Category Archives: Activities

Going on a Leaf Hunt

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Last week we had a warm, sunny beautiful fall day. It was such a wonderful change from the cold and rainy weather that Buddy and I spent an hour and a half after school playing outside. We headed to the park, and after playing for a long time on the playground, we were looking for something else fun to do.

I’ve seen many fun fall scavenger hunts on Pinterest, and almost all of them had printable resources that can be used to guide the hunt. I had planned to do one of those hunts, but since we decided to do this activity spontaneously, I didn’t have anything printed. But it didn’t matter; we had a great time.

I asked Buddy if he wanted to go on a leaf hunt, and he loved the idea. I asked some general questions, and then we went looking for leaves. Here are my guiding questions (asked one at a time):

  • How many different colors of leaves can you find?
  • What is the largest leaf you can find?
  • What is the smallest leaf you can find?
  • How many different shapes of leaves can you find?
  • What other fun things can you find on the ground?

Buddy had a blast finding a bunch of different leaves! He found ones that were red, yellow, green, black, brown, and a light tan. We also found some different sizes of pinecones, an acorn, dandelions, and a couple fun sticks. While we were walking, we also saw some dogs, ducks, geese, and a squirrel. We made up a leaf hunt song that we sang as we walked around the park.

Once we were done, we took our findings home and spread them all out to analyze. We pointed out the biggest and smallest, discussed all of the colors of leaves, and picked favorites. Buddy wanted to bring everything inside, but he was content when I told him we’d have to leave them outside where they belong. 

Buddy had so much fun with this activity that he suggested another leaf hunt today. It was a lot colder than last week, but it was still nice enough to play outside. We stayed close to our house, but we were still able to find a lot of different leaves. Buddy put all of his favorites inside of his tricycle. 

I highly recommend doing a leaf hunt of your own this fall if you live in an area where the leaves changes. (And even if you don’t, a nature walk of any kind is a lot of fun.) We had a blast, and I know we’ll do it again soon.

Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe

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Buddy loves games, so I’m always looking for fun new ones to play with him. When I saw this candy tic-tac-toe Etsy listing, I thought that it would be fun to do with Buddy. He first learned how to play tic-tac-toe this summer, and it’s a go to game for us when we are waiting at a restaurant. I knew this candy version would be fun to play.

I cut out a piece of black cardstock and drew my lines with silver sharpie. (Mommy musings’s blog has a free printable Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe board that would also be fun to use.) Then I grabbed some candy corn and pumpkins, and went to go find Buddy.

Buddy was super excited to play tic-tac-toe! It was great having actual pieces to move instead of just drawing in each square. Of course, Buddy asked immediately if we would be eating the candy. Fortunately, these candies aren’t favorites of Buddy’s, so he was willing to play with them instead.

This was so easy and fun! It’s definitely an activity that will probably move into our diaper bag for restaurant fun.

Spider Web Spelling

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Last week, a friend of mine posted about a spelling activity she did with her three year old. I loved it so much, I had to do it with Buddy too. We went trick or treating for letters while walking on a spider web!

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

To set up this activity, I used painters tape to make a spider web on the floor. Then I made some Halloween spelling cards. I originally was going to print out some words, but I decided to just use some Halloween stickers on index cards. I wanted to use words that had few letters, and I wanted a picture so Buddy could “read” the word before he spelled it.

Buddy is better at identifying capital letters, so I decided to make this activity a lowercase letter activity. Fortunately, our magnetic letter set has both upper and lowercase letters to choose from. After I wrote the words, I pulled out the letters. Some letters I had multiples of in the set, but I chose just to do one of every letter that was needed.Once I had the words and letters set, I put one letter on each intersection of the spider web. I put the extras at the top vertex of the web.

I told Buddy he needed to pick a word, and then he would go trick or treating for the letters. To make this a little more challenging, I told Buddy he could only walk on the line when he was going through the spider web. Buddy did a good job of remembering the letters he was looking for, but sometimes he wanted to bring the card with him in the spider web. 

Once Buddy found the letters, we took them to our front door. I used a magnetic chip clip to hold up the word card, and then Buddy spelled his word underneath. Before we started each new word, we looked to see what letters were needed, and which ones he’d already found. 

I was surprised that Buddy liked the longer words. When I was making the word cards, I almost skipped pumpkin because I thought it would be too long for him. But Buddy liked having a lot of letters to find, and he was really proud when he was done. 

Buddy had a lot of fun with this activity. When we had picked up all of the letters, he put them back down on the spider web. It did take a little bit of time to set up and pick up, but it was worth it. It was such a fun way to practice letters and work on gross motor skills.

