Alphabet Sticker Collage

We have been doing TONS of alphabet activities lately since my son is so into saying the letters and singing the ABC Song. He LOVES stickers, so I let him make his own little Alphabet Sticker Collage. He had fun saying the letters while placing them on the construction paper. If he didn't know a letter, I told him and he tried repeating it. It's so cute because he can't pronounce all the letters yet ~ Q sound like U and X and S are so funny in a cute way!

Alphabet Puzzles

Alphabet Puzzles are a great way to help your toddler get familiar with the alphabet. My now 2 year old is able to match all the letters and just need help making them fit right. I start by emptying all the pieces and placing them face-up. Then I would ask him to find the letter "H".... in the beginning, I would always start with the letters he was most familiar with and ending with ones he didn't really know all that well. Another thing that my toddler loves is when we sing the Alphabet Song together while pointing to each letter as we sang it. He gets such a kick out of this and I usually end up having to sing it several times with him, lol!

Chinese Lantern Craft

We made this AWESOME Chinese Lantern with our Mommy and Me group. My friend either got them from JoAnn's or Michael's (don't forget to use the 40-50% off coupons found in the Sunday paper or from being on their email list). They actually light up too! All you need is 2 batteries ~ it looks so cool in the dark. The kids took turns painting their lanterns with a sponge stick. We just used Crayola kid's paint because it is a good texture and more importantly, it's WASHABLE! After my son's dried, I used a permanent marker to color in Chinese symbols using a stencil that I already owned.

His Masterpiece

Playing and Learning with Alphabet Blocks

My toddler LOVES his alphabet blocks! There is a whole other row underneath that you can't see and are fairly inexpensive. These are so much fun for him and are a great learning toy as well. There are many possible activities that can be done using these toys.

Of course, being all boy, his favorite thing to do is build towers with them. This is a great time to play I Spy! For example, say something like "I spy a W, do you see the W?" or "I spy an apple, can you find the apple on the tower"? He LOVES to knock his towers down too. I caught him one day stacking the blocks on his art desk and knocking them over exclaiming "Ohhh!" really loud. He seemed to be enjoying this a lot, so I made a little bowling game for him. We stacked the alphabet blocks into towers and used one of his balls to knock the towers down ~ so much fun! He also likes to take his Mega Blocks wagon and crash into the blocks.

Each block has an upper case letter and a lower case letter and then 2 pictures of something that begins with that letter. This set came with doubles of of each block which made it perfect for a matching game! I placed one set in a straight line (in the right order) and gave my son a block to place on the letter that matched it. It was fun to watch him concentrating so hard to find the right letter! Note: I made sure to only focus on the upper case letters since he is not familiar with the lower case ones yet.

While the letters were all lined up in the right order, we sang the ABC song together a few times while I pointed to each letter as we sang it. My son is very into learning the alphabet right now and building so this is the perfect toy for him!

Other ideas:
Scatter the blocks all over the floor and play Find the Letter.
Say each letter as they are cleaning up the blocks (or have them say the letter).
He brings me a block, I tell him the letter and what the two pictures are of. He repeats me and then gets a new letter.

Fire Truck Theme Collage

The Mommy and Me group I belong to planned on going on a Fire Station Tour. The night before, I put him in his fire truck pajamas (my all-time favs of his!) and we played with the toy fire truck he recently got for his birthday. I told him how we were going to see a real one the next day. The one in the picture makes siren noises and is from Wal-Mart. They have police cars, etc. as well..... I think they are $10???

The fire station tour was awesome! They got to sit up in the big trucks and the firefighter daddy even took all our pictures inside the truck and one big group picture in front of the truck :) Then, we got a short tour inside the fire station. One part that I really liked was when they all had us sit in one of the rooms and the kids got to watch as the fireman put on all his gear. He explained everything that he was doing and then made a special mention about how if they see a fireman, not to be scared because they are there to help you. After that, they took the kids outside and they each got to take a turn holding the hose. I was so happy that my son wasn't scared this year and had fun holding it. Last year all my pictures of him holding the hose he is crying! It's a GREAT experience if you ever get to take your child to one!

The next day, I had my son make a fire truck-inspired collage. I printed little clip art images of firetrucks, firefighters, fire, fire hydrants, dalmatians, fire helmet, fire extinguishers, and fire hoses. I placed down a piece of red construction paper for him to put his fire collage pieces on. He isn't ready to glue by himself yet, so I placed glue on a piece and gave it to him while saying what the picture was of. He then glued the piece down in a random spot. I was so happy when I handed him a picture of fire and he said "hot" and the next time he said "ouch." When it was finished, I hung it up on the refrigerator. He goes up to it still a over a week later and points to the tiny pictures and saying what they are. He is just learning how to talk and it is the CUTEST thing in the world...other than when he says No... he, he.

