• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Email Me
    • Disclosure & Copyright
  • Start Here
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Books for Moms

Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Spelling Activities
  • Family Fun
  • STEM
  • Movie Night
  • Toddler Activities

Toddler Activities

Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game for Toddlers

December 2, 2019 By Trisha

Are you looking for a festive, Christmas themed alphabet activity for toddlers or preschoolers? You’ll love our Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game.

Use it to practice uppercase and lowercase letter recognition and letter sounds.

Practice your ABCs with this fun and simple Christmas tree alphabet matching game. This easy-to-make game is fun for toddlers and preschoolers.

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.

Supplies Needed for Christmas Tree Letter Game

Felt (you could also use paper)
Scissors
Marker

How to Set Up the Christmas Alphabet Matching Game

Cut out 26 triangles to represent your Christmas trees. I was able to get 26 trees out of 2 pieces of green felt. Feel free to make your Christmas trees whatever color you like. If you don’t have felt, you can use paper instead. You could even have your toddler help you color or decorate the paper trees before playing the game.

Cut out stars. I only had one piece of yellow felt, so I cut out 13 stars and used both sides of each star for the game. 2 pieces of yellow felt should allow you to cut out 26 stars. I drew a star on a piece of paper, cut it out, and then traced it onto the felt.

Use a marker to write uppercase letters on your trees – one letter for each tree. You might want to have something underneath the felt as you’re writing. My permanent marker seeped through the felt onto my table.

Draw lowercase letters on each of your felt stars. Since I only had 13 stars, I drew the letters a-m on one side and n-z on the second side.

We played this game on a table. If you have a large felt board, it would great to play on there as well.

How to Play the Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game

Set out the Christmas trees with the capital letters. (I set up half since I only had 13 stars).

Place the stars below the trees. If you are using 13 stars, make sure the correct letters are facing up.

Have your child match the stars to the Christmas trees.

You might show him an example of where to place the stars. Stars on a Christmas tree usually go on top, so that’s where we put ours. Sometimes my 3-year-old placed the stars right in the middle of the tree. That’s totally fine, too.

The goal is to match the lowercase letter on the star with the uppercase letter on the tree.

Talk about the letters as your child plays. “What letter do you see?” “That’s a capital (big) A. Can you find a lowercase (little) A?” “What letter is on the tree?” “What letter is on the star in your hand?”

Practice your ABCs with this fun and simple Christmas tree alphabet matching game. This easy-to-make game is fun for toddlers and preschoolers.

Play a Find the Letter Game

You can use the trees to practice finding letters, too. Can you find the letter R?

Christmas alphabet matching game

Work on letter sounds as you play this game. What sound does the letter R make? Can you find the letter that makes the /b/ sound?

You can even practice beginning letter sounds. What letter does tree start with?

Use the Christmas trees and stars to spell your child’s name. Ask your child to find the letters in her name, or call out the letters for her.

More Christmas Tree Themed Activities for Kids

Christmas Tree Number Hunt

Baking Soda Painted Christmas Trees

Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

Fun Christmas Math Activities for Kids

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.

Beginning Letter Sounds Bat Matching Activity

October 23, 2019 By Trisha

A bat themed activity is great for Halloween. You could also use it as part of a night themed unit studying nocturnal animals.

Try our beginning letter sounds bat matching activity for toddlers and preschoolers as part of your bat theme or as a stand-alone Halloween activity.

Practice the alphabet and letter sounds with this fun Halloween beginning letter sounds bat matching activity that is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

Beginning Letter Sounds Bat Matching Activity

Supplies Needed for the Bat Matching Halloween Game

Bat cutouts (or black cardstock and scissors)

Silver marker

Painter’s tape (optional)

Flashlight

Practice the alphabet and letter sounds with this fun Halloween beginning letter sounds bat matching activity that is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

How to Set Up the Beginning Letter Sounds Activity

Determine what letters you want to work on. I recommend working on just a handful of letters at a time. Choose 3-4 words for each letter. I used Halloween themed words. Here’s a list of Halloween words for inspiration. (Use this same idea with older kids for spelling or sight words.)

