than how high they can count. This is normal: the skills to count out a quantity are more advanced than the skills to count a group of objects.)

Homemade Board Games
Since there's not very many board games for little ones, we make our own. This one is a train game, since M loves trains. M must stop his train at every sign. I read him a question I wrote about trains. If he gets the right answer, he can collect the bean. He must go through the whole track, collecting all the beans to deliver to the station at the end! M loves this game. It's playing with trains, which he loves, and also some trivia!

Paper clip patterns
  I bought colored paper clips at the dollar store. I made cards with different color patterns. He matches the patterns with his paper clips. We do AB, AAB, ABB, ABC patterns.

Connecting Paper clips
  I made different paper clip arrangements that M had to copy. Connecting paper clips in chains is really fun!

Elevator, Elevator
   I made 3 sheets of paper. One with up and down buttons, one with the floor number buttons, and one with the picture of the building floors. We used M's closet as the elevator. The picture with the building floors tells him what floor he's on with a  clothes pin. Then I ask him to go to a different floor number. He has to decide if he needs to press the up or down button. Then he goes in his closet and presses the floor number he's going to. He "rides" the elevator and then comes out to go to another floor! Super fun. Good practice with numbers and learning how to go up and down a number line.

 

 

Kid Board Games
  We take an adult board game and make a kid version! I write out different trivia questions that he can answer. I make 4 categories: letters, numbers, shapes and content questions. I take a board game that we have and we play with his questions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretend to pack for a vacation!
  M loves his suitcase! We pretend he's going on a vacation and he needs to pack. I make a check list of all the things he needs to pack in his suitcase. He then practices reading the checklist and checks off the things he packs! He loves this and will do it over and over again. Great fun, but also good practice using print in a real-life situation and reading!

 Buzz like a Bee
  We make antennas, stingers, and wings. We make flowers from sticks, colored muffin papers, and cotton balls. We buzz around the house, stinging each other! We go to the flowers and eat the pollen and nectar, then go to the bee hive to make honey. We usually drink some honey water at the bee hive. He loves being a bee and is so cute! Stinging me is his favorite part!

Stair Sorting
   I put different color toys on each of our stairs. I labeled lunch bags different colors and put them on the table. M had to run up the stairs, grab a toy, and put it in the bag that matched the color. Anytime, I can get him going up and down the stairs for a game is a good thing! He loves it! We can do this with shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc.

 

Refrigerator Coloring/Writing
  Some moms would be uneasy about this, but it was fun! We made sure it would wipe off completely before we did it. I also reminded M that he could only do this with my special markers and only when I said it was ok. He practiced drawing and writing on the refrigerator. We used WASHABLE markers and cleaned it with an old washcloth!
 

Shark!
 I make a number line on paper. I write numbers on cards and put them in a bag. I make fish with numbers on them and put them on the floor. We have a "boat" where M has his bag and number line. His job is to save the fish before the shark (me) eats him or the fish. He picks a number from the bag and says "5 needs help!" He puts the 5 on the number line and then swims to the 5 fish to save him before I eat the fish first. We continue until he saves all the fish. Then we switch and he's the shark! So much fun!

Roll vs Slide
 I gather up random objects like balls, blocks, beads, etc. We make a ramp with a piece of wood. Our job is to figure out what rolls down the ramp and what slides down the ramp. M predicts if he thinks it will slide or roll, then he tries it! He loves playing with ramps!

Baggie Match
  I write random letters that we're practicing on paper bags, then tape them to the wall. I put the same letters on little cards and spread them on the floor. I tell M, "Find me a 'W'!" He then finds a 'W' card and has to run to put it in the 'W' bag. After some practice, he writes his own letters on the cards to play the game. We can do this with anything, letters, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, etc.

