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Preschool Activities

Shape Hunt

January 10, 2012 By Terri Thompson

How many circles can you find in your house? Can you find some hidden triangles?

Learning about shapes can be so much fun. It lends itself so well to hands-on activities.

Recently, we went on a shape hunt throughout out house and had an absolute blast hunting for hidden shapes.

This shape activity was easy to set up and it was a great way to sneak a little learning into our fun.

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.

How to Set-Up:

Before playing, I took four index cards and drew a different shape on each.

You can do as many or as few shapes as you want.

I chose to use four basic shapes: rectangle, square, triangle, and circle.

How to play:

Shuffle the cards and spread them out shape side down.

Have your kids take turns turning over a card.

The first child draws a card and everyone runs off to look for examples of that shape. Once you find something come back to the collection area.

Small items can be brought to the collection area, larger item can just be written down on the card.

See how many examples of each shape your kids can find!

Once you’re finished with one shape, pick another card and get searching again!

Looking for triangles was challenging for us but, we did end up finding quite a few examples.

Some of the triangles the girls found were quite creative, such as our dog’s ears and the tip of a pencil.

Circles were everywhere, even on our own bodies (our heads)!

We found quite a few large examples for rectangle, such as the walls, doors, and the fish tank.

Even though we found a lot of squares, my oldest still wanted to make her own. She took her scissors and cut a piece of paper into a square to add to our pile.

We had a lot of fun with our shape hunt and it was a great way to get moving indoors. I’m sure we’ll be playing this game again and again and again!

Go on a shape hunt around the house. This is such a fun preschool or toddler activity.

Find more shape activities here:

Get Crafty: Shape Collages

Go Outside: Driveway Shape Maze

Sewing Circles: Simple Shapes to Sew

10 Shape Activities for Toddlers at Hands On As We Grow

Water Play for Toddlers

November 7, 2011 By Terri Thompson

Over the weekend, I set up a water play station for AJ.

I laid out a bowl full of water, a few empty containers, and  scoops, spoons and dippers. I placed the containers in a baking dish in the hope to contain some of the water.

Yes, I did set out glass containers for my toddler. I planned on sitting with her the entire time, so I knew that wouldn’t cause a problem.

She was eager to begin once she saw the set-up. She grabbed a measuring cup right away and started scooping.

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.

She spent a lot of time at the beginning transferring water from one container to another.

She scooped and poured and scooped and poured.

She tested the limits of the containers to see just how much water she could get in one and then enjoyed watching the water flow over the edges.

At one point, she even tried to see if she could pick the water up with her hands. That didn’t work!

And then, she tried pouring…  oh dear!

We had a lot of fun, soaked a few towels, and had to completely change AJ’s clothes.

Nonetheless, I’m sure we’ll do this again! Although, the next time, I may just lug all the (plastic) containers into the bathtub.

Preschool Corner

October 4, 2011 By Terri Thompson

It’s been awhile since I posted about our preschool corner. It’s a small cubby and I place a variety of learning activities in it. Lizzie does not attend preschool so it’s up to me to get her ready for kindergarten next year. I’ve been gathering and using quite a lengthy list of activities, so I thought I’d share a few that we’ve been working on lately.

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.

1. Sorting – Lizzie loves to sort, so it’s been a challenge for me to come up with ways for her to sort. This is a recent idea. I found clip art examples of different items that were hot or cold, punched them out and made two simple sorting mats. Her job is to decide if it’s hot or cold. Lizzie is a whiz at this sort of activity, but she enjoys doing it, so we keep it up.

3. Alphabet puzzle – I ran across this puzzle at the dollar section of a certain favorite big-box store. Lizzie is familiar with all of the capital letters, but still needs to work on her lowercase letters. I pull these about five letters at a time because she had grown tired of the entire puzzle. Dividing it into small pieces seemed to renew interest.

4. Building words – We love our magnet letters and usually use them on an old cookie sheet. Lizzie is currently working on spelling names. She’s learning her name, her sister’s name, our dog’s name and our cat’s name. (Charlie is the dog, by the way!) I have all the letters in the basket so she has to dig through to find the letter she is looking for.

5.  Punching – I’ll sometimes set out a fun punch, scraps of paper and a small basket to catch all of the little bits of paper. Lizzie and AJ both love to use the punches. They work on their fine-motor skills and learn about cleaning up after themselves.

6. Transferring – This is AJ’s favorite activity, so it often shows up in our preschool corner. We do a lot of transfer work with puffballs. Sometimes we’ll working on transferring from one container to another with tweezers or kitchen tongs. To make it more challenging, I found this mini ice cube tray and the girls have to put one puff ball in each hole.

These are just a few of the learning activities I have set out on a daily basis. When I have them set up and easily accessible, the girls will often go grab one and start working on them on their own. They love learning and I try to keep it fun for them at their young age.

Do you do preschool at home? Where do you find your ideas?

Coin Matching Game

September 26, 2011 By Terri Thompson

I can’t take credit for this game, but I did want to share it with you since it is such a great idea. I found the original idea at this post from Sun Scholars.

This is a relatively simple game and it takes just a few minutes to prep. I took a scrap piece of card stock, a handful of coins and my Sharpie. I traced the different coins and wrote in how much each was worth.That’s all it took! I always present it to Lizzie with the exact coins she will need.

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.

Matching the size can be a little difficult as some coins, such as the penny and nickle, are very similar in size.But, I don’t necessarily want Lizzie to just learn the size of the coins; I want her to start associating each coin with how much it’s worth. This game has been so effective in helping her learn this concept. She also seems to really enjoy playing it, therefore, it tends to show up in our preschool corner on a regular basis.

Butterfly Color Match

August 16, 2011 By Terri Thompson

After we packed away all the contents of our space basket, I started working on filling it with butterfly-related games and books.One activity I decided to make myself was a butterfly color match game.

My first stop was our local home improvement store for paint swatches. I picked some of the brightest colors I could find and made sure I had two each of the ten colors.

You could have as many or as few different colors as you want, as long as you have two of each color.

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.

I kept one swatch of each color whole and used the other to cut a butterfly shape.Then, I showed the girls the cards and how they match. But, other than that, I have no actual rules to this game.I tend to let them use the cards as they want.

There are times when they make up a game that I never would have even thought of. Usually, though, they do play a match game with this set.

I had my 2-year-old in mind when I made this game. I knew this would be something she would be able to do and it would allow her to participate and play with the butterfly basket.It’s so easy to find activities at my 4-year-old’s level and much, much harder to find easier, toddler-friendly activities.

I added several other activities, games and books in the basket, all with the butterfly theme. Don’t worry! I’ll share them all here soon!

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