Thursday, May 17, 2012

MINI FELT BOARD

Every parent should make their child a Felt Board. Not only is it a fun way to teach a child about colors and shapes but it is definitely a great time passing activity.  I made two of these for Colton, one large one that i keep at home and this Mini one that i keep in the car for road trips or dining out at a restaurant.  Felt boards teach kid's about creativity.

Here's what you need:
*SHEETS OF FELT (multiple colors and 1 LARGE piece of felt in either white or black for the board)
*CARDBOARD (a sturdy piece for the actual felt board)
*GLUE GUN

To make the felt board you wrap the large piece of felt around the piece of cardboard and glue it with the glue gun.  I suggest using either black or white for the board since most colors will stand out against them.

To make the pieces, i just cut out multiple shapes and sizes of the felt. I bought lots of different colors of felt to make more variety.  The great thing about a felt board is that the felt pieces stick without needing anything.  Like i said before this is a GREAT activity for the car and restaurant.  My son absolutely LOVES this! I think i'm going to add more pieces for him to play with.
(Here's a picture of the mini one that we use in the car) 

ICE CREAM COLORS ACTIVITY

At 20 months, I am working on teaching colors to my son right now.  I love having multiple activities that are focused on colors.  I thought this activity was super cute. I saw a variation on a website and decided to make my own version for my son.

This activity uses ice cream and ice cream cones for color matching.  It's a really cute idea and one of my favorite color activities.



All i did was draw out ice cream scoops on different colors of card stock. Then i drew triangles (for the cones) on brown card stock.  On the ice cream scoops, i wrote out the  names of each color. Then i cut out a matching circle of card stock and glued one to each ice cream cone in order to make it a matching activity. I laminated all the pieces and now have a cute way of teaching colors to my son.  This activity could also be a great busy bag idea for the car or airplane. I will definitely be taking this one on vacation for a car activity. 

SHAPE SORTING ACTIVITY 1

Here's what you need:
*SHAPE SORTING GRID (i made mine using Excel. I laminated it for durability)
*FOAM SHAPES or FOAM SHEETS (i bought a package of foam sheets in multiple colors. Then i cut out the shapes that i needed.)

All i did for this activity was create a Shape Sorting grid on the computer, printed it and laminated it.  Then i took the foam sheets and cut out the corresponding shapes in multiple colors. I recommend using basic shapes that are very different from each other. I made 3 of each shape but you could do more. 

My son is still a little young for this activity but it is another one that i will be glad that i have once he's a little bit older.


CHARACTER PUZZLE

This is probably one of my favorite activities that i have made so far.  It teaches your lil one matching using some of their favorite characters!


Here's what you need:
*PRINT OUTS OF YOUR CHILD'S FAVORITE CHARACTERS (i googled images of my son's faves and then printed them big enough to fill about half of a 8x10 piece of paper)
*LAMINATOR (again this is optional but it really does make it more durable)


All i did was print out several pictures of Colt's favorite characters. I used ones with distinct bodies or outfits.  Once they were printed, i cut each one out, carefully separating their head from their body. Once they are all cut out i laminate all the pieces and cut them out.  Then you have a really cute matching game. You can even call out a character's name and have your child find the parts to build them.  



My son is 20 months old and he actually was able to build a couple of them.  Right now he mostly just finds their faces and but we are working on matching their bodies to the faces.





WIPES CONTAINER FUN!

If your little one is anything like my son Colton, then you know what it's like to have a child who is obsessed with ripping every single wipe from the container. No matter if i try and hide the container, somehow he finds it and pulls every one out and throws them around the room. So i decided one day to take one of my empty wipe containers and fill it with scraps of material instead of wipes.  This way Colt can pull them out to his heart's content.  He didn't know the difference and just loves emptying the container and then stuffing them all back in. (This is also a great car or plane activity)


Here's what you need:
*WIPES CONTAINER
*SCRAPS OF BRIGHTLY PATTERNED FABRIC

All i did to make this was cut different size strips of fabric and put them into the container. How incredibly easy is that??


I even added decorations to the outside of the wipes container (not pictured) to make it more appealing to Colt. He really loves playing with this and let me say that it is so much easier to clean up since Colt would rip up the wipes into little pieces. 


SENSORY BALLOON ACTIVITY

My son is at that stage where he has to touch, squeeze, and shake everything. So he absolutely LOVES these balloons.  Let you child explore with this activity to learn different textures.


Here's what you need:
*BALLOONS (You want to get the kind that are good quality, and thick. Do not use ones that are too thin like water balloons. They need to be of good quality to ensure that they won't break.)
*SALT, FLOUR, RICE, OATMEAL, AND POPCORN KERNELS


Fill each balloon about 2/3 full with a different item and tie. Then let your little one explore! This is probably the easiest activity i've ever made!! And besides the balloons, everything  you need is probably already in your pantry.  


SHADES OF COLOR ACTIVITY

Teach your toddler about colors and the difference between shades of colors with this activity using paint chips from your local hardware store. 


Every time I go with my husband to Lowes or Home Depot I always think about grabbing some of the paint chip cards and use them to teach my son about colors.  So last time i did grab some and came up with some fun activities to use them with.  



Here is what you need:
*SHADES OF COLOR ACTIVITY GRID (I made mine using Excel and it came out perfect. I also laminated it for durability. Purchasing a laminator was the smartest purchase I made. I laminate so many things since kids tend to be really rough with things!)
*PAINT CHIP CARDS (I used the cards that had multiple shades on each)
*VELCRO DOTS (optional, but it makes it so much easier for the child)
*GLUE GUN

Once you make the grid, cut small squares of each color and shade out of the paint chips. You don't want them to be too small, but small enough to fit into each grid square.  I laminated the little squares but it's not mandatory.  Next i glue one half of the velcro dot set to the activity grid, one for each square.  Then i glued the other half to the color squares.  This was very easy to make and this is how it turned out.

My son is still a little young to do this activity but i'm glad that I have it made for when he's ready.  Right now he just likes putting the squares on and ripping them off the chart. 


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

COLOR LEARNING ACTIVITY

Let your child learn colors and motor skills with this fun and easy to make button activity. They learn their colors by the brightly colored felt squares. And they sharpen their motor skills by practicing buttoning and unbuttoning the felt squares onto the ribbon. 


Here's what you need:
*Brightly colored felt 
*Thick width ribbon (I chose a cute Mickey ribbon)
*Large buttons in bright colors

First, cut a piece of ribbon to about 8-10 inches long. Then with a needle and thread, sew one large button on each of the ends of the ribbon.  After you finish the ribbon, cut the felt into squares about 4in x 4in. I cut about 4 squares of each color so that my son could do patterns.  
Fold each square in half and (on the folded side) cut a slit in the middle to make a small opening in the center of each square. (Just big enough for the button to fit through).  

Now your ready to let your toddler have fun learning about colors! :))