Tag Archives: two year old activities

Party Games and Activities for Preschoolers

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A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Buddy’s third birthday party, but I didn’t have the time to include all of the games we played. Buddy loves games, so I knew I wanted to included some fun games as part of our party. We had guests from ages 2-6, so we needed games and activities that worked for a variety of ages.

The best advice I have for anyone planning a birthday party for a toddler or preschooler is to have most of the activities open ended stations. There are lots of different stations that can work for any theme. Here are the ones we did at Buddy’s parties:

  • Books
  • Puzzles
  • Photo Booth
  • Dress up
  • Coloring and Stickers
  • Playdoh
  • Blocks or Duplos
  • Sensory Bins
  • Craft tables
  • Cars or Trains
  • Chalk and bubbles (if it is nice enough to be outside)

If you would like more details about how we did these things at Buddy’s parties, please read here about Buddy’s second birthday and third birthday parties. One of our guests loved the stations so much she asked for some for her birthday party!

I did include some games as stations at the parties as well. We did a toss game (toss the coal in the hole for our train themed party) and a ring toss as well (tricera-toss game for a dinosaur party). There wasn’t much structure to these games, so kids could do them independently or competitively with a parent or friend. The ring toss game was a huge hit at our most recent party, and I’m sure we’ll do something similar next year.

I spent a lot of time looking for more structured games to do at the party, and it was tough to find things that worked for young children. Here are the ones I did:

  • Bingo – There are many free printable bingo games available online. I found a Thomas the Train one for our party. We played until everyone won.
  • Cake Walk – This was the favorite game at the party. I printed out a picture of each Thomas the Train character on paper and laminated them. I then printed out a smaller version of each picture and cut them out. Each guest started on a picture and they walked in a circle to music (the theme song to Thomas and Friends of course!). When I stopped the music, everyone stopped on a picture. I drew a card and the child on that picture got to go pick a prize. Then I removed that picture, and we started again. I kept pulling cards until every picture was chosen, so every child received a prize.
  • Prize hunt – I asked my sister to hide Thomas the Train minis during our bingo game. There was one train for each kid. They were so excited to go look for their own train! You could easily do this for any theme.
  • Train race – When the kids found their trains, they raced them against each other on a board. This was a little confusing for them, though, and was my least favorite of my games.

Other ideas:

  • Duck, duck, goose – This is better if played outside or somewhere with a lot of space to run. At a birthday party of mine growing up, it was a dog theme and we did “dog, dog, puppy”
  • Red light, green light – This would have been great for our train theme if it had been nice enough to play outside.
  • Pin the Tail on the Donkey – There are ways to adapt it for any theme, and many pre made versions that can bought for different themes.
  • Musical chairs- There is one less chair than kid, when the music stops, the person who is missing a chair is out.
  • Musical statues – We almost did this one. Everyone dances to music and freezes when the music stops.
  • Piñata – This was a favorite at my birthday parties growing up. I debated doing one this year, but I decided Buddy would enjoy other games more.

Do you have other ideas to add to this list? Please share in the comments.

Ten Easy Activities To Do With A Two Year Old

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Last week Buddy turned three. We had a wonderful celebration with our family and friends, and I hope to blog about that soon. This week, however, I want to reflect on the activities that I did with Buddy during the last year. Here are my top ten favorite activities that we did when Buddy was two.

Floating LettersAll you need for this activity is a spatula, some foam letters, and water. It was so easy to set up, and Buddy played with it for a long, long time.

Whisking Bubbles

This was a Water Wednesday activity from last summer. I put some Dawn and water in a bowl, and Buddy used a whisk to make it bigger and bigger. He thought this was hilarious and eventually started to spread bubbles on his arms and legs.

Magnetic Letters Sensory Bin

I hid magnetic letters in a rice bin, and Buddy found them and matched them to letters on a baking pan. We started this one with a horseshoe magnet, but eventually switched to shovels for finding the letters. Buddy had a blast and played for more than an hour!

Mighty, Mighty Construction Site Bin

If I had to pick a favorite two year old activity, this would be it. We left these beans and trucks together in the bin, and Buddy often pushes it into the kitchen to play while I cook dinner. Buddy has played with this bin at least once a week until the last couple weeks, when I swapped out the beans to create the dinosaur world sensory bin (see the next post below). I expect he’ll ask for his beans to come back out again soon.