Write your chosen letters and words on the bat cutouts. I used a combination of foam bats from Hobby Lobby and bats I cut out of cardstock. I simply traced a foam bat and cut it out. You can often find bat cutouts at Target (in the Dollar Spot) or at Michael’s as well.

I chose to write uppercase letters for my letter bats as a bonus letter matching activity. You could use lowercase letters instead.

Now you have the makings of a simple matching game.

How to Play the Beginning Letter Sounds Bat Matching Game

Place your letter bats in one location in your room. You could lay them on the floor, place them on table, or tape them to a wall. (Be sure that your tape won’t harm your wall. Painter’s tape is usually safe on most painted surfaces. Just don’t leave it on there for long periods of time. Take it down when your game is over.)

Now hide your bats around the room. I taped mine to the walls in my sort of dark hallway. You could also lay the bats on the floor or on different pieces of furniture if you don’t want to use tape.

The goal of the game is for your child to take a word bat and match its first letter to the correct letter bat.

Here’s the extra fun part. Use a flashlight. (Talk about flashlight safety with your child and how we don’t shine lights in people’s eyes – including his/her own.)

Bat Matching Alphabet Game

Have your child shine the flashlight on a word bat. Read the word on the bat to your child. Ask him what letter it starts with. “That’s the word ‘moon.’ What letter does moon start with? What letter do you see?”

As you’re reading the words, also practice the beginning letter sounds. Say: “B says /b/. /b/ /b/ bat. Bat starts with the letter b.”

Have your child take the word bat and place it near the matching letter bat.

Practice the alphabet and letter sounds with this fun Halloween beginning letter sounds bat matching activity that is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

It’s not important that your toddler or even preschooler reads the words. You just want him or her to work on letter sounds and associating what that first letter looks like with its letter sound. It is important for you and your child to say the letter sounds as you’re playing.

Using the flashlight helps to highlight the letters. My toddler wanted to play this game again and again just so he could go around finding the bats with the flashlight.

More Bat Themed Halloween Activities

Bats in a Cave Sight Word Game

Halloween Bat Crafts for Kids

Bat Number Treasure Hunt at Inspiration Laboratories

Halloween Black Bat Sensory Bin at Pre-K Pages

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.

Best Halloween Movies for Toddlers

September 17, 2019 By Terri Thompson

A Halloween movie night can be so much fun! But, most Halloween movies for families are not suitable for toddlers.

Don’t give up hope! I’ve got your back.

Here are some fun choices of Halloween movies for toddlers. They’re not too long, not too scary, and just right for your little ones.

These Halloween movies for toddlers are not too spooky and are just right for your little ones. They'll love these fun and adorable options.

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.

These movie choices may not be the most enjoyable for adults (honestly, how many movies for toddlers are?), but they’re good choices that will keep your little ones happy. And that in turn will make your movie watching time much more enjoyable.

So, gather up the kids, queue up a movie, and have a good time together.

Fun Halloween Movies for Toddlers

Room on the Broom

This gentle movie is based on the classic book by Julia Donaldson. It’s fun, whimsical, and very sweet. This is my number one choice of great toddler Halloween movies. You can view it via Amazon Prime and it’s also available on Netflix.

Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About Halloween

Learn all about Halloween and fall from the Cat in the Hat. This fun choice is full of silliness and catchy songs. If you toddler is already a fan of the Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That, they’ll love this choice.

Curious George: A Halloween Boofest

In this movie, George and his friends has a fun (and slightly spooky) adventure after hearing the legend of No Noggin, who likes to kick the hats off of everyone’s heads. It’s a fun choice for little Curious George fans.

Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie

Like most Pooh movies, this is a gentle take on a Halloween story. The friends get a little scared because Halloween can be so spooky. But, they learn that the can be brave together.

A Very Brave Witch

This selection from Scholastic is very short (it clocks in at only 7 minutes), but it is a sweet story about a little witch who meets a new friend and experiencing trick or treating for the first time. You can watch it alone via Amazon Prime or watch it along with several short Halloween selections from Scholastic.

Spookly the Square Pumpkin

Like some of the other choices on this list, so many great toddler Halloween movies are based on beloved children’s books. In this movie, Spookly is teased because he’s a different shape, but with the help of some very good friends he learns that different is awesome.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Monster Musical

This movie from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is just the right amount of spooky for your little ones. They’ll love the music and the story line. It’s a great choice for fans of the show.

