Category Archives: toddler

DIY Thanksgiving Figurines

Posted on by
2

I’ve recently become fond of Mod Podge and cutting wood in a miter box. So this year I decided to make a Thanksgiving decoration that was educational, fun, and nearly indestructible. This was super easy and I finished it in just a few hours. The kids play with it all the time, and we enjoy reenacting the first thanksgiving. We use a pirate ship for the Mayflower, use dollhouses for the pilgrims, and make paper tee-pees for the Indians. It’s so much fun that I decided to share it.

Here’s how to make it:

You’ll need scrap wood and a way to cut it, sandpaper, paint (white and brown), paint brush, mod podge, printer or printed images, scissors.

1. Find some pilgrim/Indian images online. There are a bunch of cute ones that you have to pay for, but if you work hard you can probably find some free images. Here are my favorite that I have found:

Free Pilgrim Couple

Pilgrim Kids

SPgraphics

Stockberry Studio
2. Print the images you want, and measure them. I printed out two of everything so I could put the picture of the front and the back of the block. (My printer was acting up, so the colors were super light. I had to outline everything in sharpie.)


3. Cut the wood to size. Then sand it. Be sure to cut some extra wood to make a table. Two short rectangles for the legs and a super long rectangle for the table top.

4. Paint the wooden blocks white. Paint the table top and table legs brown. Allow everything to dry.

5. Cut out the images, and make sure they fit on the wooden blocks. Some of them were slightly too big so I had to trim them down. Then, glue the images onto the painted wood with a little bit of mod podge.

6. Add a layer of modge podge over the entire block, the bottom is optional. Do this for all the blocks.

7. Let it dry. Then, PLAY!

 

 

 

Share with your Friends!

Alphabet Basketball

Posted on by
Reply

Last week’s letter was F. This week’s letter was D. So, for today’s alphabet learning activity we played letter basketball. I made two large baskets/boxes and attached the letters D and F to the front. Then, I gathered a big box full of soft toys, bouncy balls, and beanie babies.

CutiePie would choose an item out of the box and I’d say, “Throw it in the ‘d-d-d’ box.” or “Throw it in the ‘f-f-f’ box”. Once she got the hang of it and was throwing the toys into the correct boxes, I started mixing letter names in there as well. “Throw it in the F box!”

Things went well for about 10 minutes until she lost interest and started throwing toys at her brother instead. SmartyPants wanted to play, too, so I made it a little harder by asking him questions like, “The word Doctor starts with this letter.” Or, “Put it into the box on the left.” Sometimes he has trouble with left and right.

This letter game was a great way to differentiate between the two letters, as well as review the letter F from last week. CutiePie is doing well two letters down, 24 to go!

Share with your Friends!

Fishing 4 Letters

Posted on by
Reply

With the new school year starting and CutiePie turning 2, I thought it would be the perfect time to buckle down and start teaching CutiePie her letters. She’s so stubborn, and usually refuses to practice her letters. CutiePie is just as smart as SmartyPants was at her age, so I know she CAN learn her letters, I just need to find a way to make her WANT to learn.

On Monday I started off by cutting out a big letter F out of orange construction paper. I told the kids that F was the letter of the day. I put some masking tape on the back of it, and let CutiePie put it anywhere she wanted. It ended up at the bottom of the stairs, so anytime we go up or down the stairs I stop and ask her what it is. She knew it after the first day. I just keep asking her to make it stick in her long term memory.

Then, I came up with an activity which I knew she would love. I saw this somewhere on pinterest or some blog… I can’t remember, it’s been awhile.

Basically you get all of your magnetic letters and dump them into a tub filled with water. Then, you make a fishing pole and attach a strong magnet. We used an old hard drive magnet. Those things are ridiculously strong! What seemed like the perfect idea was a disaster. I had no idea that our tub was made of metal. So the magnet was constantly stuck to the tub, instead of catching letters. It was HORRIBLE!

So we filled a large bin/plastic container with water and letters and the kids went fishing in there. Sort of like ice fishing. CutiePie LOVED it. Whenever she caught a letter we all went over what the letter was called and what sound it made. We had a ton of fun, and the floor only got a little wet.

We stopped after almost a half an hour of fishing fun. Mostly because the kids were fighting. They were having trouble taking turns. SmartyPants liked catching letters and trying to make words out of the letters he caught.

 

Overall, it was a very fun activity for the kids. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to make learning letters a bit more fun. I would definitely recommend it to people who don’t have metal tubs.

Since then, the kids have been dry fishing. They dump the letters out onto the carpet and use the fishing pole to catch them. The magnetic letters have become one of their favorite toys.

Share with your Friends!