deepfriedunicorn

TRACING SHAPES!  We used the shapes from our Melissa and Doug beginner wooden pattern block toy to make our own shape creations.  It was fun to watch how Miss 3.75 yr old’s imagination really took off with this activity. Even Mr. 2 really liked this too, he mostly drew his own circle shapes though instead of tracing

RAINBOW RICE A bit messy, but so fun!  1 cup rice, 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, and some food dye drops. We went the ziplock bag route, so not the most sustainable.  We can’t wait for it to dry, so we can play with it

VOLCANO SAVE thanks @dayswithgrey for this cute idea!  Just a super simple picture of a volcano with lava, add some animals or superheroes in the lava, set-up an empty bucket, give the littles some tongs, and instructions to save their friends from the lava using the tings only!  Easy and fun!  Both Miss 3 and Mr 1.5 enjoyed this game!

BOO BOO GAME  Even superhero villains get boo-boos!  We find a picture (this time from a superhero book), draw it on butcher paper, tape it to the wall, then the boo-boo monster adds X’s to them, then the littles add dot stickers to cover the boo-boos like bandaids

  PLAYDOUGH DINOSAUR HOUSE! This is a favorite in our house.  It’s so funny how a few simple open ended items transform play.  Popsicle sticks and dinosaurs + playdough = fun!

  SOAP BUBBLE BAGS! Super easy set-up, lots of silly fun!  Just gallon ziplocks with soap, water, a couple drops of food coloring, and some tape  We tried smaller bags too, but liked gallon size the most. It also was more fun if we put the food coloring along the top side of the bag and had the kids mix it while taped to the window

DOT PAINTING!  Pretty simple set-up, then lots of fun.  Just made a name or shape and left circles, colored around the circles, used q-tips and paint to fill in the holes.  Little miss 3 then made some circles for me to paint!

B EAN GAME!  My husband hates this one (because of the mess), but the kids love it (and the mess isn't too bad). Just white beans, split green beans, lentils, a tub, and some scoops and bowls Clean-up isn't too bad either. We try to pile up as much of it as we can that fell out of the bin and put it back in the bin.  Then we use a broom to sweep up any of the tiny leftover mess.  Then we save the beans in a gallon ziploc bag to save to use again and again!

WASHING FOOD So simple, so fun!  A tub with water, dish soap, a couple washcloths, a bunch of dirty dishes and a couple of energetic kids

P OM POM PUSH!  Simple activity with simple set-up. I put a piece of white paper on top of a shoebox lid, colored circles that match the Pom poms, then poked holes in the box at each circle, had to touch-up a few colors, then turned it over to the littles.  Miss 3 is good at matching Pom poms to the colored circles, while Mr 1 just likes to put them in any hole.  I call it a success!

  DOT STICKERS BOO-BOO GAME This game is on repeat in our house ALL the time.  We google and pick a fun picture (this time Spirit characters, like Lucky), draw it on butcher paper, use painters tape to tape it to the wall... then the “Boo-boo Monster” comes and puts boo-boo X’s all over them.  Then little Miss 3 uses dot stickers or the little rectangular yard sale stickers to fix all the boo-boos

  DOTS ALONG A LINE  This was a slight change to our usual dot stickers “boo boo game” - this time she had to put her dot stickers along Xs that were in a line and also along the roof/door frames.  So simple and so fun! Just a drawing of a house on butcher paper/craft paper, some brief explaining of the goal, and some dot stickers

S ENSORY BINS our first time trying it and it was SO fun! We played off and on with this for hours.  Started as a pouring/making pretend food game, then walking in and sitting in and feeling the “weird bumps”, then we buried Superheroes and had to save them using tongs only, then we covered up “scary bugs and snakes.” So fun and easy! Just northern beans, green split peas, and lentils- 2 bags of each for about $10 total and instant fun!  And it’s save-able, throwing it into a ziplock bag for next time!

