My kids still sleep with a mound of stuffed animals around them. When I peek in on them before I go to bed I find they both stretched out on their backs dozing peacefully. Tucked under their arms and all around them are monkeys and giraffes and bears and bunnies with well worn ears and noses. An entire zoo right there in their bed.

Animals have been a huge part of their childhood so far. Most little kids seem fascinated by the world of animals.

also read: 20+ Unit Ideas for Kids Who Love Animals

We read endless imagination filled books about zoo animals and we tromp around the zoo in search of animals.

Since this is an interest that seems to follow children through childhood below are zoo animal ideas for every age baby through early elementary school.

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Zoo Animal Learning Activities by Age

Scroll down for zoo animal activities that are perfect for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and school aged kids!

For Babies: Zoo Animal Peekaboo

How to Make a Zoo Peekaboo Game

Materials:

• Laundry Basket / Table Top / Empty Wall
• Animal Picture Pairs (Make your own or order these – note the ones linked are not identical to the ones I used when they were babies. I wish I had saved them but hindsight…the ones linked are instead the ones I made and have used since they were toddlers.)
• Contact Paper
• Tape

How to Make:

Select a surface at your child’s height to place the game. I did mine on the bottom of a flipped over laundry basket, but a short table, shelf, or low wall space would work well.

1. Tape the full animal pictures onto the surface and cover in contact paper.
2. Laminate the closer animal pictures.
3. Tape one end of each closer animal picture on top of the matching pair.

That’s it! So easy, right?

Even better, this activity help develop the following skills:

• Interesting reason to practice standing.
• Fine motor practice as they work on lifting the flaps
• Practice with cognitive and language skills as they recognize, name, and even make the noise of the animal they find.

Extension Ideas:

Make another version with something else that interests your child. Some ideas include;

• Family members
• Household items
• Vehicles

4 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Babies

1. Make a Song Cube like this one with Animal Pictures
2. Read some awesome Zoo Animal Picture Books
3. Sensory Zoo Activity: Exploring Animal Textures
4. How to make a Sock Monkey (Craft for Mama, but what baby wouldn’t love playing with this?)

For Toddlers: Zoo Animal Photo Cards

Toddlers are OBSESSED with learning new words. “What’s that?” or just “That?” was one of the most common phrases in our house at this age. This is the age for books of real images that they can look to and point at all day – and also for photo cards.

More ideas for matching games and other extensions are below but start with just the cards.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper

How to Make:

Use contact paper to cover the photos and make them more durable with all the inevitable drooling, mouthing, bending and general love that toddlers give all things

THEN place these cards in a basket or on a low table for your child to discover. When they do, let them explore. If they look to you or ask what something is, use simple words to talk to them about the cards. “You are looking at a giraffe” or “What do you see?”

This activity help develop the following skills:

• new vocabulary
• finger isolation when they point which helps later fine motor skills
• social skills as they engage you in talking about the pictures

Extension Ideas:

• Tell a story using your photo cards. Put them in a pile face down and flip over one at a time. “Once upon a time there was a lion and he went for a walk and ran into…flip over another card” It doesn’t really matter what your story is about. Keep it simple and just have fun.
• Matching game. Use the close up and far away cards to match. Make it hard and play as a memory card game.
• Match the card to a toy version of the animals. This picture to object matching is an important pre-literacy skill
• Make a book or photo cards of a trip you take to a farm, the store, anywhere that interests them.

8 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Toddlers

1. Learn this Hey Elephant Song (with printable visuals)
2. Sensory Zoo Activity: Exploring Animal Textures
3. Read some awesome Zoo Animal Picture Books
4. Dear Zoo Story Spoons
5. Zoo Animals Small World Play
6. Easy Zebra Slime
7. Animal Charades with Printable
8. Paper Plate Bear Craft

For Preschoolers: Zoo Animal Tracing

Drawing and tracing lines is a pre-literacy skill that works on building the fine motor skills needed to write letters and words. Bonus – kids seem to find dry erase markers fascinating and fun.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper
• Washable Dry Erase Markers
• Wash cloth or paper towel

How to Make:

Simply cover the zoo animal photos with contact paper.

Put the cards with the dry erase markers and wash cloth on a low table.

When your child is interested, invite them to use the dry erase marker to trace the animal.

Note: depending on the age of your preschooler “tracing” may look less like tracing and more like coloring on the animal. Go with it. 

Demonstrate tracing the edges of an animal of your own and then show them how to erase the marker with their wash cloth.

This activity help develop the following skills:

• Fine Motor grip
• Hand-eye coordination

Extension Ideas:

• Add more details to the animal picture. Can they draw some food for the animal? What does the animal play with?
• Play hide and seek with the animal cards. Hide the full photos around the room and give your preschoolers the zoomed in photos as clues / visual reminders of what to look for.