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Your toddlers are not too young to be introduced to this Halloween classic. This is a perfect choice that everyone in the family will love!

Tips For a Successful Halloween Movie Night With Toddlers

You don’t have to have a movie night at night. A tired toddler will just not enjoy a movie. Try having a movie afternoon or even a movie at breakfast.

Keep things short. Since toddlers have a short attention span, you shouldn’t pop in a full-length movie. These selections are all either around 30 minutes or an hour in length.

Let them play. Don’t expect your toddler to set still for an entire more. If they’d rather sit and play while watching, let them. They’ll have fun and you’ll have a better time too.

These Halloween movies for toddlers are not too spooky and are just right for your little ones. They'll love these fun and adorable options.

Recommended Movie Night Resources

If you’ve got Amazon Prime, it can be so easy to have a fun movie night. They’ve got so many family friendly movies, including many of these Disney classic live action movies for families available via streaming (in addition to other great benefits). You can sign up for Amazon Prime via this link.

You may also like one of these themed movie lists

Top 10 Sports Movies for Families

Fun Superhero Movies for Families

Top Family Movies on Amazon Prime

The Best Family Friendly Movies for Family Movie Night

Spend more quality time 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.

Leaf Hunt Alphabet Game for Toddlers

September 9, 2019 By Trisha

Fall is a great time to do learning activities with leaves.

Our Leaf Hunt Alphabet Game for Toddlers is a fantastic way to work on learning letters. You can practice name recognition and letter sounds, too.

Learn the alphabet with this fun outdoor leaf hunt alphabet game for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll have fun moving and learning!

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.

Leaf Hunt Alphabet Game for Toddlers

Supplies Needed for the Leaf Themed Alphabet Learning

Leaves – collect real leaves, use silk leaves, or cut paper leaves

Chalk markers or permanent marker

Bucket or container

Drawing board (We used an Etch a Sketch Freestyle. A dry erase or chalk board would work well, too.)

How to Set Up the Leaf Hunt Alphabet Game

Head outside and collect some fallen leaves. We were able to collect magnolia tree leaves and tulip tree leaves after a storm had blown them out of the trees. Real leaves do become brittle and can crumble after a while. Larger leaves tend to do better. You can also preserve the leaves. Instead of real leaves, you can use silk leaves from the floral or craft department or you cut leaves from paper. If you want to save the paper leaves, you might want to laminate them or cover them with contact paper.

Write letters on the leaves. I used a chalk marker to write on real leaves. We’ve found that a chalk marker is fun for drawing on leaves as well. The chalk marker is erasable. If you change your mind, just wipe it off. Permanent markers would be fine substitute.

I drew uppercase and lowercase letters on our leaves. You could just start with uppercase letters or even just choose a selection of letters if your child is just starting to learn the alphabet. Sometimes too many letters can be overwhelming.

Spread the leaves out in the grass or on your floor.

Learn the alphabet with this fun outdoor leaf hunt alphabet game for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll have fun moving and learning!

How to Play

There are a few different ways we played this leaf game. The goal is to get kids moving and learning letters.

Game 1: Read the Letter

For this game, simply have your child pick up a leaf and bring it to you. Ask her what letter is on the leaf.

Outdoor fun with this leaf hunt alphabet game

You can also work on letter sounds. “That’s the letter B. B says /b/.”

Continue picking up leaves and saying the names (and sounds) of the letters.

You can add a bucket to your learning game if you wish. Have your child carry the bucket and place a leaf inside. Then, bring it to you and tell you what letter is on it.

Game 2: Find the Letter

For this game, you’ll need a drawing board. We use an Etch a Sketch Freestyle. A dry erase board or a chalk board would work equally as well. You could also use alphabet cards or letters written on paper squares. We were doing the activity outside, so I wanted something that wouldn’t blow away.

Ask your child to say a letter. Write the letter on the drawing board. (Alternatively, you can just choose the letter.)

Have your child find that letter in the leaves. Bring the letter back.

Practice saying the name of the letter and the letter’s sound.

You can also work on uppercase and lowercase letters. Write both cases of the letter on the board and ask your child to find them in the leaves.