Thanksgiving Turkey Placemat

I found this adorable Printable Thanksgiving Turkey Placemat HERE. It has an outline for a fork, spoon, plate, and cup.  I let my 2 year old fingerpaint it. After it dried, I laminated it with clear contact paper. Can't wait to do a Christmas one too!

Kid's Thanksgiving Songs and Poems

Mmmm.... it's almost Thanksgiving!!!

Below you will find cute Thanksgiving poems that you can read to your children or place on their crafts and fun songs that are sung to the same melody as popular kid's songs that you probably already know.

DLTK's Thanksgiving poetry and songs

CanTeach: Songs & Poems ~ ADORABLE!

More adorable Thanksgiving songs

El Perro y El Gato

I am so excited that this show has finally returned to HBO Family! Have you seen it? It is an adorable, educational cartoon about an energetic dog and a laid-back cat that speak in both English and Spanish. For example, the dog will say something in Spanish and then the cat says What? ~ the cat will then repeat himself in English. Each show focuses on a theme ~ such as: grooming, sharing, trip, bath, snow, music, letter, and more. The characters are so entertaining and make it a fun way to learn.

Click Here to see a video clip about manners.

Click HERE for HBO Family's most current schedule.

Click HERE for HBO Latino's most current schedule. (For some reason, on this one you need to search for the program to pull up the schedule- it won't let me link directly to it.)

Growing Foam Animals Activity

Ever see these? I decided to try them out and was surprised how much my son loved them!

I placed them in a container with water and he had a blast splashing them around and seeing them grow. When each one expanded, he said "Oh, Wow!" and I asked him what he saw.

I think I may try turning them into little stamps somehow.

Make A Festive Maraca

Maracas are a festive way to celebrate occasions like Cinco de Mayo or even to just make for fun and play. Usually in a pair, their rhythmic sound are sure to be a hit with your child. I found this craft in a book awhile back and finally got the chance to make it with my son (sorry, I don't remember the name of the book). The book said to use an empty salad dressing container, but any plastic bottle would work as long as there is enough of a neck to create a handle. I brought out green, red, yellow, and orange tissue paper and had my son help me tear them to smaller pieces. Next, I made a homemade mod podge by mixing white school glue with water until it became a paint-like consistency. Then I painted one side of the bottle (of course older children can do this part themselves). I had my son place pieces of tissue paper on top of the glue.

Oops! He wanted the whole pile on at once

As he placed the tissue paper on, I painted the glue over the top of the pieces. Repeat for the rest of the bottle. Set aside to dry.

After it has finished drying, have your child place dried beans inside. Use a strong glue to seal the lid shut and let dry completely.

The finished maraca.

Now your ready to celebrate!

Toddler Paper Plate Noise Maker

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I was looking for ways to reuse the crepe paper we hung up for my son's birthday. This is another project we made. To make the Paper Plate Noise Maker, I let my son color and place foam stickers on 2 paper plates. I taped 8 pieces of  crepe paper streamers to it and then taped it all around the edges making sure to leave a small opening. My son helped me place rice inside it (a kind I bought and didn't like!) and then I taped the small opening shut. He had fun shaking it!

Paper Plate Octopus

My son recently had a birthday party where I hung green crepe paper all over to give a jungle look. I didn't want to just throw it away, so I found some fun projects to make with him reusing the crepe paper. This is a paper plate octopus that I helped him make. I let him paint it green with one of the sponge on a stick things ~ I placed drops of green paint throughout the paper plate to assure he would cover most of the white (he's only 2!). When it dried, I placed 8 pieces of crepe paper for the octopus' legs and drew on a face.

I hung it up on the refrigerator, but he immediately took it down to play with ~ he thought it was funny for some reason :)

How to Make A Blog Button

WooHoo! I finally created my 1st blog button!!! Here are the instructions I used ~ Happy Creating!

To create my own, I used Photoshop. I found the super simple instructions HERE at The Musings of a Housewife.

I found the instructions and codes for placing your blog button with a text code HERE. (blogger only!)

My finished button:Go Ahead, Grab my button! :)

Color Your Own Magnets

I love browsing the dollar stores for cheap crafts my son can do. He loves animals and magnets so these color your own jungle magnets were perfect. Being only a dollar, the markers were on the dry side so we used our own markers to decorate these.

Halloween Candy Treasure Hunt

This is a cheap, fun activity you can do with your child(ren).
Have a Candy Treasure Hunt!!! I made toilet paper roll binoculars for my son which he decorated with foam stickers. Hide the Halloween candy for them to find. This is great because you can do it both indoors or outdoors and numerous times if they are into it. Hide the candy in different rooms of the house, in your backyard, or even at a park. Let them search for their candy with their binoculars.