Do you have any other ideas for activities with magnetic letters? Please share in the comments.

Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

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Buddy loves sensory bins, so I’m always excited when I see a new sensory bin idea. When I saw the Ice Cream Sensory Bin on Fantastic Fun and Learning’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it! He loves playing with cotton balls, and he loves ice cream, so it’s perfect!

I set up the bin by putting a bag of cotton balls into a silver bowl. Then, I put some toppings into old baby food containers. I used two different types of pony beads (circles and stars) to be sprinkles. Fantastic Fun and Learning used sequins, but I thought beads would be easier to separate back out after we’re done. I also found a few red pom poms to be cherries. I finished the bin by adding a few plastic bowls and spoons and an ice cream scoop.

Buddy was thrilled when he saw the bin. He immediately started scooping out ice cream and sprinkles into each bowl. Buddy loves to serve pretend food, and this was even better because of the sensory aspect. He seemed to really enjoy the scooping from one container to another. 

Once Buddy had played around with the materials for a bit, I was a customer to the ice cream shop. I would place an order, and Buddy would make it for me. Buddy thought this was a lot of fun!

Of course Buddy made himself ice cream sundaes and had a lot of fun pretending to eat them. 

This was such a fun sensory bin! Buddy loved it and has done it a couple other times since our original activity. It’s being added into our regular sensory bin rotation as a pre-dinner time distraction.

Alphabet Kaboom Game

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This summer, Buddy and I spent a lot of time working on alphabet activities. When I came across the idea for the alphabet kaboom game on The Many Little Joys’s blog, I was excited to make it to play with Buddy. However, when we tried to play the game, Buddy wasn’t interested in it. So I put it away for another day.

I pulled out the kaboom game this weekend, and Buddy and I had a blast! The set up for the game is super simple. I grabbed a handful of jumbo popsicle sticks and wrote a different letter of the alphabet on the bottom of each one. I also wrote the word Kaboom on the bottom of six sticks. Then I put the sticks in a metal bucket so the written parts were in the bucket.

It’s very easy to play the game. We took turns pulling out a stick and saying the letter. Sometimes we would add a word that started with that letter as well. But whenever someone pulled a Kaboom stick, that person had to put back all of his/her popsicle sticks. At the end of a set amount of time, whoever has the most sticks wins. Buddy didn’t like the idea of setting a timer, so we just listened to music and the game ended at the end of each song.

Uh oh! Buddy got a Kaboom!

Buddy liked this game so much that we played it over and over again! We probably played eight or more games in one sitting. It was a wonderful way to practice letters, and we both had fun. We will be playing it again soon.

 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom STEM Game

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When I discovered Preschool STEAM’s blog this summer, I wanted to try out some of their Storytime STEAM activities for Time to Read Tuesday. This Chicka Chicka Boom Boom building activity made me excited because I already had all of the necessary materials. Plus we love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Originally, I had planned to do the activity the same way that Preschool STEAM did it. I gathered the materials to build a coconut tree (wooden blocks and popsicle sticks), and then I asked Buddy to see how many letters he could get into the tree. We read the story first, and then we started to build the tree. I didn’t have jumbo popsicle sticks, so we just used regular sized ones. However, I think jumbo ones would work even better. 

Once we started putting on letters, Buddy had the idea for turning the activity into a game. And I’m so glad he did, because we had so much fun! He asked to get our fishing pole from this bath set to use with the letters. (If you don’t have something similar, you can also use a kitchen spoon, string, and paperclip like we did in this fishing for magnetic letters activity.) 

Buddy decided we would take turns using the fishing pole to get a letter and then we’d put it on a tree. Of course, we said the letter as we picked each one. Whoever made the letters fall down lost the game. We also cried out “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” when that happened. It reminded me a lot of the game Jenga and a game from my childhood called Don’t Monkey Around. We had a great time playing together.

Every time the majority of the letters fell, we took down the whole tree and talked about ways to rebuild it to be stronger. We tried laying more popsicle sticks and arranging them in different ways. Then we’d play the game again to see if we could do better than the last time.

This activity is one of my new favorites. It took no time to set up, and very little time to pick up. It was a great way to practice letters with Buddy, and it was so much fun! We will definitely be playing this game again soon!

Do you have any other ideas for fun alphabet activities? Please share your ideas in the comments section.

Digging for Dinosaurs

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Buddy loves his dinosaurs, so this summer, I made a dinosaur dig for him. I originally saw the idea for dinosaur archaeology on Busy Toddler’s blog. As soon as I read that blog post, I knew I needed to try it!

