St. Patty's Day for Toddlers

We had a busy couple days celebrating St. Patty's day this year! The kiddos loved learning about the color green!

They played in green sensory play.  I found as much as I could that would fit and mixed it in green Easter grass.  The toddlers loved looking through the grass and trying to find the green items.

They also played in green goop (flour, water, and green food coloring) that the leprechaun left for them.  They searched through the goop trying to find gold coins.  Once they found the gold coins, they enjoyed washing them off in warm water.

They helped make Shamrock pudding by stirring the milk, green food coloring, and pudding mix.

We had a green scavenger hunt and found as many green items as possible around the room.  I then allowed them to play with these green items as they were encouraged to also say the word,"green."

They dot painted with a green bingo dabber, and then I cut their pictures into a shamrock.

We also enjoyed Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops for snack as well as tried to put the Fruit Loops on dried spaghetti for fine motor practice.

Presidents' Day for Toddlers

Presidents' Day Learning!

 Washing pennies in warm soapy water...Then rinsing them and drying them to make them all shiny.

 Then 'counting' them as we put them in a piggy bank for fine motor practice. 

 Free Painting while others were getting their hands painted to make Abe Lincoln.

We also colored a book about pennies and read about Abe Lincoln.  We focused on the color brown for the color of the penny and had a brown scavenger hunt where the toddlers brought items that were brown from around the room to the sensory table.  They then played with the brown items for awhile. As they played, I encouraged them to say brown.

We also focused on the letter P for penny. To go along with the letter P, we learned all about prayer.  We learned how to fold our hands and bow our heads during prayer.  We also focused on who we can pray for by learning the five finger prayer: Pinkie-for themselves, Pointer-for those that teach them and direct them, Middle-for our president, pastors, and those that run our country and churches, Ring finger- for those that are weak, little or sick, Thumb-for those that are closest to us (our family and friends).

A few things that we had planned but never quite got to were: penny rubbings, flag handprint, sorting coins, making our own monument out of play dough and blocks, and coloring or painting a flag. This week fell on a week that we ended up with lots of snow and some were not able to come because of it, but we still fit in as much as the toddlers could handle without getting bored or upset.

Favorite Toddler Play Ideas

1. Felt Boards (I have discovered that my little guy loves felt pieces.  My brother's girlfriend bought him a beach theme one when she was out of town, and he's finally old enough to play with it, and it fits in the diaper bag so we can take it to church and restaurants.  I even got creative and made several of my own.  I stick them in individual baggies and we only get one set out at a time.  I did mine according to Bible stories,, but have also made some for my nephew for each month of the year:decorate the jack-o-lantern's face, decorate the tree, add accessories to the potato head, etc.  Look up quiet books or busy books and you will find all kinds of ideas.)He's playing with the Armor of God set right here.
2. Coloring with crayons and markers (My little guy is constantly asking to "color".  He will even get specific when he wants markers.  He asks us every time we go into a restaurant if he can color so be sure to keep a coloring book and crayons in your diaper bag.)
3. Painting: watercolors, finger-painting, painting their hands and feet, water painting books for on the go, etc. (Edible paint, baby food, and water painting are great ideas when they're younger than 1).
4. Magic marker books (These are like coloring books but only comes with one clear marker.  When he colors it shows up on the book, but no where else.  It is amazing and great for on the go!)
5. Lego's, Mega Blocks, etc. (He loves to build! When he was younger he loved to knock over what we built.  Now, he actually tries to build his own towers.)
6. Foam blocks, cardboard blocks (Melissa and Doug sells really nice ones that were passed down to my little guy from his cousins.)
7. Books, books, and more books! (Toddler love when you read to them! My little guy will sit for well over twenty minutes now listening to stories he loves. His favorites are the ones you flip open pockets and look inside or the ones that you press the buttons and they play sounds or songs.)
8. Sensory play with all sorts of objects such as formula, play dough, flour, sugar, Easter grass, snow, water, ice, socks, cards, baby food for the younger ones, etc.
9. Putting things into something else such as: pennies in a piggy bank, pom pom balls in a water bottle, pipe cleaners in a container with holes, etc. (def. need adult supervision with these ideas).
10. Little figurines (We have all sorts but his favorite ones are his cowboys and Sesame Street characters)
11. Stickers (Let them stick them everywhere on them.  We stick them on our face, clothes, feet, hands, etc.  He loves sticking stickers on himself and others! And honestly stickers work great as rewards for folding their hands when we pray, cleaning up their own messes, picking up their toys, etc.  We use them often!)
12. Magnets (We have magnets that look like the picture below called Magformers.  The toddlers love them!) 
13. Puzzles (Puzzles with pegs are perfect for little hands.  The ones with matching pictures on the board along with the piece are even better.)

Toddler Valentines Lesson

Lesson 1

First, I teach them the verse, "We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19. I taught them motions to go with the verse, and we said it several times. Then, I taught them the song "Jesus loves me." I precut out hearts for them to color with this verse on it as a way for them to practice it at home. We then continued practicing this verse almost daily for the next few weeks. 

We (arms spread out) 

love (arms across each other touching shoulders-love symbol)

because He (point to the the sky)

first (put up one finger for the number 1)

loved (love symbol again)

me (We switched us to me and they pointed to themselves.)

Lesson 2

We reviewed 1 John 4:19 with motions and all. We then sung "Jesus Loves Me."  After that we talked about the verse "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24. 

There is a friend (We point to a friend then to the sky as if pointing to God)

that sticks closer than a brother. (we lock arms with a friend next to us.)

