Learning Letters with Magnets

I've started working on teaching the alphabet to my almost preschoolers, and have been trying to find a letter activity that would grab their attention.  They love their magnet doodlers, so I picked up a set of letter magnets and thought we could put the two together for a fun alphabet learning activity.

The set up for this could not be easier. I put out the magnet doodlers and the box of magnets and invited the boys to play.

I let them explore and they quickly found that they could stamp the letter magnets onto the board and make letter shapes.

As they stamped we talked about which letters we were making and what starts with those letters.

I did a few and let them try to guess which letter it was. E is for elephant!

We have been having a lot of fun with these and I think they are starting to get the hang of which letters are which. The magnet set that I bought also includes numbers, so we are going to try that next!

Want to try this at home? Here's what you need! (affiliate links)

Learning Colors with Play Dough and Crayons

My boys have been learning colors and they want to talk about the colors of everything they see! They are also big on drawing and coloring, so of course we have a lot of broken crayon pieces around the house. I was gathering them up to throw them away when I got an idea for a fun color matching game.

This is a really easy preschool activity that helps reinforce learning colors and uses materials you probably already have at home - play dough and broken crayon pieces. Of course you can use whole crayons too, or a combination of both!

Here's the set up - I put 4 balls of different colored play dough along with an assortment of crayon pieces on our table and invited the boys to come play.

As they started sticking the crayon pieces into the play dough we talked about the colors of the dough and the colors of the crayons. I gave them some prompts like, "let's put the blue crayon into the white dough."

And "which colors are in the red dough?"

They had a lot of fun making their colorful creations and practicing the names of each color. This was such an easy activity, and pretty frugal too! Instead of throwing away our broken crayons, we put them in a bag to add to our play dough kit. We'll definitely be doing this one again!

Need any of the materials in this activity? Here you go: (affiliate links)


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Make a Playset for Dinosaur Toys with Recycled & Natural Materials

My boys love their dinosaur toys. And playing with dirt. It's too cold to take our dinosaur toys outside to play, so I thought I'd pull together a dinosaur playset that we could keep inside. I used things we had around the house and yard, and it came together pretty quickly at almost no cost!

Here's what you need, though feel free to be inspired and add your own unique elements!

• Under bed sized storage box
• Green felt
• Glue
• Bowl
• Cardboard egg carton
• Mulch
• Sticks/leaves, tree clippings
• Plastic dinosaur toys

To make your dinosaur play set, start with an under bed sized storage box. I found this to be just the right size for my two toddlers (almost preschoolers!) to play, and I love the fact that it has a lid so I can put it away when we are not playing with it. And I had one on hand that I wasn't using - bonus!

Use glue to line the box in green felt. Allow to dry.

Add a small bowl to be your watering hole.

Use a cut up cardboard egg carton to make rocks for climbing.

Add in mulch, sticks, branches from trees, whatever natural elements you have easy access to.

Ready to play! I could not wait for my boys to wake up from their nap to show them their new playset. They loved it!

One dino took a drink from the watering hole.

And another took a bath!

This dinosaur did some rock climbing.

And this one had a snack.

This was a really easy project to put together - once your box is lined and dry it takes no time at all to create a really fun habitat for your dinosaur toys.  And it definitely does not have to be limited to dinosaur play - our farm animals have spent some time in the playset too!

This has also been a nice way to play with some (free!) natural materials when it's been too cold to play outside. The possibilities are endless!

Need any materials for this activity? Here you go! (affiliate links)

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site Matching & Learning Activity

My boys are in love with Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site right now. We read it before every nap and bed time, and one of my twins can often be heard reciting it to himself! Since they enjoy it so much, I thought we'd come up with a way to incorporate the book into our play, and do some learning too.

This was an easy activity to set up, and uses things you probably already have at home. Here's what you need:

• Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site book
• Bin or bucket large enough to hold all your supplies. I used a fabric bin and added a chalkboard label.
• Toy trucks that match the characters in the book: crane, cement mixer, dump truck, bulldozer, and excavator. If you don't have them all, that's OK! There are other items that you can use for the trucks you don't have.
• A small teddy bear or other small stuffed animal (ours was a bunny).
• Star and moon shapes. I used cookie cutters, but if you don't have those you can just cut a star and moon out of felt or foam.
• A small piece of fabric to use as a blanket.
• Pom pom balls.

Now you're ready to play.

I started with all the materials laid out and invited my boys to read with me. As we went through the story, we matched the trucks with their pictures on each page.

We also matched the star and the moon where we saw them on each page. And we made sure crane truck had his teddy bear.

We used pom pom balls to be our "dirt" for bulldozer.

And covered our trucks with a blanket so they could sleep.

Finally, when we were done, we put all our trucks to bed in their bin.

We have had so much fun with this activity! We keep the book and all the materials in the bin and my boys love to bring me the whole thing to read and play. They love the book even more (I didn't think that was possible!) and are learning matching and shape skills too.

Need any materials for this activity? Here you go! (affiliate links)

DIY Reusable Coloring Book Plus 100+ Free Coloring Pages

My boys love to color. But they are still pretty little, so sometimes "coloring" means drawing a few squiggles and then asking for a new page. Those coloring books can add up! I love using free printable pages (and will share some favorites at the end of this post) but paper and ink can get pricey too. I found a great way to keep my boys happy and save some money by making our own reusable coloring book!