12 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Preschoolers

1. Host a Safari Themed Playdate
2. Animal Fashion Show
3. Bears Picture Books + Big and Small Animals Sort
4. Learn about Polar Bears with this awesome booklist
5. Zoo Animals Theme with Sensory Play and Printables
6. Zoo Animal Counting Mats
7. Zoo Animal Books for Children and even more Zoo Animal Picture Books
8. Zoo Centers and Activities
9. Edible Zoo Animals Sensory Bin
10. Zoo Themed Counting Clip Cards 1-10
11. Dear Zoo Story Stones

Note: Many of the toddler and school age activities above and below may also work well for your child!

For K & First Grade: Writing with Zoo Animal Cards

I love finding ways to make writing more meaningful for my kids and we did this as part of their animal study.

They each had an animal that they love and wanted to learn more about. We took cameras to the Zoo. They took pictures and I took pictures of their favorite animals. We also talked about some of the things we observed their favorite animals doing.

Back at home I set this up as a writing invitation using our photo cards and also included a photo they had taken at the zoo of their favorite animal.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper
• Paper
• Pencils and coloring tools

How to Make:

Laminate the cards and place on the table with the other materials.

THEN after your child has had some time to look at the cards and talk about them, as them to write about one or more of the animals.

Depending on your goals this activity will vary.

Kindergarteners might just draw a picture of the animal and work on using their best handwriting to label it with the animal’s name.

For slightly older elementary schoolers: If you are working on non-fiction, have them write a fact about the animal. If you’re working on just writing, have them write a story about the animal.

For my first graders doing an animal study, I asked them to write something they had learned and a question they still had. We used this question to go forward with their study.

This activity help develop the following skills:

• Communicating using words and pictures.
• Understanding the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
• Adding details, capitalization and punctuation to their writing.

Extension Ideas:

• Work on story telling. Give each child a card – or you take half and your child takes half – and go around the circle adding to a story using your photo as a prompt.
• Draw or build a habitat for your chosen animal. Where do they live? What do they eat? What do they need to survive?

8 More Zoo Animal Activities for School Aged Kids

1. Join Suzi’s FREE Wild Animal Passport Club for Kids
2. Make Chocolate Strawberry Zebras for Snack
3. Elephant Craft with Newspaper
4. Going to the Zoo Interactive Book for Emergent Readers
5. Jungle Animals Playset from Toilet Paper Rolls
6. Complete the Animals Kids Craft Activity
7. A-Z Animal Hunt
8. Zoo Scavenger Hunt
9. Zookeeper Training Unit Pack

Note: Many of the preschool activities above may also work for your child!

Get Zoo Animals Photo Cards

Z is for…

Looking for more ideas? Here are some more Z ideas from the A-Z Play at Home series.

• • Zoom Car Play Box from Teach Me Mommy
  • Dear Zoo Story Stones from The Gingerbread House
  • Zoo Animal Picture Books from My Storytime Corner

We’re nearing the end of a fantastic month of alphabet fun with the 31 Days of ABC! All this month activities, crafts, books, apps, and more, all dedicated to teaching young children the alphabet have been shared.

Find more great resources in our series from past years: 31 Days of ABCs 2013, 2014, and 2016!

Don’t forget to follow our 31 Days of ABCs Pinterest board for even more great ABC ideas!

31 Days of ABC

Teaching the ABCs – October 1

A – October 2

B – October 3

C – October 4

D – October 5

E – October 6

F – October 7

G – October 8

H – October 9

I – October 10

J – October 11

K – October 12

L – October 13

M – October 14

N – October 15

O – October 16

P – October 17

Q – October 18

R – October 19

S – October 20

T – October 21

U – October 22

V – October 23

W – October 24

X – October 25

Y – October 26

Z – October 27

123’s – October 28

Prewriting – October 29

Books, Songs, & Apps – October 30

Printables – October 31

We celebrated Yellow Day with books, smoothies, and lots of yellow. Below are our books, snacks, and activities for a Preschool day full of yellow.

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Celebrate Preschool Yellow Day!

3 Picture Books to Read About Yellow

Yellow Ball by Molly Bang
Order Online

A little yellow ball gets left at the seashore and goes on an incredible adventure. We loved the illustrations in this one.

Yellow Square by David A. Carter
Order Online

This is an incredicble pop-up book. It is a beautiful feat of paper design that will amaze you.

The Little Yellow Chicken by Joy Cowley
Order Online

A twist on the tale of the little red hen. In this tale, the yellow chick is throwing a party but none of his friends are inclined to help.

7 Yellow Themed Activities & Snack Ideas

1. Wear Yellow

Part of the fun of a color week is finding an item of clothing or two to wear for the day. We decked out in Yellow and then snapped some selfies before we headed out for the morning. (Cognitive)

2. Lemonade Sensory Bin

Gather: A sensory bin, a towel, water, ice cubes, lemons, small bowls, wooden spoons.

