Cookie Sheet Activities: Sorting!

My good Friend Rebecca (who should be an author of this blog- hint hint!) had this idea!  I just stole it from her to share with you (If she was an author on this blog she could have shared it herself!) 

She does many things with cookies sheets that do not involve cooking or cookies!  They make great trays to toddler/kid activities!  For the next few weeks I will show you how I have used cookie sheets at my house for toddler activities.

Cookie Sheet Activity #1 - Sorting!

I got my sorting blocks from Target in the Dollar spot around back-to-school time... I am pretty sure that they have some at the dollar tree in the school supplies section. 

I get my cookie sheets from the Dollar Tree... they are the perfect size and the perfect price.  We have 4 cookie sheets that I rotate with activities.

Sorting by colors:

There are 4 colors in my blocks so I divided a piece of paper in to 1/4s and colored each on the corresponding colors.  I tell my toddler to put the blocks in the right color.

he like to build towers with his block... as long as they are in the right color it is cool with me! :)

 Sorting by Shapes:

My blocks have 3 shapes.  I divided my paper into 1/3s and drew the shaped out down the sections.  I tell him to find the shape to fill in the row (or column - depending on how you face the tray)

Matching a pattern:

Here I have him match the shape and color 

Here I just have him match the color.

For older kids you could do:

Counting

Adding/ Subtracting

Making up their own patterns

What kinds of sorting do you do at your house?

Come back next week to see our next Cookie Sheet Activity!! 



"What Do You Think?" Wednesday: Preschool

My son turned 3 this past week...{big sigh}... He is a big boy now (as he loves to tell me 100 times every day!)...{another big sigh}...And I am looking for a Preschool for him to attend next year.  I cannot believe how fast time flies! I remember people telling me that before I knew it my son would be in school... and I did not believe them!

 I have a couple of tours set up of perspective preschools this week.  I am excited to see them, but don't really know what to look for in a good preschool. 

So tell me:

What kinds of things do/did you look for in a good preschool? 

What kind of questions should I ask?



Toddler Tuesday: Fun with Cups!

We like to have fun around here... and if it can be done on the cheap - even better! : )

Here are some fun things that we do with a stack of plastic cups:

1. Building cup towers and knocking them down

Seriously, this never gets old for my 3 year old!

2. Stacking and unstacking... so simple... but he loves it. 

 I add in counting sometimes to make it more educational. 

3. Building bridges with boxes from our pantry. 

He likes to drive his cars under them  and on top of them!

4. Cup bowling! 

I stack 2 cups on top of each other to make the pins and we roll the ball at them.  

Even the baby loves to play with cups!   



Toddler Tuesday: Paint Sample Magnet Fish

Here is a fun toddler activity that I made for my other blog: Fireflies and Jellybeans! 

My son still loves to play with it!

Here is an easy way to have some fun with your toddler! Go fishing with Paint samples!

Here is what you will need:

Paint Samples (2 of each color)

Paper Clips (one for each fish)

Scissors

Glue

1. Take 2 paint samples of the same color and glue them together with a paper clip sticking out in between them.

2. Repeat with all the colors that you like!

3. Now use your scissors and cute out fish shapes

Be creative! I cut a jellyfish (the purple one), an octopus (black one) and a star fish (brown one)... the white one is supposed to be a shark, but he is a bit small.

I already had a magnet fishing pole from a magnet puzzle but you could easily make one from a wooden dowel, string and a magnet.

My son LOVED it. He kept saying "More! More fishing Mama!"

Too much fun!

"What do you think?" Wednesday- Books

I know that I am not alone when it comes to reading bedtime stories with my kids! 

Here are some of our favorites:

Goodnight Gorilla- My son loves to find the balloon and the banana through the whole book.  His favorite page is the one the is completely black and it has just the eyes... he looks forward to it the whole time we are reading it.  I love that the wife is the one who really puts all the animals to bed... much like Mommy's do with their little ones!

The Red Thread- My kids are both adopted from Korea, so we have a lot of adopting books.  This one is my FAVORITE!   There is a Chinese proverb that says that you are connected to your loved ones with a red thread that attaches your hearts.  This is a story of a King and Queen who find themselves with a pain in their hearts and the only way to cure it is to find out what is pulling on their red threads.  