Dinosaur World Sensory Bin

I used some old felt and some leaves and rocks from the dollar store to create this bin for Buddy’s dinosaurs. He loves having a special place to play with his dinosaurs. This has replaced his construction site sensory bin as a thing for him to do while I cook.

Decorating Dinosaurs

We used a cookie cutter to cut out dinosaur shapes in playdoh. Then we decorated them with pony beads. It was so easy, and so much fun!

Laundry Basketball

This is probably our second favorite from this year. Buddy loves playing basketball with his beach ball! This version was with the laundry basket, and I played defense while I folded. Most nights, he uses his bed as the basket and if it stays in, it counts as a basket.

Bubbling Colors: A Science Activity for Toddlers

I put drops of food coloring in the bottom of muffin tins, and then I covered it with baking soda. Buddy had a water bottle of vinegar, and the result was bubbling colors. It was a fun and easy science activity.

Bowling for Cups

We stacked some leftover cups from a party and knocked them down with a rubber ball. This was one of Buddy’s first games, and he loved it!

Duplo Busy Bag

Duplos were another favorite this year, and we brought this busy bag with us on a lot of trips this year. He liked it so much, that I’ve made a couple more versions of it for playing at home as well.

Last year was a great year, and I’m looking forward to the new activities we’ll do now that Buddy is three. If you have any ideas, please share in the comment section.

Dinosaur World Sensory Bin

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Buddy loves dinosaurs, but until recently, we didn’t have many to play with at our house. However, he got these in his Easter basket, and now we have a lot! He was so excited to see his new dinosaurs, and he couldn’t wait to play!

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

I decided to create a fun play area for Buddy and his dinosaurs. I emptied our sensory bin, and added some green felt. Then, I cut some blue felt to create a lake. I also used felt to create a volcano. The base of the volcano was stiff felt, and then I stapled it to create a cone shape. Then I used staples and fabric glue to add on extra layers to the volcano.

The last time I was at the dollar store, I had this dinosaur bin in mind while I shopped. I found two fake ferns and two bags of different sized rocks. I curled up the fern stem to make it stand up, and then I reenforced it with some river rocks. The final touch was a couple of sticks I found outside. 

Buddy was thrilled with this dinosaur world sensory bin! He loves to make his dinos drink the water and eat the leaves. They walk along the logs and up the volcano. 

Some of his tiniest dinosaurs from this dinosaur toob even fit into the volcano!

This is one of my favorite sensory bins we’ve done. It’s so much fun, and not messy at all! Buddy had this out at his birthday party last weekend (more to come about that soon), and it was a huge hit!

Do you have any other dinosaur activity ideas? If so, please share in the comments.

Magnetic Letters Sensory Bin

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Buddy has been working on letters at preschool, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for fun alphabet activities to do at home. When I saw the idea of a magnetic alphabet sensory bin on Busy Toddler’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it. He plays with his construction site sensory bin all the time, but it’s been a long time since we’ve played in our rice bin. (Read more about our construction site sensory bin and our first rice bin here.) Even though I prefer black beans as a sensory bin filler, I chose to use rice because we have more of it. We don’t really have enough black beans to hide magnetic letters well.

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

I started by adding magnetic letters to the bottom of our sensory tub, and then I poured rice on top. The letters were completely hidden in the rice. I also pulled out an old cake pan, and I used a washable dry erase marker to write the alphabet on it. That way, Buddy could practice matching and identifying letters as he found them.

Buddy started with our large magnet (similar to this one). He put it in the rice, but he had a hard time getting any magnets to stick. Busy Toddler used a magnet wand instead, so maybe that works better for this type of activity. Buddy ended up pulling out the magnets and sticking it to his. The magnet wasn’t an effective tool, but he still enjoyed it. 

I pulled out a couple shovels, and Buddy was ecstatic! He was thrilled that he could now dig up the letters. Buddy asked me to play with him, so we both took a shovel and found letters. 

As we found letters, we matched them up to the letters on the cake pan. I used an old bag of magnetic letters, and there were some letter repeats. Any time we found a repeated letter, we stacked them on top of the match or put it on the edge of the pan. 