Set Up: Slice the lemons into slices (not wedges) and let them float in the water.

Activity: This is a sensory bin that engages all of the senses, at least in our case. There was an abundance of ice cube and lemon eating. If you aren’t okay with this, make sure you are clear with your expectations. My preschoolers also poured and scooped, put things and out of the bowls, stirred, and generally enjoyed pretending to cook.

3. Yellow Art Invitation

Create a basket of Yellow art materials. Place this on your art table with some blank paper as an invitation to create. (Fine Motor + Creativity)

My basket included;

• yellow markers
• yellow colored pencils
• yellow crayons
• yellow stampers
• yellow gummed art tape
• yellow tissue paper.

4. Yellow Smoothie

Cooking with kids is a great opportunity to develop self help skills. In this case it was also a science lesson in color mixing. We discovered that orange + white = yellow. (Self Help + Fine Motor)

Ingredients:
1 Frozen Banana
1/2 Cup Frozen Mango
2 Oranges – Juiced
1 Cup Soy Milk
2 TBSP Peanut Butter

(Makes one serving)

Directions:
Put the banana, mango, orange juice, soy milk and peanut butter in the blender. Blend until creamy. We have this FANTASTIC blender that makes creating smoothies super simple. The ingredients are poured in, blended with a push of a button, and then poured in a cup. We make an assembly line of sorts and quickly create a simple breakfast. If you are using a large blender, simple add the above ingredients x the number of people. If the smoothie is too thick, simply add more orange juice and soy milk in equal parts.

5. Yellow Shake Snack 

This is another fun snack idea and super quick as well, but involves a bit more fine motor development.

Materials:

Yellow Fruits (we used pineapples and bananas, but there are a variety of options)
Mixing Bowl
Cutting Board
Sharp Knife (for adult use)
Butter Knife or Child Sized Knife (for child to use)
Mixing Spoon
Bowls or Plates to serve the snack

Set Up:
Back at home, prepare your area and wash you hands. For us this meant our kids ran to the bathroom to wash their hands, I quickly washed mine in the kitchen, and then laid out a cutting board and knives.

Activity:
After cutting a slit across the bananas near the tip, our children worked on peeling the bananas and putting the peels in the trash.

Meanwhile, I sliced the banana. At the time, I used a knife, although since then my husband got this nifty pineapple cutter at we highly recommend it.

Then they moved the pineapple from the cutting board to the bowl while I discarded the peel.

Then together we sliced the bananas. This is optional and depends on your comfort level, but with help (and close supervision), our toddlers were able to slice the bananas. Then these got added to the bowl and they took turns mixing.

Scoop the snack into bowls and go enjoy.

6. Yellow Duplo Challenge

Another activity for yellow day, and probably the favorite, was the Yellow Duplo Challenge. It sounds exciting and possibly complicated, but all I did was put our Yellow Duplos in a basket on the shelf and challenged them to see what they could build with just Yellow.

Color Week Projects

Rainbow Journal : Yellow Page

Continue the Rainbow journal today that you are using for the entire Preschool Color Week. You can find directions for starting one on our Red Day page. For yellow day, turn to the next blank page and have your preschooler copy the word YELLOW. Then have them use the basic of Yellow art materials to draw whatever they want on the facing page. (Literacy)

Collaborative Rainbow

This is the other project that will last you the entire Preschool Color Week. Today add to the Rainbow in the yellow space. Gummed Art Tape is hugely popular in our house right now so we added some Yellow today. (Creativity + Social Skills)

Want More Simple Play at Home Ideas?

• 2 Fun Ways to Play with Yarn from Teach Me Mommy

Complete A-Z Ideas for Play at Home

Maps are everywhere and learning how to use them is a life skill we still use far more than I think many of us realize.

When we opened our Little Passports kit for the first time it was the large, colorful map that our kids were most excited about. Our twins quickly unfolded it on the floor, their eyes wide, as they asked me to help them find where we live and where their grandparents live. That map still hangs, well loved, in the middle of their bedroom wall 3 years later.

Below are our favorite ideas for learning with and about maps.

affiliate links are included below

8 Playful Ways to Teach Kids About Maps

GO places + learn about Maps

1. Learning about Maps on the Go

Maps are a natural learning experience to integrate into learning on the go.

Adults frequently use maps to find things, navigate to and through spaces, and more. Our son in particular has noticed this and loves to take advantage of maps at places like the zoo or nature trails to help navigate our way.

Some tips for using maps with kids:

• Point them out when they are displayed. Often they are placed at adult eye level and children might miss them.
• Grab an extra map for your child to hold and use when a paper one is available.
• Crouch down and help them read the map. Ask them where they want to go and then help them find the route with their finger.
• Continue as you navigate through the space if they are interested.
• Use direction words when you are driving or walking to increase familiarity with the vocab. “We are turning left” or “We need to go North to get to the library,” etc.

