Terri Thompson

Fun Color Games for Toddlers

December 27, 2020 By Terri Thompson

Do you want to introduce colors to your toddler?

The best way is to do it through play, which is why these fun color games for toddlers are perfect for learning. Your little ones will play and have so much fun learning all about colors.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Color Games for Toddlers

All of these activities will keep you toddler active while they explore colors. And, they won’t just be learning about colors. Some of these games also incorporate texture, sorting, or fine motor skills.

You’ll want to try all of these fun ideas!

Color Games for Toddlers

You little ones will have so much fun learning with these fun hands-on color match games for toddlers.

Backyard Color Match Game for Toddlers

Take your learning outside and play this fun color match game with your little one.

Indoor Color Scavenger Hunt for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Use colored paper to find missing items throughout the house. Your toddlers will love this scavenger hunt.

Color Search and Find

Photo Credit: www.3dinosaurs.com

Help your little ones find items to match their color cards.

No-mess Color Mixing Art

Photo Credit: www.mamasmiles.com

Use paint in a bag to explore color mixing with this no-mess activity.

Simple Color Sorting Game for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Photo Credit: www.mamasmiles.com

Learn about colors and sorting with this simple color sorting game.

Mess Free Rainbow Activity

Photo Credit: www.thekeeperofthememories.com

Explore all the colors in the rainbow with this fun and mess-free activity.

Touch & Feel Colour Cards

Photo Credit: www.teach-me-mommy.com

Explore color and texture with these DIY touch and feel color cards.

Car Color Sort: Outdoor Math

Photo Credit: theeducatorsspinonit.com

Practice sorting your toy cars with this fun outdoor color game.

DIY Color Wheel Toy

Photo Credit: www.naturalbeachliving.com

Let you toddler practice matching colors with this fun DIY color wheel.

Easy Color Sorting Activity

Photo Credit: www.naturalbeachliving.com

Practice sorting colors with colorful containers and buttons.

Sweeping Colors Sorting Activity Inspired by the Cat in the Hat

Photo Credit: inspirationlaboratories.com

Practice sorting colors with this fun gross motor sweeping game.

Pom Pom Color Sort

Photo Credit: busytoddler.com

Sort your pom poms by color with this fun sorting activity.

Are you ready to have some fun? Choose one (or more) of these color games for toddlers. You and your little one will love every minute of it!

Color Fun for Toddlers

In addition to the fun color games listed above. Here are a few more fun colors toys that are great for hands-on learning with your little one.

5 Fun Ways to Learn With a Daily Weather Report

December 20, 2020 By Terri Thompson

I don’t know about you, but I check the weather app on my phone every single day. Sometimes, I’ll check multiple times.

But, do you ever share this habit with your kids? You should. It’s a great way to learn.

There’s more you can do than just simply checking in the weather. Check out these fun ways to learn with a daily weather report.

This simple STEM activity is fun and requires absolutely no prep time!

Get out your phone for this simple weather report activity. You can learn so much with a daily weather report. Here are a few ideas to try.

Five Ways to Learn with a Daily Weather Report

Compare temperatures

Use your math skills to discover the difference in temperatures. Find the difference between a day’s high temperature and its low temperature.

For example: Today’s high is 88 degrees and the low is 59 degrees. I use subtraction to find the difference. There will be a 29 degree difference today!

You could compare temperatures over the week. Record the temperature at the same time everyday. For example: What was the temperature at 3:00 pm every day? Find the temperature difference over the week. Find the difference between the week’s highest temperature and the lowest temperature. Or, simply find the difference between Monday’s 3:00 pm temperature and Tuesday’s 3:00 pm difference.

Learn to read a radar

Nowadays, we carry a weather report around in our pocket and can access it anytime. Because of that, I consider it a life skill to be able to click on the radar and know what it is telling you.

Do you know what all the colors mean? Do you know how to make the radar move and understand what it tells you?

Share this information with your kids and teach them how to understand what you’re seeing on the radar.

Note: You will want to pick a rainy or snowy day for this. There’s not much to see on the radar on a clear day!

Learn about predictions

Weather forecasting is all about making predictions. But, these predictions are pulled out of thin air, they’re based on a lot of information like weather patterns, radars, climate, and more.

You can learn more with one of these informative books:

Weather Forecasting by Gail Gibbons

Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons

What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda DeWitt

Or, you can try this activity to learn more about weather prediction. Record the weather first thing in the morning. At the end of the day, go back to this prediction. Was the weather forecast correct? What changed?

Next look at the extended forecast and find the prediction for three days from now and five days from now. Was the forecast correct? What changed? Can you come up with some reasons why?

Use the weather report to plan the week

How does the weather report help you plan for the day or for the week? It can tell you whether you need to wear a winter coat or a light jacket. Or whether or not you need to grab an umbrella.

Are you planning a trip to the pool? Sit down with your kids and the extended forecast and have them help you pick the best day to go.

Look at the weather report before picking out your clothes for the next day. How did the weather report help you plan?

Other weather report activities

What else can you learn with a daily weather report?

You can find all sorts of information: rain totals, wind speed, air pressure, pollen count, etc.

You can look up cities around the world and see how it is different from what where you live.

Can you come up with some more ways to learn with a daily weather report?

Get ready to learn with these fun daily weather for kids activities. Learn to read a radar, use the weather forecast, and more.

