Kid Activity: Crayon Color Sorting

The kids and I were out shopping, actually doing it to waste time to pick up Dad.

And I came across these crayon shaped paint sample cards. 

I had no plan for them, but I've been seeing a million ideas for sample cards lately, and thought there must be something I could do with them. It seems I'm starting to hoard things without a plan lately. Yesterday's activity was with colored tape that I had no plan for either!

I did come up with a learning activity for the paint sample cards.

Fittingly, we sorted crayons!

I taped the crayon shaped sample cards inside the holes of a muffin tin.

I set out our box of mixed up crayons and Henry sorted them!

We found out very soon that the color of the crayon, or the paper on the crayon is sometimes misleading.

A black crayon has a very light gray paper.

Sometimes a burnt orange crayon looks brown.

Henry learned to test his crayons before deciding what color it was. 

A sneaky way for me to have him practice scribbling, drawing, writing... as well as his pencil grip!

[tee hee hee]

Henry went through each and every crayon we had.

Placing it in the corresponding muffin tin.

Henry observed that there were a lot of orange crayons!

And blues!

[We counted them then to see which had more, turns out orange did!]

A fun color learning activity, and a piece of art in the process! 

Like it? Share it!

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Sponge Art: Paint a Rainbow

Paint a rainbow with a sponge.

I wish I could claim the idea of rainbow sponge painting, but I saw it last year over at Strong Start.

While this is a kid-friendly idea, a lot of the prep needs to be done by an adult, or older child. And prep needs to be redone during the activity as well.

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Block Activity: Build a City

After doing our tape maze of numbers. The maze stuck [yes, pun intended] around awhile.

On one of those 'no-nap' days, Henry and I kept busy [while George was napping] with blocks and the tape maze and made a Block City!

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100 Acts of Kindness: Create Something from the Heart

100 Acts of Kindness.

Toddler Approved has a series on it, with many ideas for kindness and how to instill it in our children. 

While we're trying to do our acts of kindness, teaching what kindness is to a three year old seems tough at times. By acting kind to each other, and leading my example, is the only way I can figure out how to teach this concept.

To contribute to Kristina's series, we are sharing a very special gift we made for his Grandpa, in memory of the boys' Grandma.

While this is a more 'elaborate' project than a quick kindness gesture. May I just suggest creating something from the heart for someone you love as an act of kindness.

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It's Playtime! Activities for My Toddler

This year is the year for George.
Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

He's 16 months right now.
So he still can't do a lot of the activities that Henry and I get into.

We have a lot of time to ourselves, just the two of us.
Some nice Mommy and Me time.

But we rarely set out to do something.
We just play.

I want to start getting him involved.
Be hands on with him.

I found a few activities from last week's It's Playtime to get me started.
[I also have a few bookmarked on my Toddler Activities Board on Pinterest for more inspiration.]

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Science Experiment : DIY Lava Lamps

Make a lava lamp with your preschooler, and your preschooler love science experiments!

I can't promise that, but Henry has.

Lava lamps are simple to make, too.

What you need to make a DIY Lava Lamp:

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"Make it Kid Friendly" Idea: Geometric Garland

I found this colorful garland of shapes on Pinterest.

So colorful and bright, I thought this could be turned into a kid project!

Visit Weekday Carnival to buy this gorgeous geometric garland!

I'm not sure what these are made of, or how they're made, but I can think of a few ways to do this with the kids, and even add some learning into the process!

What can be done to make it a kid-friendly activity:

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It's Playtime! Indoor Activities

Its that time of year.
When we all duck our heads and hibernate for a couple of months.

Granted, we try to get outside as much as we can.
But most days its not for long, if at all.

So...
What indoor activities can we do on these cold days coming up?
[Really, its been pretty nice here lately, I can't believe its in the 40s in January in Iowa...]

[Make Do & Friend: Playing in the Dark]

A flashlight does wonders!

Make, Do & Friend Found a way to calm a fear of the dark! Play in it! Take a flashlight and find lots of things shiny and see how it reflects! My kids loving playing with their flashlights, adding shiny objects would definitely be a hit!

Above, from left to right:

• De tout et de rien shows learning in a spot I never thought of , and we all probably all have one. Adding beads to a baby bottle drying rack! There's so much learning that could be done... it could go on and on, and plus keep the kids' hands busy, busy, busy!
• Play with plastic! Drawing on and cutting plastic, a definitely time-waster for the kids, I'm sure! Happy Little Messes has more in store for these plastic creations on a light machine!
• Another dark post, but this time with the aide of a black light! The Mommies Made Me Do It when on a glow hunt in the dark! Shut off the lights!
• Play dough is a go-to activity, especially when we're stuck indoors. Here's some yummy chocolatey play dough! Make birthday cupcakes from play dough and add pasta for candles! A sweet idea from What's Fun Today?

High Five to these play friends!

[Go leave them a playful comment!]

[Please grab the featured badge on the right if you were featured]

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It's Playtime is a community for play loving bloggers to share ways to play.

Head on over to my playtime co-hosts:
The Imagination Tree, Messy Kids, Quirky Momma, Let the Children Play.