“I noticed about maps you have to look carefully to know where you are 
+ where you have to go.” – J. Age 3.

2. More Learning about Maps Through Adventure Ideas

Disneyland Maps Display from Crafty Mom in ME

Sketch an Outdoor Map with Kids from Frog Mom

How Maps Change Case Study from Boston Kid Friendly

READ books about Maps

3. Our Favorite Books about Maps

1. Follow the Line Around the World by Laura Ljungkvist

I love all of the Follow the Line books. This is a great introduction to a study about the world. Travel around the world and get little tidbits about places from Greenland to Mexico to New York. 3+

2. Follow That Map! A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie
This is my favorite kind of book – the ones that inspire adventure. This nonfiction book is full of information about maps, interactive, and inspires mapping activities – what more could you want? 3+

3. Henry’s Map by David Elliot
This is a story about a very tidy little pig. He comes up with a plan to make the farm yard more orderly, it involves a map. 2+

4. National Geographic Our World by National Geographic Society
After borrowing this from the library for a couple of weeks it is now on our wishlist. This atlas is such a great resource for young children. 3+

5. Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
This book follows a girl from her room to her house to her neighborhood as maps show the world getting bigger and bigger. A wonderful introduction to maps and our place in the larger world. 3+

6. Mapping Penny’s World by Loreen Leedy
This book does a great job of exploring maps on different scales from a map of a bedroom to a map of the world. 3+

More Children’s Books About Maps

Map Books for Young Explorers from Brain Power Boy

Map Books for Children from The Jenny Evolution

PLAY and Learn with Map Activities

Obviously reading maps is one of the major skills children are working on acquiring when working with maps. Here are some simple ways we have been working on this skill.

4. Maps and Train Play

As I described above, with a little prompt our twins drew a map during the planning stage of a new track layout. They drew the track and then pointed out to me where they wanted to various spots such as stations and docks. Then we propped up the map on a ledge and referred to it while we built the track.

Sign Up for a Little Passports Early Explorers 12 month subscription.

5. Maps to Find Snack

This has been a favorite activity the past two weeks. I hide their snack somewhere in the house and then draw them each a map. When they come down after Quiet Time they use their map to navigate the house and find their snack. They love this activity and the repetition is offering plenty of experience reading maps.

This X Marks the Spot Treasure Map from Teach Me Mommy is similar!

6. Drawing Maps

With our twins this was a self initiated activity. One of the benefits of having art and drawing materials available to your child daily and having extending time for free play is that they are able to create how and when they want.

The above picture was taking during one of our afternoons. Our kids were playing with pretend animals and he decided to draw a map of their zoo.

Another example is the train map pictured below. I asked if they wanted to make a map of their train tracks before they created a new layout. Simple prompts and suggestions like that can encourage map drawing which is a wonderful pre-literacy activity.

7. Printables Pack

If you are looking for more preschool maps unit activities, a pack of printables that I used with my twins is available on Teachers Pay Teachers. It has a literacy activity, measurement activity, original song about maps, and more. For details or to purchase, click here.

8. Even More Play Ideas

• Maps Skills for Kids from Schooling Monkey
• Continents and Countries Olympic Sort from Planet Smarty Pants 
• 3 Free Puzzles to Make Learning Continents Fun from Books and Giggles
• Map Activities for Kids: France, England, Ireland from The Natural Homeschool 
• Travel Maps for Kids Printables from CraftCreateCalm
• Types of Maps from Artsy Momma 
• Using Maps with Art from Our Daily Craft
• Making a Salt Dough Map from Tales of Education at Home

Since we started learning more about maps we have been finding them more and more in our environment as we explore. The photo above is from the Mississippi Children’s Museum. My daughter loved reading the map of Mississippi, finding us, and placing all of the people around the state.

Download the Maps Printable Pack Here

Want More Simple Play at Home Ideas?

• Halloween X-Ray Hand Craft from The Gingerbread House
• X Marks the Spot Treasure Hunt from Teach Me Mommy

Complete A-Z Ideas for Play at Home

She’s sitting on the ledge like a frozen statue watching the sea otters. “Ready to go see the fish?” I ask trying to balance her interest with her brother who has been hopping back and forth impatiently for the past five minutes. She looks up at me with a serene smile and nods.

This probably sounds like one of those calm girl – active boy gender stereotypical moments that people tell me about so often, but those are rare in our home. My kids are both super active, but if I had to label one of my twins as “the active one” I’d pick her in a heartbeat.

There are only two things she sits still for, ever; a good book and animals.

She sleeps in a mound of them, she pretends to be them, she talks about them, she reads about them. She loves animals.

It wasn’t until last year, however, that she started talking about animals in terms of a career. She still has time to ultimately decide if she wants to be a veterinarian or an astronaut or a dancer or a gymnast or Wonder Woman or any of the millions of other ideas bopping around in her head.