It took us awhile, but eventually we found all of the letters. But Buddy was having too much fun to stop! So he took the letters off of the pan and threw them back into the rice. I set the duplicate letters aside for the second round, so we only had one of each letter. 

We didn’t bury the letters quite as much for the second round, but Buddy was just as enthusiastic about finding them. 

This activity was amazing! Buddy played with the rice and letters for 75 minutes! (That’s forever in toddler time!) Then he decided he missed his beans and construction vehicles, so I switched the bin back. And Buddy played with those for another 20 minutes! It was a mess to clean up (beans are much neater than the rice), but it was so worth it. Buddy had so much fun, and it was great letter practice.

Do you have any fun alphabet activities? Please share in the comments!

Toddler Science: Jellybean Experiment

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I love finding activities to do with Buddy with materials I already have at home. When I came across the idea of doing a jellybean water experiment on Crafty Morning’s blog, I knew it would be fun and easy to do with Buddy. All you need is jellybeans, a plate, and a little water.

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

We started the experiment by making a circle of jellybeans on a plate. As we set things up, we talked about the different colors of jellybeans. I asked Buddy what he thought would happen when we added water, and he didn’t know. I put some water into a squeeze bottle, so it would be easy for him to squirt. He added water just until the edges of the jellybeans were wet. Then we sat back and watched. 

The colors started to bleed right away. I told Buddy how the water was dissolving the candy and the jellybeans’ colors were blending into the water. He was really interested in watching the colors come out into the middle. The black ones dominated the other colors, so if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t include the black jellybeans.

Once the colors had come out, we wondered what would happen if we blew on the water. At first, the red color went on top of the black color, and Buddy thought this was amazing!

Then we tried again, and all of the colors mixed together to form black. What Buddy found most  interesting was when he blows hard it made a hole in the water. 

The last thing we did was see what happened to the jellybeans. We discovered the top side was still shiny, but the part that was in the water was all bumpy! Buddy wanted to try a dissolved jellybean, so I let him have one.

This was a fun and easy experiment! Buddy and I both enjoyed it, and I think he learned something new. I’m sure we’ll try it again next Easter.

Snowball Toss Game

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Buddy loves games, so I wanted to find a new game to play as a family. When I came across a snowball toss game on Hands On As We Grow’s blog, I knew it would be perfect. I bought a set of indoor snowballs this winter, and I already had some plastic cups set aside for play use. (Read about our bowling game with these cups here.)

I set out six plastic cups in a triangle pattern. Then, I emptied our snowballs into a bucket for easy access. After that, we were ready to play! Since Buddy is pretty small, I didn’t set any guidelines for where he needed to be when throwing. We found that sitting was easier than standing. But we were a little frustrated because the cups tipped over a lot.

I fixed that problem by wrapping the outside of the triangle with blue painter’s tape. Then they were all together and no longer tipped over. Once that problem was solved, we had a ton of fun! With 10 snowballs to choose from and 6 cups to toss into, we could all go at the same time. Even Hubby wanted to play!

When the cups were taped together, there was an empty space in the middle. Whenever a snowball landed in there, we called out “Bonus!” We didn’t really keep score, so it didn’t matter. But Buddy thought it was so much fun whenever it happened.

This game was so fun and so easy! It was a lot of fun to play as a family, and I know we’ll play it again soon!

Cooking With Kids: Banana Muffins

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Buddy and I got a snow day last week, and it was Buddy’s first snow day ever! We spent the morning outside in the snow, but I needed an activity to keep us busy in the afternoon. I decided it would be a great time to bake something, and I quickly found this recipe for banana muffins from The Busy Baker. Luckily, we had everything we needed to make the muffins.

We started by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and putting muffin cups in the muffin tin. Buddy thought that was a lot of fun!

Then we put three ripe bananas in a bowl and mashed them with a fork. Buddy and I took turns mashing them, since it was a little difficult for him to do a thorough job of this on his own. 

Next, I measured 3/4 cup of white sugar, and Buddy poured it into the bowl. 

Then, I cracked an egg into a measuring cup, and Buddy added it to our bowl. We also added 1/3 cup vegetable oil and mixed it with a wooden spoon. We needed to take turns again to make sure that everything was combined. 