New to It's Playtime? Read How to Play to get all the details. 
Basically, share your play ideas at the party below and browse for more play ideas from others! 

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[No blog? You can leave a comment here to share, too!]

Be sure to LIKE your favorite play ideas!

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Henry is 3 years. George is 1 year.

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Science Experiment : Ice, Water, Vapor

Henry woke up asking to do an experiment!

When I asked what kind of experiment he'd like to do, he replied,

Ice!

Probably thinking of our sand and salt experiment on ice that we did for the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge [for Day 22, Investigate]. 

I didn't have anything prepared yet, but ice cubes.

So after asking some fans on Facebook [check here to see their suggestions for ice experiments].

I came up with a simple, yet fun, interactive science experiment with ice. 

Watching and causing the changes of the phases of water as an ice cube melts and turns into water.

It then comes to a boil and vaporizes into thin air, disappearing completely.

This is how we did it.

I set up three ice stations.

Two pots and one bowl.

Henry added six ice cubes to each ice station [great counting practice for him].

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Halloween Craft : Spaghetti Webs

After playing with colored spaghetti noodles with George...

Henry and I made some spaghetti spider webs with it too!

This time, I let Henry do the coloring.

What other color would he pick, but green?

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Preschooler Activity : A Big Maze

A maze and a maze.

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Learn Language through Play

Guest Post by

Kristina's is one of the moms behind the amazing blog, Toddler Approved. Kristina is the mom to a preschooler and a baby. I've featured Toddler Approved many times on It's Playtime, so a guest post swap on our blogs was a must!

She's very fun at sneaking in learning. Especially name recognition. One of my all time favorite posts at Toddler Approved is her name twister game. It seems she may have a boy full of energy, just like Henry! [Her number hockey game is also a must see!]

Today, I'm over at her blog. We're not only swapping blogs, we're swapping literacy ideas. Since I'm not an educator, this made me kind of nervous. But, Henry and I discovered a fun twist on reading that I think you should all give a try tonight. I've even challenged you all!

Kristina has a very valuable post written here that I am ecstatic to share with you: 

Five ways to learn language through play!

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Hi friends! I am so excited to be visiting from over at Toddler Approved! Jamie invited me to share some tips about how to incorporate language learning into every day interactions with our children.

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Art Activity : Zoo Animal Puzzles

A counting book called 1, 2 ,3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle inspired this creative art and activity. 

The book is a counting train of zoo animals! 

Henry really enjoyed this book and loved counting each zoo animal. 

A great way to learn to count to ten.

We decided to bring these zoo animals to life and make them interactive!

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Toddler Activity : Tissue Paper Bag

I let George loose with a paper bag full of tissue paper left over from our DIY Wrapping Paper that Henry and I made.

George explored the tissue paper for probably a good half hour. 

It kept him fully entertained.

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Art : DIY Wrapping Paper

George is turning 1... tomorrow!

Henry and I got creative by making some of our own wrapping paper for George's present.

A simple art technique with tissue paper and water, that I learned about from The Little Red Hen.

Henry started with ripping different colors of tissue paper into small pieces.

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Baby Play : Baby Food Jars

Baby food jars and lids. 

Simple entertainment for a baby.

And it's something almost every mom has on hand.

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Fine Motor Activity : Pipe Cleaners

I know Henry's fine motor skills have never been his strongest trait.

So I do sneak in some fun here and there that works his fingers, such as the Dandelion Hat and Colored Vinegar and Baking Soda Experiment.

But this activity was not intended for Henry at all. 

I set out this colander and some pipe cleaners for George to explore.

I did have Tinkerlab's Colander Sculpture and The Imagination Tree's Pipe Cleaner Discovery Box in the back of my mind. But I completely intended for this activity to be about George exploring the pipe cleaners. Thinking that a pipe cleaner sculpture could be for another day.

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Kids Experiment : Vinegar & Baking Soda

Henry was fascinated by the reactions the colored vinegar made when it hit the baking soda in this activity.

Shh... it was really a science experiment! 

This science experiment [that I found at The Adventures of the Smith Family while I was browsing the wonderful play posts of It's Playtime!] was super easy to set up.

Spread out some baking soda on a cookie sheet and color some vinegar!

While I was coloring the vinegar, I let Henry have some experimental play of his own with the baking soda first.
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Simple DIY Calendar for Preschooler

My preschooler doesn't really like preschool.

What do I do?

I decided to create some structure to our day.

I created a simple calendar of the week, so Henry can see what days he has preschool.

As well as seeing what he can do when he gets home from preschool!

[That's my hope, to get him excited about both preschool and an after-school activity.]

 

In addition, it helps him learn the days of the week.

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It's Playtime! : Energy Busters

I have lately felt the itch to get moving.
To get Henry and George moving, more specifically.

I noticed that we haven't been doing as many energetic activities as we were prior to the summer. Being outdoors all day does get the kids moving.

I looked through last week's It's Playtime for inspiration to get the kids moving. I found some nifty ways to get the kids tangled up and burn off their energy.
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