I’m not concerned with her deciding now.

However, she started talking more about vets and what do they do so we decided to investigate it a little this summer. These are our explorations into the world of veterinarians.

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Awesome Vet Unit Ideas

Field Trip Ideas

Adventures bring a topic alive. I believe wholeheartedly that you can’t truly learn about something unless you touch it, smell it, ask questions about it. That’s what learning through adventure is all about and it’s where we almost always start with a new topic.

For any field trip I always,

• Bring a notebook and pen for each kid.
• Encourage them to ask questions from the experts.
• Write down their questions and what they seem most interested in during our visit
• Bring a camera

1. Aquarium

Vet’s take care of all kinds of animals. My twins went through a huge ocean animal interest so we spent a lot of time at the local aquarium and visited others on our travels.

At any aquarium you can obviously observe the animals that make your kid want to be a vet in the first place. Aquariums often have opportunities to watch trainers talk about and interact with the animals.

This amazing aquarium in Boston even had a place for kids to pretend they were vets and work with turtles in their Turtle Hospital play area.

2. Zoo

The zoo is a great place to observe animals for kids and if you’re really lucky they will get the chance to observe a zookeeper at work. The zoo in St Louis even had a pretend vet clinic for the kids to play in.

You May Also Like:
Zookeeper Training – Project Based Unit

3. Vet Clinic

Do you have a Vet Clinic in your neighborhood? This is a great walking field trip if you do.

Call or pop in on your own beforehand to see if they are okay having your kids come and ask some questions. If they are, ask what time of day or day of the week would be best and set a time frame to best respect their busy schedule.

Then, before you go, have your kids discuss some questions that they have about vets or animals. Write these down so if they stall in the moment you are prepared.

Vet Unit Learning Activities

These learning activities take place before and after field trips. Learning through play and adventure go so naturally go together. Play brings up questions. Field trips answer questions and always bring up more questions. Play explores these questions, answers some, brings up more.

Here are some fun learning ideas for a vet unit.

Literacy Activities

• We read a TON of books about animals and vets. Two of our favorites were; Sally Goes to the Vet (fiction) and Day in the Life of a Veterinarian (nonfiction).
• Compared and contrasted fictional and non-fiction accounts of vet visits in picture books.
• More good Children’s Books about Vets
• These Alphabet Animal Notebook printables are great for working on handwriting or using for journaling pages.
• Building pet words and pet research from this printable pack.

STEM Activities

• Animal research. We observed specific animals at the zoo. We brought notebooks along to draw and write in on our visits and then used these combined with children’s books to gather information about favorites.
• Later we drew pictures of our favorite animals and added details about their habitat.

Pretend Play: Vet Clinic

I love pretend play for working on a range of skills including writing, reading, vocabulary development, and cognitive understanding.

We set up a Vet Clinic in our play area. I was inspired by these Vet Play ideas:

• Vet Hospital from Pocket of Preschool
• Eye Doctor Pretend Dog Play from Sunny Day Family
• Vet Clinic Busy Bag from Lalymom
• Pretend Play Vet Clinic Dramatic Play area from Mother Natured
• Vet Clinic with Printable from Teaching Mama

Our Vet Clinic included:

• Vet Clinic Printables (from the lovely ladies above)
• Clipboards
• Pens (attached to the clipboards with string and washi tape)
• Vet Costumes – these come with a variety of vet instruments as well.
• Animal Carriers and more animal care props

read all: project approach themes for preschool and up

Current Learning Objectives

I see learning in pretty much everything we do so it seems limiting to document what objectives we work on in a given unit, but since it is required by our state, here are some of the Common Core objectives for First Grade met with this unit.

• Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. (reading)
• Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give
  information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types. (reading)
• With prompting and support read information text appropriately complex for
  grade one (shared reading)
• Identify basis similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (shared reading)
• Participate in shared research and writing projects (writing)
• With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question (writing)
• Compare and contrast physical characteristics in animals (science)
• Identify, in animals, the relationship between the physical structures and the
  functions of those structures (science)
• Identify, describe, and compare the physical structures of animals (science)
• Describe how physical traits help a species to survive (science)

Where We’re Going Next

I don’t think this is a unit we are done with for good, but interests seem to come and go in phases with my kids. Right now they are obsessed with Scaredy Squirrel and soccer, but I think this the vet interest will be back.

Want More Simple Play at Home Ideas?

• Velcro Four in a Row DIY Game from Teach Me Mommy
• Halloween Roasted Vegetables from The Gingerbread House

Complete A-Z Ideas for Play at Home

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A rainy Tuesday afternoon can feel like an eternity with active toddlers. We had already played every game I could think of, read every book on their shelf, held a marathon painting session, and taken an extra bath to recover from the painting session.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it to bedtime when one of my kids started pushing around their climbing box.  Inspiration struck and our up and down indoor obstacle course was born.

affiliate links are included below.