Want to see more fun things to do with all that Halloween Candy? Check out Adriana's fun ideas over at her blog ~ My Bilingual Boys.

Lion Theme Crafts and Activities

We did a lion theme last week to go along with his birthday party theme (jungle Safari). First, he finger painted a Lion coloring page I printed from HERE.

Then, we made a footprint lion ~ INSTRUCTIONS.

We also played with the lion mask I made him.

He still doesn't understand that he has to turn it around ~ even tried doing it in front of the mirror, but that didn't work either.

Click HERE to see the (ASL) sign for lion.

Click HERE to do the Lion Pokey song with your child(ren).

Click HERE for a Lion Jungle song.

Toddler Thanksgiving Turkey Painting

There are so many resources available on the Internet where you can print coloring pages for free. I love doing this for the holidays. The above is a picture my son painted the other day. I placed small drops of different colored paint in random spots throughout the page. Then I gave him a balled up napkin and showed him how to blot/dab it.


coloring with markers

Click HERE to see all the Thanksgiving hand and foot art we have created.

Toddler Dropper Painting Activity

This Dropper Painting Activity can be done with any kind of squeezable dropper ~ just fill it will diluted paint. My toddler squeezed different colored drops of paint all over the paper and then used the tip of it to swirl it around the paper.

His Masterpiece!

Roll It Markers Drawing

I purchased these Roll It Markers from Michael's for a birthday present for my son. I think they are originally around $7-$8 but I used a 50% off coupon (usually can be found in the Sunday paper; 40-50% off coupons). They remind me of those roll-on deodorants.

His Masterpiece!

Train Theme Crafts and Activities

Like most toddler boys, my son LOVES trains! He had his very 1st train ride a couple weeks ago at a zoo. He was so excited! When he sat done, he started singing his train song and doing all the arm/hand motions that go along with the song (adorable!). I decided to do trains as our next transportation theme.

First, he painted a train coloring page while wearing one of his Thomas the Train outfits and shoes. Then, we watched one of his Thomas the Train DVDs.

Later that same day, we played with his train toys.

He just received this one as a birthday gift. It's a Melissa and Doug stacking train.

Their products are awesome!

This one is a train we got for him awhile back at Toys R Us. You push the guy down and it moves forward making train noises ~ cute!

The next day, we made a handprint train from TheBestKidsBookSite.com Click HERE to find the instructions.

He also played one of his favorite online games which just happens to be a train game. This particular game is more suitable for very young toddlers and teaches them cause and effect. Click HERE to be taken to the KneeBouncers Website to play this game and many more.

For older children, check out the Thomas and Friends website where you will find learning games and activities as well as videos and interesting, fun facts about their favorite engines!

Check out THIS adorable train song from the DLTK website. HERE is another one from their site as well.

The Wiggles ~ It's Wiggle Time

WiggleTime.com is a fun way for preschool children to play and learn in a safe online environment. Click HERE to be taken directly to their games playground where you will find lots of interactive learning games and your preschooler can even become a Wiggle themselves!
My just turned 2 year old is not old enough for this particular website, however, we do the Alphabet game. I hold the cursor over a letter and he tells me what it is. Then I click on that letter and it says the letter. If it's a letter he doesn't know, I click it several times since repetition is one of the ways they learn at this age. We also click the A-Z button on the bottom right and it goes through each letter of the alphabet while pronouncing them at the same time.

Handmade Animal Masks~ Make Your Own!

I made these Homemade Animal Masks  for my son's Jungle Safari birthday party. He loved the owl mask we did so I knew it would be a big hit! I looked to the Internet for inspiration for the faces. The main circle part is a paper plate (just cut out the center).  I glued construction paper onto the paper plate and then cut 2 holes for the eyes. Next, I glued on the ears, the mouth on the zebra, and the lion's hair. When it dried, I detailed the faces with marker. Lastly, glue on a Popsicle stick to use as the handle.

Tootsie Pop Ghosts ~ Spooky Halloween Treat

I made these to take to a Halloween party we were attending. They are easy to make and only took about 15 minutes to complete. All you have to do is wrap a Kleenex around a sucker (I used Tootsie Pops) and tie them closed. Draw a face on with black marker and your spooky treat is finished!

Handmade Ghost Decoration ~ Easy and fast!

This was super simple to make and required very little time. My son had gotten at a box of Kleenex a~ pulling half the box out, ripping and crumpling them so it was a good way to put those to use instead of throwing them away. I took the crumpled pieces, rolled them into a ball, put them in the middle of another Kleenex, twisted around the ball, and then tied it. I used black marker to draw on the ghost face. Then, I took black and white crepe paper and taped together the ends. I randomly tied ghosts on the crepe paper and cut off the extra ends. I used it just like I would when you put up crepe paper ~ twisting the black and white together when I hung it up. I was careful when taking it down so I can use it again next year.