BUBBLE DOT STICKERS Dot stickers are by far this girl’s favorite activity. Today is a Bubble Guppie bubble kind of day. Just a piece of butcher/craft paper, a google image redrawn plus little bubble circles added with a sharpie - then little miss added dot bubbles to each one! ' “Ta da”- as little miss would say

  SCIENCE HIDDEN COLORS!   Thanks @busytoddler we loved this!  Just a cupcake pan, a few drops of food coloring, some baking soda, and squeeze bottles of vinegar = toddler magic  You add a couple drops of food coloring into each cupcake hole.  I mixed a couple of food coloring colors to make other colors, like red and yellow to make orange.  Then you cover the food coloring with baking soda so that you can't see the food coloring. Then I gave each kiddo a squirt bottle with white vinegar and turned them loose. So fun!

  FILLING BALLOONS We had to save Peppa Pig and George’s balloons... they were out of air and we had to put a matching color dot sticker inside to fill it up I googled a picture of Peppa Pig and George, drew it in black sharpie on a piece of butcher/craft paper, then added different color balloons and the strings to attach the balloons to their hands.  Then used some painters tape to temporarily attach this activity to the kitchen cabinet. Gave little Miss some dot stickers and explained the goal to fill the balloons and she got to work.

  ACTION LINES Grabbed some painters tape and made some different types of lines, made up some rules for each one, showed the kids once, and they had a blast throughout the day!  Bunny hops, tippy toes, flamingo legs, spins, in and outs, and a grand finale “ta da”

SHAPE SEARCH!   So this one she didn’t take to quite as well, I think shapes are an area we need to spend some more time on.  However, the idea was to pick a color crayon and color all the squares that color, then all the rectangles a different color, etc. I think next time, I need to simplify the shape options, but it was fun nonetheless.  We made a tiny version for baby brother and that one she liked the most

ALPHABET MATCHING!  We had so much fun with this one! We cut a piece of butcher paper in thirds and taped it to the wall in a long strip. Then added the letters of the alphabet, leaving a little space between each one. Then on the other wall we stuck post-it’s, each with one letter of the alphabet.  Then we told her to match them up! We tried to encourage her to stay in order... that kind of worked  So fun! Thanks @busytoddler for the idea

  PAINTING NUMBERS Super simple!  Wrote a bunch of numbers 1-10 randomly, out of order on a piece of paper. Then we told her to find number 1, then she would cover it in paint. Then 2, then 3, etc.  Great way to start learning numbers!

TRACING BODIES  First we taped craft/butcher paper to the ground with painters tape.   Next, each kiddo laid on the paper and we took turns tracing around each others bodies. We even included our baby doll! The shapes came out hilariously odd shaped.  Then we decorated them with “clothes”!  So fun!

  PAINTING WITH A COMB  super simple painting activity that was a lot of fun! We found an old baby comb that we no longer use, put a large blob of paint on paper plates, ran the comb through the paint and then onto the paper.   I had to assist some to get this started, encourage starting in different places and pulling the paint different directions, but it was mostly the work of Miss 3 year old The paintings actually came out super cute and we now have a set of 3 hanging in our house!

    FEED THE SNAKES this little one knows that momma does NOT like snakes, so she decided to feed them to make sure they wouldn’t be hungry and try to eat me dot stickers for the win again!  Just needed butcher paper, Avery dot stickers, markers that match the color of the dot stickers, and some tape.  We only fed the snakes dots that matched the snake color.  Good for developing matching skills and hand eye coordination! 

  COLOR MATCH HUNT So this started by asking the 2 (almost 3) year old to pick a color, then we grabbed a jumbo ziplock bag, and began to hunt throughout the house looking for anything yellow that could fit in our bag. So fun!  Thanks for the idea @busytoddler  

    DOT STICKER BAND-AIDS  Doc McStuffins is a new favorite in our house, so only fitting that Doc McStuffins needed to help fix her friend’s boo boos with some “band-aids”  All you need is butcher paper, Avery dot stickers, a marker, some tape, and a little imagination  I googled Doc McStuffins, found a picture of the characters, and did my best to draw outlines of the characters in black sharpie before hanging the picture up.  I also added "X" marks throughout the character bodies to represent the boo-boos.