Up + Down Obstacle Course

This activity works on understanding the concepts of up and down, while practicing the gross motor skill of stepping up and down. It is also brilliant for surviving toddler energy.

Materials

Items for stepping up and down, such as;

• Climbing Boxes
• Sturdy Child Size Step Stool
• Pillows
• Large Books

Set Up

Position your boxes and stools around a room to create a course.

Activity

Tell your toddler(s) you’re going to do a fun obstacle course.

Have them line up behind you and demonstrate the course for them with energetic “up!” and “down!” as you go over the obstacles.

From there encourage them to do it again and again.

Variations

• Try doing it backwards
• Go the opposite way
• Have their stuffed animals try the obstacle course
• For older kids: Time them to see how fast they can go.

Clean Up

Put all the obstacles back in their usual places – with the help of your toddlers of course.

A-Z Play at Home Ideas

This post is part of the A-Z Play at Home Series hosted by Teach Me Mommy. Here are more fun, easy ideas for the letter U.

• Under the Umbrella from Teach Me Mommy
• Umbrella Paper Craft from The Gingerbread House

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My twins were were obsessed with all things trains when they were toddlers. They built tracks and choo chooed the length of the house. They donned little engine hats and tooted whistles.

We also read Freight Train by Donald Crews about a million times. This classic is the perfect blend of simplicity and detail that is soaked up by the reader and it fit well with their interest in all things trains.

This inspired the foam train.

affiliate links are included.

How to Make DIY Foam Train

Do you know about the magic of foam is that, when wet, it will stick to your bathtub.

We have used this to our advantage in several ways, but most recently to create a tub train for counting.

Materials

*Foam

*Scissors

*Sharpie

How to Make a Counting Train

1. Draw a rough train shape onto the foam. I free handed this and honestly it does not have to be perfect. Just the general shape.

2. Cut out the train engine and train cars.

3. Write numbers and dots for counting directly onto the foam with a sharpie.

Or the Name Train Alternative

1. Cut train shapes out of your foam. I did this free hand while looking at a Thomas train for inspiration. Don’t worry about this being perfect. The general shape is great.

2. Write the letters of your child’s name on the cars. I put the first letter of each of their names on an engine and then the letters of their names on cars alternating orange and white.

TIP: If you are doing this activity with one child, considering adding a few extra letters or your name to make it a little more difficult.

Activity

Bring them out at bath time.

Put the foam train engines on the wall of your tub and the other cars in the bath water.

Encourage your preschooler count the trains or identify letters, build their names, and put them in order.

My kids took them down and practiced putting them back in order. Then they drove the trains around the tub.

Clean Up

Leave your trains on the wall of the tub or let them dry on a towel and pack them away for another day.

A-Z Play at Home Ideas

This post is part of the A-Z Play at Home series of awesome, easy play ideas hosted by Nadia on Teach Me Mommy. Here are some more ideas for the letter T.

• Tin Towers Bowling Game from Teach Me Mommy

And some holiday themed T ideas…

• Tealight Halloween Decorations from The Gingerbread House
• 5 Best Children’s Books about Being Thanksful from My Storytime Corner
• Christmas Tree Story Time + 3 Tree Invitations from My Storytime Corner

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Red is the start of the rainbow so naturally it kicked off our Rainbow Preschool  Color Unit.

Below are super rad red ideas for books, activities and more to get your preschool rainbow week started right at home or in your classroom.

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Red Day Picture Book Suggestions

We love picture books. There are a lot of great children’s books for preschoolers about colors and red in particular. These are our favorites.

Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
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Llama Llama is a modern day classic. It is a darling story about a little llama and his bedtime emotions. 1+

Journey by Aaron Becker
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This award winning wordless book is amazing. It follows the creative and stunning adventures of a little girl and her red crayon. 2+

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood
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This is one of my all time favorite read a loud stories. A little mouse finds a ripe strawberry, but what about the hungry bear?

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
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This Caldecott Honor Book is a stunning wordless adventure. It tells a powerful story about a red book. 3+

Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton
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Follow a little red tow truck on his wintry adventure. 2+

Very Little Red Riding Hood by Theresa Heapy
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Very little red riding hood puts a whole new twist on this classic story and character. This was one of our favorites during our Little Red Riding Hood story study. 3+

Red Day Themed Activities

Wear Red

Part of the fun of a color week is finding an item of clothing or two to wear for the day. We decked out in red today and then snapped some selfies before we headed out for the morning. (Cognitive)

Red Object Ice Rescue

Do a search (on your own or with kids) for red plastic toys. We made ours together in the morning and then it was ready to be attacked in after snack. This Rescue the Toys Ice Activity is a great example!