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

The dinosaur dig was made with cloud dough, which is a 8:1 flour to oil ratio. I used four cups of flour and a half cup of canola oil. After I mixed everything together, I didn’t feel like it was firm enough, so I added a little more oil. Then I buried five of Buddy’s small dinosaurs in the cloud dough, and set out a spoon for digging and a paint brush for dusting off the dinosaurs.

Buddy was so excited to find the buried dinos! He dug around with his spoon until he hit something. Then he dug it out and brushed it off carefully with the paint brush. 

Once Buddy found all of the dinosaurs, he wanted to keep playing. So he buried the dinosaurs again and dug them out… over and over! I gave Buddy a small paper cup and showed him how to make “sand castles” with it. That added an extra layer of fun to the activity. 
Eventually, Buddy asked for his large dinosaurs to join the party. Because when you’re three, more dinosaurs = more fun. 

Buddy played with the dinosaurs and the cloud dough for more than an hour. By the time we were done, it was a huge mess. But it was worth it because Buddy had so much fun! We put the cloud dough away in a Tupperware container, and I hope we will be able to reuse it again in the future.

Do you have any other ideas for sensory play? Please share in the comments.

Haircut Scissors Activity

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I love finding easy activities for Buddy that use materials I already have at home. When I saw the Samson’s haircut activity on Faithful Little Hands blog, I wanted to try it right away. Buddy hasn’t practiced using scissors since he’s been home for the summer. This activity gave him a reason to work on his scissor skills while having fun at the same time.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

To prep the activity, I took a piece of 12″ x 12″ cardstock and cut it in half. Then I cut long strips down each piece to make the hair. Then I added a face to each one to make it look like a person. Buddy was excited when he saw the people, and I told him that he would be giving haircuts. 

We used these practice scissors which are amazing because they cut paper, but they don’t cut skin, hair, or fabric. Buddy asked me to cut one too, so we both had one of the faces. He enjoyed snipping off the hair at different lengths. And it was great practice for using the scissors. This activity was so simple, and yet it was a lot of fun. I’m sure we’ll do it again. Do you have any ideas for practicing with scissors? Please share in the comments.

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles

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For Make it Monday, I decided to make popsicles with Buddy. I saw a generic recipe in Real Simple magazine, and I knew it would be the perfect summer activity. Their suggestion was to use cut fruit and lemonade or lemon-lime soda for the popsicles.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I had a bunch of strawberries I needed to use up, so I decided to make strawberry lemonade popsicles. It was so simple and so delicious, I literally sat down to blog about them right after we finished.

As I cut up the strawberries, Buddy put them into our popsicle molds. (Ours were a hand-me-down, but these molds look great.) When we were done, I put some lemonade in a measuring cup, and Buddy and I poured it into the popsicle molds together. Then we let the popsicles freeze overnight. 

Today we came home from a long, hot trip to the park, so we grabbed lunch and then cooled down with the popsicles. We sat on our deck in the shade, and the popsicles were SO good! I’m not really a popsicle person, so we never have them at home. But these were so delicious, we will definitely do them again!

Do you have any other great popsicle recipes? Please share in the comments.

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Magnetic Letters Busy Bag

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One of my summer goals is to help Buddy learn his letters. So far, he has been very interested in letters and getting pretty good at identifying capital letters. Buddy has also been interested in reading and writing words. He knows how to spell his first name, as well as Mom and Dad. Since he often asks how to spell other family members’ names, I put together a magnetic letter busy bag for him.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

My original inspiration for this busy bag was on I Heart Crafty Things’s Blog. She used a metal pencil box for her words, but I just used an old tin box that I had around the house. (This pencil box and this metal tin would both work well if you’re looking for something to buy.)

I wrote down the names of different people in our family on large popsicle sticks. Since Buddy loves animals, I decided to also include the words cat and dog. I Heart Crafty Things used hot glue to add magnetic adhesive to her sticks, but I didn’t. My tin is a little too narrow to have the word under the letters in the tin. We just set the sticks on the floor and then spelled in the tray. Then I found all of the necessary letters from our magnetic letters set, and then the busy bag was finished.

I put this box in the car for our road trip to see my dad, and Buddy was so excited! He played with it in the car and at Granddad’s house as well. Buddy feels like a reader because he knows just enough to figure out what each word says. (For example, he knows both Dad and dog start with d. And since he knows how to spell Dad, he knows the other d word in the kit is dog.)

We brought this kit on our first airplane trip this summer, and I’m sure it will continue to travel with us for awhile. Buddy really enjoys it, and we sometimes use it at our house as well. I plan to switch out a few words once Buddy is ready for more challenge.

Do you have any other ideas for busy bags? Please share in the comments.

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