Mr. Troll, Mr. Troll!
   I put our couch cushions in a row on the floor like a bridge. I tape up different shapes to the wall. M stands on the floor and asks "Mr. Troll, Mr. Troll! Can I jump across your bridge?!" Then I say "Only if you bring me a trapezoid!" M then has to run and choose the trapezoid from the wall and give it to me. Then I let him jump or run across the bridge. We do this over and over with the different shapes. Sometimes he wants to be the troll too! This is SUPER fun! Great for recognizing shapes, letters, numbers, etc.

 

Book Tower
   Big books are great building blocks. M stacks them as high as he can and even uses a chair to make it as high as he can. Then of course, he knocks it down!

Letter Hunt
    Like an Easter egg hunt, but with letters. I hide all his magnetic letters around the living room. When he finds them, he has to tell me what the letter is and then puts it on the chalk board.  He loves this! He wants to do it over and over and wants to sometimes hide the letters for me to find! We can do it with shapes, numbers, etc.

 

Book Dominoes
   We get big books and make them into Dominoes! M puts them in a row himself, then knocks them over. Then I put them in a row and knock them over! So much fun!

Slap Memory Game
   I got M's memory game and put 5 different cards in a row. Then I showed him one picture that matched one of the 5 pictures. We then had to slap the picture that it matched. Whomever slaps it first gets to keep the cards! Fun to slap with a clean fly swatter or a spatula!

Counting Hanger Chains
   I grabbed a bunch of hangers and we made long chains of the hangers. We then counted the hangers. Then we go somewhere else and do it again. We hung them on our fans, doors and doorknobs. Fun activity and good counting practice!

Book Path
   M gets a bunch of his books and makes a long path with them. We do a lot of different things with it. We count the books, he walks around on them, he jumps from book to book, and drives his cars on them! He loves this!

Blanket Hide-and-Seek
    We started this when we were learning about bugs. He hides different bugs under a blanket. Then I yell "Find the ant!" M has to crawl under the blanket and find the ant. Then we do all the bugs. This can be used with anything: letters, numbers, cars, cards, etc.

Book Pit
  I dump as many books as I can find on the floor in a big circle.  We get a blanket and sit in the middle and read and read! "Read another one!" is what he keeps saying. He loves being surrounded by so many books.

Bean-bag Tag
   I made pictures of different furniture in our living room and kitchen. I then put each picture on a different stair. M throws a bean-bag up on the stairs. The picture that the bean-bag lands by is 'it' and M has to run and tag that furniture! Fun with two people because it's a race to see who gets there first!So fun!

Sink or Float?
    I got a big bowl and filled it with water. Then I found random toys and objects in the house. I showed M an object and then asked him if he thought it would sink or float. He would guess and then we would try it! He loved to see the results! Then we would write down on a chart if it sunk or floated. He loved this! He kept asking for more and more things to test!

Diggin' with Dirt or Snow!
     I got a turkey baking bin from the dollar store. We throw some flour in it to make some snow or some sand for dirt. M then gets his construction trucks and dumps and pushes for hours! Great activity for when I'm cooking!

Act out or Extend a book

   After reading a good book, we get out some toys and pretend play with the same characters, situations etc. M loves to act out his books!

 

 

 

Picture Scavenger Hunt

   I take pictures of random things through-out our house on my camera. I show M the picture and he has to go find it and bring it to me. He loves this game!

 

 

 

 

Object Color Match



  I colored clothes pins different colors. I gave them to M and he had clip them on objects that matched the color.

 

 

 Puzzle Race

   I tape contact paper to the wall so the sticky side is out. We then stick puzzle pieces up as fast as we can. Then we take them off and put them in the right puzzle as fast as we can!

 

Numeral or Letter Match

  I wrote numbers on muffin paper and put them in a muffin tin. We talked about a number and M then matched his wooden numbers to the papers. We can do letters, shapes and colors too.

 

What's that tune?

  I hum a song that he knows and he has to start singing the words when I stop. It's fun to see what songs he knows really well, just by hearing the tune. This is a good car game!