Red Apple or Strawberry Snack

If you’re feeling scientific, you could also have an Apple Taste Test. Is there a colored apple you prefer? (Science)

Red Memory Game

This is a great Quiet Time Activity or Table Activity. We have this adorable Ombre Memory Game that features faces of our family members. You could also make your own with construction paper, photos, and contact paper or a laminating machine. (Cognitive)

Red Art Invitation

Create a basket of red art materials. My basket included; red markers, red colored pencils, red crayons, red washi tape, red gummed art tape, and some red stickers. Place this on your art table with some blank paper as an invitation to create. (Fine Motor + Creativity)

More Red Themed Activities:

Rainbow Week Pinterest Board

Color Week Projects

Below are projects that we did throughout our Preschool Color Week. We started them on Red Day and then added to them as the week progressed.

Rainbow Journal : Red Page

Start a Rainbow journal today that you will use for the entire Color Week.

To make ours I simply stapled together several pieces of paper that were folded in half. On the front, each of my kids wrote “Rainbow Book” following the example I wrote out for them on a piece of paper.

Next, they turned to the first page and wrote RED. Then they used a collection of Red art materials to draw on the other page whatever they wanted. (Literacy)

Collaborative Rainbow

This art project will last you the entire Preschool Color Week. Start by drawing a rainbow outline on a large piece of paper. Hang this on a wall in your art area or classroom.

Each day present art materials for that day’s color of the day. Monday, we added Red Gummed Art Tape to the first stripe. (Creativity + Social Skills)

A-Z Play at Home Series:

This activity is part of the A-Z Play at Home Series hosted by Teach Me Mommy. Pop over for tons of easy, fun ideas.

Juicy oranges. Traffic cones. Construction hats. It must be orange day!

Below are some fun ways to bring the color orange alive in your home or classroom for Orange Day!

affiliate links are included below.

Orange Day Activity Ideas

Books About the Color Orange

It’s an Orange Aardvark! by Michael Hall
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This is a fabulously fun read aloud. Some ants spot an alarmingly bright orange through a hole. What could it be? Their imaginations run wild and ultimately the most wonderful surprise is revealed. 3+

Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr.
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Since Oranges was our snack, this was a natural choice. It also happens to be illustrated by one of our alltime favorites, Donald Crews. A fun, engaging counting book. 3+

Orange Themed Activities

Wear Orange

Part of the fun of a color week is finding an item of clothing or two to wear for the day. We decked out in Orange today, even creating Orange headbands for ourselves, and then snapped some selfies before we headed out for the morning. (Cognitive)

Orange Object Search

While we were driving around this morning we searched for the color Orange in our town. You could easily do this as part of a walk, commute, or even just a search around your house. Our Orange Hunt led to some interesting conversations about what signs said and where the line is between Orange and Yellow. (Cognitive + Language)

Orange Snack

We made Orange Juice for our snack today. This involved some great fine motor and self help skills in the kitchen as they helped me juice some oranges. (Self Help + Fine Motor)

Orange Puzzle

Make an orange puzzle one of the options for quiet time or centers today.

You could make your own using a photograph of something Orange and a scissors.

I used this gorgeous one: PANTONE: Color Puzzles. I love this whole PANTONE series. We had the small board books when my twins were infants and have enjoyed the larger color book ever since. (Cognitive)

Orange Duplo Challenge

Another invitation on the Quiet Time shelves today, and probably the favorite, was the Orange Duplo Challenge.

It sounds exciting and possibly complicated, but all I did was put our Orange Duplos in a basket on the shelf and challenged them to see what they could build with just Orange. A tower, a truck, and a fox it turns out.

Orange Art Invitation

Create a basket of Orange art materials. My basket included; orange markers, orange colored pencils, orange crayons, orange stampers, orange gummed art tape, and some orange yarn.

Place this on your art table with some blank paper as an invitation to create an Orange Collage. (Fine Motor + Creativity)

Color Week Projects

We did our orange day as part of a whole Rainbow Color Week. Here are the on-going projects we did during the week that we added to on Orange Day.

Rainbow Journal : Orange Page

Continue the Rainbow journal today that you are using for the entire Color Week. You can find directions for starting one on our Red Day page.

For orange day, turn to the next blank page and have your preschooler copy the word ORANGE. Then have them use the basic of Orange art materials to draw whatever they want on the facing page. (Literacy)

Collaborative Rainbow

This is the other project that will last you the entire Preschool Color Unit. Today add to the Rainbow in the orange space.

Gummed Art Tape is hugely popular in our house right now so we added some Orange today as well as some orange stamping and orange marker. (Creativity + Social Skills)

A-Z Play At Home Series

This post is part of the A-Z Play at Home series. Here are some more fun ideas for the letter O:

Outside Obstacle Course from Teach Me Mommy

Recipe for Homemade Orange Slime from The Gingerbread House

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Nature Shake Paintings are perfect for a lot of kids and situations. They are perfect for…

Kids who are active.

Kids who like to collect rocks.

Times when you are outside.

Times when you are inside.