As a mom who had her kids grow up the first 8-9 months thousands of miles away from me, I do believe that we are attached at the heart... my heart ached until my kids came home!  I cry every time I read this book (but for good reasons)!     

Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies- This is my son's favorite adoption book. It is about a little boys journey to meet his adoptive parents.  It starts with him having pictures of his new mama and papa, follows him on the plane ride, and on to his new home and getting to know his mom and dad. My son's favorite part is when the dad rocks with the boy "back and forth, back and forth" in the rocking chair.  We copy this in our rocking chair.   I cry at this one too (especially when I catch my hubby reading it to our son!)!

I also like this one because it helps me talk about my son's journey home, although it was very different then this book, he can understand what I am talking about. 

The Runaway Bunny- I love this book because of the underlying message of - You cannot get away from your mama, even when you don't like her, she loves you {or is it... You can run, but you can't hide ;) }!  I like to have my son find the Mama bunny and the Baby bunny on each page.   I also like it because it is a Mom-Son book... most books are Mom-Daughter or Dad-Son books.

What are you reading to your kids right now?

I am always looking for a good book to read at bedtime!

Toddler Tuesday - Painting with Water

One of my son's favorite things to do is paint with water.   Although, he calls it "Brushing"  Almost every day I hear "Mama, can I brush?"

I wish he was talking about his teeth or hair but he is not... he is talking about brushing water onto his chalkboard. 

I have him "paint" right on his chalkboard easel.  It is great because the chalkboard dries off and he can keep creating new pictures without me having to change out the paper. And lets not forget that water is MUCH cleaner than paint!!

All you need is a paint brush and a cup of water.  I put very little water in the cup, in case it gets tipped over (that way I only have a little water to clean up) 

As you can see, he gets pretty serious about it!

If you do not have a chalkboard you can also use construction paper.  You can let the papers dry off and reuse them again!

Brush away little man! 

Winter Sensory Tub

I got a bunch of packing peanuts in on of the items that I ordered from Amazon.  I decided to make a winter sensory tub for my 2 1/2 year old! 

He had a ball playing with it.  

Here is what I did:

I put my packing peanuts into a large tub.

I also collected some small items that i could bury in the "snow" for him to find. 

(We still had the Christmas tree up so I used ornaments for a few of my items) 

I had him dig in the snow to find all of the items.

It was not long before he was burying his own toys. 

He also brought his bulldozer over to shovel the snow.  

It was the perfect indoor activity for us during the cold!  It is a little messy when he gets crazy with the snow, but totally worth it!

Toddler fun with Glow Sticks!

Welcome to Toddler Tuesday!  A place where I share some ideas to do with your toddler!

Now that it is getting darker earlier (here in the Midwest) we have been having some fun with glow sticks.  I found mine at Micheal's Dollar section.  I was able to get 15 glow bracelets for $1.

It has been great to have something fun to do during that last hour before bed time that is known in our family as the "witching hour" 

Here are some of the fun things we have done:

Play follow the leader.

We walk around the  house in the dark with our glow sticks and have everyone copy what the leader is doing.  

We take turns being the leader.  

Here are some things that we did:

Walk with our sticks up the the sky.

walk while twirling the sticks in a circle. 

Walk with the sticks on our heads

... you get the idea! 

Play a version of Simone Says.

My son is too young to understand the real Simone says rules... so we just did  copy mommy. 

Put your glow stick up in the sky

Put your glow stick down to the ground.

Spin it fast

Spin it slow

Put it on your head, nose, feet, hand...

Dance Party!

Turn on the tunes and boogie out! 

Race cars:

We used the connectors to make out glow sticks into circles and pretended that they were steering wheels and raced around the house.  I can see this being a hit with the boys. 

Glow stick hide-n-seek:

Hide the glow sticks and have the kid(s) find them!  You can make it easy or hard depending on the age. 

You could also have the kids play hide-n-seek in the dark with the glow sticks on their body.

It seems like so much more fun because we are doing it in the dark!

Tip to help keep the glow sticks glowing:

Put them in the freezer when you are done for the night. It will make them last for a 3-4 nights of fun!

Here are some other fun crafty ideas with glow sticks for older kids:

Glow Stick Butterflies from Little Page Turners

Glow Stick Spiders from Martha