This project is so easy - you might have everything you need at home already!

All you need is:

• 3 Ring Binder
• Sheet Protectors (I like Heavyweight or Super Heavyweight)
• Coloring Pages or plain paper
• Dry Erase markers or crayons - get the washable kind!

Put your coloring pages or plain paper in the sheet protectors. You can print free coloring pages online (keep reading for links to some of my favorites) or tear them out of a coloring book. You can put them in the sheet protectors back to back or I like to do a single sheet in each protector so that you have a mix of pre-printed pictures and blank pages.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that you can totally customize it to your kids' favorite characters, holidays, whatever they like!

Once your pages are loaded just place them in your 3 ring binder. Make it as large or small as you'd like! 

I love binders that you can slip your own cover into. If that's what you have, I've made you a free printable cover too:

CLICK HERE to download your free cover.

Once everything is assembled you are ready to go. Give your kids some washable dry erase markers or crayons and let them color!

One of my boys LOVES to erase his art - it wipes off with a paper towel but you may need to give it a good cleaning with water (or a baby wipe!) every now and then to keep it totally clean.

Ready for more coloring!

Again, you can fill your book with anything that your kids will enjoy. I've pulled together some of my favorite free coloring page resources to give you a head start:

90+ Coloring Pages from Kids Activities Blog

70 Coloring Pages from My Life & Kids

Huge Coloring Page Collection (great holiday sets!) from What Do We Do All Day?

Coloring & Activities Collection from Every Star is Different

Horse Coloring Page from Arts & Crackers

Apple Coloring Pages from The Good Long Road

Space Coloring Pages from In the Playroom

Snowflake Coloring Pages from In the Playroom

Valentine's Day Coloring Set from Red Ted Art

Dinosaur Coloring Pages from Red Ted Art

Penguin Coloring Pages from Kid's Creative Chaos

Design Your Own Monster Truck from School Time Snippets

Number Coloring Pages from 3 Dinosaurs

Dolphin Coloring Pages from Itsy Bitsy Fun

And you can find your favorite character sets here:

Disney Junior Coloring Pages

Nick Jr Coloring Pages

PBS Kids Coloring Pages

Need any supplies to make your coloring book? Here you go! (affiliate links)

Bubble Wrap Painting

We had so much fun making our Bubble Wrap Road that I thought there must be something else we can do with our big roll of bubble wrap. My boys love to paint, so why not put the two together and see what happens?

We had a lot of fun with this craft, and it's pretty simple to set up. I put a big sheet of bubble wrap down on our kitchen table and taped it down with painter's tape. I poured some washable paint into small cups, put out some brushes, and invited the boys to create.

They started with the brushes and loved how bumpy their "canvas" was.

Then they really got into it and started mixing colors.

They asked for more colors and of course I obliged.

Then they gave up the brushes all together and started finger painting. It was fun to pop the bubbles and make art at the same time! Even my "no mess" boy got into this one.

I hung our finished project on the sliding glass door to dry, and it was quite pretty with the sun shining through! We could easily turn this into a sun catcher craft. 

This was a great project that checked all my favorite boxes - easy, inexpensive (save those packing materials!), sensory and fun. Both of my boys enjoyed it immensely and we will definitely try it again!

Need any of the materials used in this activity? Here you go! (affiliate links)

      

Looking for craft storage? Check out my Organizing & Totes page!

Cupid's Mailbox Activity with Free Printable Valentine Cards

My Santa's Mailbox has been my most popular activity on the blog so far, and it was one of our favorites around Christmas. Now that Valentine's Day is coming up I thought we'd make one for our Valentines too!

This is a very easy craft that turns into a fun activity for toddlers and preschoolers. It would work great in a pre-school classroom setting for collecting Valentine cards, or at home just for fun! And it recycles a baby wipes box, which makes it frugal too.

To make the mailbox, you will need:

• Empty baby wipes box. A tissue box will also work but it will not be as sturdy and may not last for long.
• Red, pink, and white felt.
• Mod Podge or other fabric glue
• Scissors

Directions:

Cut out a piece of red felt large enough to wrap around the base of your wipes box. I used a Huggies box and mine was 3.75" x 23". Coat the base of the box in Mod Podge and wrap the red felt around. Trim any excess around the bottom.

Cut out heart shapes from the pink and white felt. I do hearts like I learned in kindergarten, by folding the felt in half and cutting a half-heart around the fold. It's the only way I can make them even.

Coat the backs of your felt hearts with Mod Podge and adhere to your box. If your felt is thin, you may have some glue leak through, so apply sparingly. I glued a few to the top too. Allow to dry.

Your mailbox is done! Now you need some Valentines to put inside. I've put together a set of printable cards that can be cut to fit through the top (depending on your box of course). Print these out on card stock for best results.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CARDS

Now you're ready to play! Your toddler will have lots of fun putting the cards into the mailbox. 

And you can play a fun matching game with the cards! Put one of each kind in the mailbox, then show your toddler a card and have him find the match. You can also have them draw their own Valentines for friends and family to keep inside their mailbox.

Lots of fun possibilities!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Need any of the materials used in this craft? Here you go: (affiliate links)

Need help organizing your craft supplies? Check out my Organizing & Totes page!