Times when you don’t have a ton of time.

Times when you don’t want to clean up a big mess.

You get the idea.

This simple activity works great for different ages, inside or outside, and for active boys and girls (aka pretty much every kid under the age of 5).

This activity combines art and movement – two of our favorite things.

We did this Nature Shake Painting activity twice. Once at home with rocks we had collected on a hike and once while we were camping. Both times the procedure was similar.

How to do Nature Shake Paintings with Toddlers

ALSO READ: FAMILY CAMPING AT TALLULAH GORGE STATE PARK GEORGIA

Materials + Set Up:

Gather materials. You will need:

• Box (I recommend 1 box for every 1-2 kids so there isn’t much waiting)
• Construction Paper (cut to fit inside of the box)
• Rocks (gather – or have your toddler help find some when everything else is ready)
• Paint
• Masking TapeMake sure to cut the paper down to fit into the box before hand – again to decrease waiting around (waiting is basically toddler kryptonite).

Activity

Invite your active one to join you for rock painting.

Help them fill a box with a piece of paper, a handful of rocks, and some squirts of paint.

Tape the box shut (very securely) and then hand it back to them for some vigorous shaking.

Encourage them to shake, even run or dance around with their box. When they are done, help them open the box up and discover what their painting looks like.

Easy! So easy you could do it all over again…and again…and again just like your toddlers will probably want.

Clean up:

The rocks are going to need a rinse if you are planning to keep them around. Otherwise, clean up is super simple with this activity.

Hang the paintings, everything else can be put away or tossed.

More A-Z Play Ideas

This week we are sharing ideas for the Letter N.

Naming Game from Teach Me Mommy

How to Make a Potato Clock (with nails) from The Gingerbread House

I have this vivid math memory of getting quizzed on multiplication on the playground in elementary school. In third grade I was sick a lot (well every year I was, but that’s another story) and was behind on our weekly quizzes.

We were doing our 8s. 8X1 is 8! 8X2 is 16! 8X3 is…

Everyone else was running around outside laughing and I was desperately trying to remember some memory trick about 8s that I thought I had mastered.

Sick or not, math was never my thing.

When I started homeschooling our twins I was nervous about the Math part.

I shouldn’t have been.

Eventually when they get to advanced calc and I break out in cold sweats from the stressful memories, but at least for now Preschool and Early Elementary school Math is fun.

Math does NOT have to be worksheets or printables or stressful playground quizzes. Math can be fun.

Below are some of our favorite ways to learn basic math concepts in hands on, active, and fun ways.

affiliate links are included below

Easy Preschool Math Ideas for Learning Shapes, Counting and Patterning

Learning Shapes

Build with Magna-Tiles

Building with blocks that are different shapes offers amazing hands on ways to practice how shapes work, fit together, are deconstructed, etc. And what better to build with than beautiful Magnatiles?
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Finding Circles

This gross motor activity works on shape identification. We practiced circles, but you can quickly adapt it to work on a different shape or all the shapes. Click below to read more (it’s #9 on the list) and find more fun gross motor learning activities.
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Mouse Shapes Inspired Art

Art contains so much potential for math learning. This is just one example that focuses on learning and exploring shapes.
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Finding Round Shapes in Nature

This is a picture book inspired hunt that can be easily implemented in your neighborhood, local park, or on a nature trail. Free printable is included.
Read More. 

Learning to Count

Take a Counting Walk

This is a fun way to get some fresh air and practice counting real objects. This activity also works on recognizing numbers.
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DIY Foam Counting Train

One of our all time favorites! Bring counting with you to the tub!
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Read Picture Books about Counting

There are a ton of fun ones, but our top 10 counting children’s books are listed in this post.
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Number Recognition with Dominoes

This activity uses two of our favorite math materials – Dominoes and Counting Rocks!
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Learn about Patterns

5 Ways to Make Patterns Outside

Head into the backyard to try one or all of these movement and play based ideas for learning about patterns.
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Press Here Game

This game is so unique and wonderful for identifying, creating, and extending patterns.
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5 Math + Movement Games to Play While You Wait

Here are some zero to low prep games you can do anywhere. They cover counting, number recognition, patterns and more.
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5 Zero Prep Number Activities for Preschool

This is a collection of fun hands on math activities that are super easy to do without tons of prep time and complicated materials. They work on patterns and more.
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A-Z Play at Home

This post is part of the blog hop and series on playing and learning at home. Below are more ideas for the letter M.

Exploring Magnets with Cranes + Trains – Bambini Travel

Minion Playdough – Teach Me Mommy

Mud Kitchen Play – The Gingerbread House

Messy Minion Sensory Play – Adventures and Play

Moon Footprints Sensory Play – Line Upon Line Learning

Mud Sensory Play: The Ultimate Play Date – The Jenny Evolution

Moana Inspired Curriculum Ideas – Bambini Travel

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