While we reviewed, I gave the toddlers a picture of a magnet with the verse written on it so that again they have something to take home with them to review their verse. I've learned that giving the children something to do while I talk usually keeps them in their seats as well as keeps them listening.   The older ones will actually talk back to me and answer questions as they work.  The younger ones sometimes will join in on the motions or repeat words that they recognize.  After most of the children were finished coloring, I gave them toy magnets to play with.
(Just make sure they are big enough not to swallow.  I actually had one student trying to throw the magnets instead of actually playing with them; however the others enjoyed seeing them stick together and stick to the cookie sheet. Toddlers love to explore so give them chances to do this as much as possible.  Sensory play is always a great idea!) I have Magformers like the picture before, and they work perfect for young children!

Lesson 3

Again we reviewed our verse 1 John 4:19 with the motions.   We sung our song along with other favorites.  Some that we do daily are:

“Lord I Lift Your Name on High”

“Awesome God”

“This Little Light of Mine”

“I’ve Got the Joy”

“Abcdefg Jesus Died for You and Me”

After a short worship time, I acted out the story of the “Good Samaritan.”  I used Little People characters to tell the story.  At the end of the story, I showed them Elmo who was hurt and showed how God would want us to help him.  I got a toy doctor set out for them to play doctor.  We discussed how we should love like this man.  We love because God first loved us and therefore, we need to love like him.  God wouldn’t want us to bite our friends, hit them, push them, take their toys away etc.  I tried to come up with every type of scenerio that happens throughout the day to explain that God wouldn’t want that.  Then I went on to explain that God wants us to instead help our friend when someone else hurts them. He wants us to give them hugs, and to sit by them or help them get their toy, etc.  We reviewed this story for a couple weeks.  Each time I allowed them to help Elmo as well as give them dress up and tools for them to act out other people in our community.  They love to dress up!

Lesson 4

Story, verse, and introduced the foam hearts first by themselves before adding them to the sensory table.  They also colored on lace, papered dolly hearts.  Then stuck foam stickers on their hearts. 

Lesson 5

We reviewed 1 John 4:19.  Then, we discussed Valentine’s Day and read a Valentines story.  We made our own Valentine according to what the story says.  We painted it red, added stars, lace, etc.  This is where I introduced hearts to them again and allowed them to play in the sensory table with hearts.  I had a few foam hearts, felt hearts and paper hearts.  They loved playing with them and feeling the textures.  Some of the foam ones were sparkly.  Those seemed to be their favorites!

Lesson 6

We read another Valentine Story. Reviewed our verse and painted with q-tips. Once they were dried, I cut out several hearts from their artwork, so that they could take them home and hand them out as Valentines to family members.   

The last day we had a Valentines party with cookie cake! We handed out our Valentines, played a game of Past the Heart.  (We played it just like The Magic Ball Goes Round and Round except we used the word heart instead.) We also read a story and then played Heart and Seek.  This was their favorite game.  I heard,"again...again!" several times after we would finish.  For this game I used the felt hearts from the sensory bin and hid them around the room for the kiddos to find.  Just remember hiding for 1 year olds, you have to keep it simple where they can actually see it just walking by it.  We also  read a story about an art teacher who painted hearts all over the children.  This teacher stuck sticker hearts all over the toddlers.  They love stickers!

Dr. Seuss Toddler Week

Dr. Seuss week was a busy week for these little toddlers! We had a Dr. Seuss spirit week where the children were to wear something special each day. Our Bible lesson for this week was to discuss the importance of reading your Bible every day.  It is important to read books every day, but the most important book to read is the Bible.  Our goal was to read through our kids Bible throughout the two weeks.

Monday: I introduced Dr. Seuss and read a few of his stories and introduced some of his friends from his stories.  (Kohls stuffed animals that go with each book)

Tuesday: The children wore their favorite, silly hat.  We read The Cat in the Hat while the kiddos sat in front of the big living room window like in the story. 

 Other activities to go along with the story include: building a fort out of cardboard boxes,

riding on an indoor teeter totter, and making the Cat in the Hat hat out of strawberries and bananas.


Wednesday: The children wore silly socks. We read the Foot Book, Wacky Wednesday, and started Fox in Socks. The children tried on 'clown' shoes and tried walking in them.
The children played sensory play in flour.  They pressed the animals and people into the flour to see the different footprints.

b

Some tried matching up socks while others enjoyed feeling the different textures of socks.


Thursday: We had a snow day and no one showed up.  The toddlers were to wear shirts with words on it.  We were going to read ABC Book and review letters and letter sounds.  We had play dough with letter stencils to practice seeing letters.

  Instead my son and I painted snow inside with food coloring and water,

colored,

played in old formula,

did some fine motor practice, and eventually went out to play in the snow for awhile.


Friday: PJ Day! The students wore their pajamas, and we watched "Horton Hears a Who" in three different segments while laying on blankets and pillows on the floor.  We glanced through The Sleep Book. Again it was a little long for toddlers.  We read I Do Not Want To Get Up Today.

Monday: We read Green Eggs and Ham.

 The toddlers ate green eggs and ham for lunch and played sensory play with plastic Easter eggs.  They tried matching up colors and some even tried shutting the eggs as they found a match.


A couple other activities, we hope to enjoy later this week as we began talking about St. Patrick's Day along with Dr. Seuss is:
   
We are hoping to have an aunt who is a dental hygienist come in and read the Tooth Book to the children and discuss with them about taking care of their teeth and show them the proper way of brushing.

We are also hoping to have a dad who is a worship pastor, read the story the Ear Book and teach the children about sounds and instruments and even add in some worship songs.  (We try to sing worship songs daily while I prepare lunch.)
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