Next, we measured 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour and put it into a different bowl. 

Then we added the rest of the dry ingredients (1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt) to the bowl and mixed with a fork. This step Buddy could do by himself. 

Buddy helped me pour the dry ingredients into the wet ones, and we took turns mixing it with a wooden spoon. We also threw in some chocolate chips to the mixture, although the recipe doesn’t call for it. (I used a small amount that was left in the bag, which was about 1/4 cup.) Then we used an ice cream scoop to add batter to the muffin cups. Buddy tried to help me with this, but it ended up being a lot easier for me to do it myself.

The muffins baked for about 25 minutes, and then they had to cool. (We did that during nap time.) When Buddy got up from his nap, we each had a muffin as our afternoon snack. They were very moist and so delicious! We both loved them, and Hubby did too! We will definitely be using this recipe again the next time we have to get rid of a few old bananas.

 

Love Note Scavenger Hunt

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I first read about doing a love note hunt for Valentine’s Day in Real Simple magazine. They suggested hiding a note about something that you love about your children each day in February. Then on Valentine’s Day, they can look for all 14 notes. I thought it was a great idea, but 14 notes would be too much for Buddy.

After a little thought, I decided to take that idea and make it into a scavenger hunt for Buddy. We usually buy Buddy a small gift for Valentine’s Day, and this hunt will lead to that present. My mom often did scavenger hunts for my sister and me growing up, and we loved them! It’s a special tradition that I want to continue for Buddy.

I cut out 6 hearts out of red construction paper. On each heart, I wrote one thing that Hubby and I love about Buddy. I also put where to find the next clue. Since Buddy is still pretty young, I wanted to keep the hunt clues pretty straight forward. I’m very excited about doing our hunt this year, and I plan to make it a tradition for years to come.

Since it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, I don’t have any fun pictures of Buddy to share. But I wanted to share the idea before Valentine’s Day in case any of you want to do something similar for your family.

Heart Stamping Valentine

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Buddy’s school asked every student to make a Valentine for his or her classroom. I decided that we would do the heart stamping activity from last Valentine’s Day (read about it here). Once Buddy finished his painting, we made it into a valentine.

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

I started by pulling out a sheet of painting paper, which I taped down with painters tape. Then I pulled out a couple of paper plates, washable kids’ paint, a heart cookie cutter from the dollar store, and two toilet paper rolls. I poured paint on the plates, and I creased the toilet paper rolls to look like hearts. Finally I pulled out Buddy’s smock to keep the paint off of his clothes.

Buddy started with the cookie cutter. I liked using this in addition to the toilet paper hearts because it gave us a different size of heart. 

Once Buddy was done with the cookie cutter, we switched to the toilet paper hearts. We did these in two different colors. 

We let the picture dry for a couple hours. During that time, I asked Buddy about all of the things he loves about school. Once the picture was dry, I wrote his responses into some of the hearts with a black felt tip pen. Then we added a Happy Valentine’s Day and Buddy’s name at the bottom. 

I’m really happy with how this turned out! It was a lot of fun and very easy.

Decorating Dinosaurs

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This Christmas season, Buddy and I decorated play doh Christmas trees with pony beads. I got the idea from Child Care Land’s blog, and Buddy loved it! But I had other things to blog about in December, so I never got a chance to blog about this activity.

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

Since Buddy loved it so much, I wanted to take the idea and adapt it to something besides a Christmas tree. Since Buddy is interested in dinosaurs, I decided to use dinosaur cookie cutters and decorate them with spots. This could easily be done with any shape though – other animals or even letters and numbers. (These are the cookie cutters that I have and they’re great!)

Buddy and I started by rolling out playdoh and cutting out the dinosaur shapes. He loved using the cookie cutter to get his dinosaurs.

Then Buddy used the pony beads to give his dinos spots. He had a great time squishing the beads into the playdoh!

Buddy decorated two dinosaurs, and then he decided to play with the third one instead of decorating it. He made the dino walk around the table, and then the dino went swimming in the beads. 

Buddy loved having a new, fun way to play with playdoh. I’m sure we’ll do this again soon.

Do you have other fun and easy play doh ideas? Please share in the comments.

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