Learn More With a Book About the Weather

Combine this weather activity with a fun book to learn even more. Here are some great weather books that I’d recommend:

Do want more STEM activities?

Wouldn’t it be so much fun to get STEAM family activities delivered to your inbox? I think so! That’s why I’ve created this fun series, STEAM Family Fun, to be delivered to your inbox. After going through all the letters in STEAM each week with a fun activity devoted to each, you’ll start receiving a fun STEAM activity once a month. (And I’ll also pop up in your inbox occasionally if I’ve got other fun things to share.)

Fill out the form below to start receiving STEAM Family Fun in your inbox.

Cardboard Hockey Stick Craft

December 15, 2020 By Terri Thompson

It’s hockey season!

Do you have a kid that loves hockey? Here’s a great craft that they’ll love.

Make this fun Cardboard Hockey Stick to celebrate this fun sport and to make a fun decoration for any hockey fan.

Your young hockey fans will love to make this simple Cardboard Hockey Stick craft. It's fun to make and use to decorate your room.

Are you ready to make your hockey craft?

Let’s grab some supplies and get started!

Supplies Needed:

Cardboard from a shipping box
Pencil or marker
Scissors
Craft paint (in whatever color you want for your hockey stick)
Washi tape

How to make your hockey stick craft

First, you’ll want to draw a simple hockey stick shape on your cardboard.

Hint: If you’re unsure of how to get started, just Google “hockey stick” and take a look at the photos. It’s a simple shape, but make sure to use a pencil so you can erase if needed.

Once you have your hockey stick outline, cut out the shape.

If you’re working with young kids, an adult should do this step. Cardboard boxes can be hard to cut through and need sharper scissors.

And, if you want to do this craft with a group of kids, I would recommend prepping the cardboard ahead of time and then the kids can paint and decorate their hockey sticks.

Once you have your hockey stick cut out, paint the entire surface in the color of your choice.

We chose black, but you can do any color. You can even choose your favorite team’s colors!

Let your paint dry before moving on to the next step. Once it’s dry, pick out a few fun rolls of washi tape.

Use the washi tape to make stripes on your hockey stick. Put them around the bottom or the top. Or, put your stripes anywhere you’d like.

Don’t have washi tape? Use can draw designs on masking tape and use it instead. Or, you can just decorate your hockey stick craft with stickers!

And, we’re done! Wasn’t this such a fun and simple craft?

Your hockey fans will want to make a few of these. Maybe for their favorite team or perhaps one for the team they play on.

Check out my favorite craft resources.

This fun hockey stick craft only uses a few supplies. Grab some cardboard from your recycle bin to use with these supplies:

Bead Threading Fine Motor Addition Activity

December 11, 2020 By Terri Thompson

Fine motor and math is such a fun combination.

It turns math into a fun and hands-on activity. What could be better?

This Bead Threading Fine Motor Addition activity does just that. It turn addition in a hands-on activity that’s engaging and fun. Let’s grab some supplies and get started.

Exercise your fine motor skills while you practice your addition math facts with this fun bead threading fine motor addition activity.

Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided the supplies used in this post. This activity and all ideas are my own. There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I love this activity because it requires just a little prep time. The supplies are common and easy to find and prepping this activity takes just a few short minutes.

Supplies needed for your fine motor addition activity

Fuzzy craft sticks (pipe cleaners)
Pony Beads
Flashcards or a place to write addition problems

Shop for pony beads here.

To prep this activity, take two or three of your pipe cleaners and twist them into a loop making sure you have two tails with enough room to string several beads. (See photo above for an example).

How to play this fine motor addition activity

This activity is so simple, but it’s a fun way to practice addition.

To start, you’ll need one of your pipe cleaner loops. Choose an addition problem and grab your beads.

Take the sum, 3 + 7. To solve this problem, add three beads to one of the pipe cleaner tails and then add seven beads to the second tail. Count up your beads to get your total, ten.

So easy, right?

Fun variations on this activity

There are so many fun ways you can mix up this activity. Here are a few:

Add beads yourself to your pipe cleaner loops and have your child write down the addition problem. For example, in the photo above, they’d write, 3+1=4, 3+2=5, and 3+7=10.

If you’re working with a preschooler, keep the pipe cleaners in a long stick and have your child work on numbers. Give them the number 9 and have them string nine beads on their pipe cleaner.

Create a busy bag from this activity. Add some flashcards, beads and pipe cleaner loops to a small bag. Now you can take this activity along on the go or have it ready for your child any time they want to work on addition.

You’ll love these other fine motor math manipulatives

There is such a wealth of fine motor math manipulatives. Check out some of these options you can use for practicing math, subtraction, and more.

Do you want to do more activities with your family?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Thanksgiving Board Books for Toddlers

November 10, 2020 By Terri Thompson

When my girls were little, we had so many board books. Books for every holiday and every day in between.

So, if you’re looking for some great ideas for Thanksgiving board books, I’ve got you covered.

Here are some old favorites, some new favorites, and of course, some well-loved characters.

Find some great new books to read with your babies and toddlers this fall season with this list of fun Thanksgiving board books.

Fun Thanksgiving Board Books for Babies and Toddlers

Whether you’re looking for your kids’ favorite character (like Curious George and Llama Llama) or you want a simple way to introduce your little ones to the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve got you covered.

This list of books are all perfect for your little one.

Are you ready to stock your library?