Leaf Hunt Alphabet Game for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Game 3: Spell Your Name

Your child’s name is one of the first words he or she will be able to read. They get so excited when they recognize the word as theirs.

For this game, write your child’s name down on the drawing board. (You can even ask your child to spell it for you.)

Have your child hunt for the letters in his name.

My son found the letters in his name, but he didn’t find them in order. When he had all of the letters, I had him put the letters in the correct order under the drawing board.

More Leaf Themed Activities for Toddlers

Leaf Name Sticky Wall – work on name recognition with a contact paper sticky wall

Go Leaf Collecting– make a bag to collect your nature finds

Leaf Shape Collage – work on fine motor skills and learn shapes

Leaf Measurement and Sorting Activity

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.

Watermelon Sensory Sand and Alphabet Rocks

August 22, 2019 By Trisha

A watermelon themed sensory bin filled with pink sand and alphabet rocks is a fun sensory activity for toddlers and preschoolers.

Practice learning letters while digging for alphabet rocks in the watermelon sensory sand.

Have fun playing and learning your alphabet with this fun watermelon sensory sand activity with homemade alphabet rocks. It's a fun summer sensory activity!

Watermelon Sensory Sand and Alphabet Rocks

Pink sand makes me think of watermelons and summer, so I created a simple watermelon sensory sand activity for my toddler. My 5-year-old wanted to join in as well. Activities like this are perfect for multiple age groups. Kids love digging in sand.

I first used our pink sand that Crayola gave us to make watermelon kinetic play sand. The addition of a few ingredients makes the sand squishable and moldable just like store-bought kinetic sand. Today we’re just using regular pink sand.

To make the sand smell like watermelon, we added watermelon Kool-Aid. This is totally optional, but it adds a fun touch.

Have fun playing and learning your alphabet with this fun watermelon sensory sand activity with homemade alphabet rocks. It's a fun summer sensory activity!

Supplies Needed for the Watermelon Sensory Sand Activity

  • Large storage bin (or baking dish)
  • Pink Crayola play sand (I’ve added an Amazon link but you can find it at Walmart for about $7 during the spring/summer while supplies last.)
  • Watermelon Kool-Aid (optional)
  • Black rocks (I found a bag at Dollar Tree.)
  • Permanent marker or paint marker
  • Excavators, dump trucks, or other construction toys
  • Shovels, sifters, or other sand toys
  • Container for holding the collected rocks. (I used a green plate to represent the rind of a watermelon.)
DIY Alphabet Rocks

How to Set Up the Watermelon Sensory Sand Bin

Pour the sand into a large storage bin. Depending on the size of your construction toys, you can choose a smaller bin if needed.

Add alphabet rocks to your sensory bin. (In my mind, the black alphabet rocks mimic watermelon seeds.)

I wrote lowercase letters on the rocks using a paint marker. The paint marker actually rubbed off some of the rocks during play. I’m thinking a permanent marker would have done a better job.

Always supervise sensory play and be sure to choose appropriate size materials for child especially if your child is likely to put things in his or her mouth.

Add construction toys and a container for the rocks to the bin.

Invite your child to search for the alphabet rocks in the sand.

When an alphabet rock is found, ask your child what letter they see. You can also talk about the sounds the letters make or even what words begin with that letter.

Use the construction toys to search and dig for the the rocks. Or use sand toys to scoop and sift the sand to find the rocks.

Have fun playing and learning your alphabet with this fun watermelon sensory sand activity with homemade alphabet rocks. It's a fun summer sensory activity!

You can write uppercase letters on the rocks as well. This allowed us to spell my toddler’s name.

Instead of alphabet rocks, you could use number rocks to practice number recognition and counting. We painted rainbow number rocks for a counting game.

More Alphabet Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Construction Truck Alphabet Matching

Make Words with Alphabet Clothespins

Take Learning the Alphabet Outside with some chalk and a sidewalk

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.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 14
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Designed by The Blog Surgery

Creative Family Fun uses cookies to improve your experience. These cookies provide feedback to our analytics and advertisers. We use the information to track views of the site, where you go and to know if you are a regular visitor or brand new as well as provide a personalized experience where possible. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT