Toddler Activities

Silly Heart Puppet Valentine Craft

January 31, 2018 By Terri Thompson

We’ve been making a lot of Valentines for our family and friends lately.

It’s been so much fun sharing the love, but I thought the girls would enjoy making a fun craft for themselves.

We got out all the fun supplies: puff balls, googly eyes, paint, and glitter and turned them into a Silly Heart Puppet.

This is a fun open-ended project that is perfect for both toddlers and preschoolers. We had some much fun making this Valentine’s kids craft and I know you will too.

Use recycled materials to make this Silly Heart Puppet Valentines craft for kids. It's fun for toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids too.

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

Cardboard (I used an old cereal box)
Large craft sticks
Glue
Paint
Googly eyes
Puff balls, glitter and any other embellishment you want to add

How to make a Silly Heart Puppet

We started by gluing our craft sticks onto the backs of our cardboard hearts.

Next we got out our paint to decorate our hearts.

After the painting was done, it was time for the glitter. I had the girls sprinkle the glitter on the wet paint, which will hold it on as well as glue does.

Don’t be afraid of the glitter! Fold a piece of paper in half, then open it up again. Shake the excess glitter off onto the paper and use the fold to help you get the glitter back in the container.

Hint: Wrap some packing tape around your hand, sticky side up, and it will pick up all the excess that is scattered around the table and the floor.

Once the paint dried a little, it was time for the embellishments.

We glued colorful puffballs and googly eyes on our hearts.

Use your imagination! Scraps of fabric, ribbon, sequins, and beads are just a few of the things you could add to your puppets.

Keep it open-ended and keep it fun. I always love to see the things my girls create.

Each Silly Heart Puppet is a little bit kooky, a whole lot of silly, and very unique.

We had a great time making them!

Now it’s time to have a lot of fun playing with them!

You may also love one of these fun Valentine’s ideas

Stained Glass Window Valentines

Heart Stamped Valentines

Collage Heart Valentines

Love Banners

Toddler Valentines Heart Bouquet at Arty Crafty Kids

Find your supplies here:

After you’ve raided your recycling bin for cardboard, here are some of our favorite craft supplies to make these fun Valentine’s Day puppets:

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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.

Fun and Simple Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

January 26, 2018 By Terri Thompson

You can easily find so many ideas for Valentine crafts. But, so often, those ideas are more suited for preschoolers and older kids (and let’s face it, adults).

That doesn’t help when you’re looking for Valentine crafts for toddlers. They need simple and doable projects, ones that they can have fun and do themselves.

So, before you get sucked into the black hole of Pinterest, I’ve rounded up some fun Valentine’s day activities you can do with your toddlers.

These ideas are all simple enough that your toddler can do themselves. They’ll get messy, get creative, and have a whole lot of fun!

Plus, you’ll have tons of fun creating with them!

The Best Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

Shape cardboard tubes into a heart shape for a printmaking Heart-Stamped Valentine Card project that’s fun for all ages.

Silly Heart Puppets are easy to make and even more fun to play with.

Little hands will love gluing strips of paper to create these adorable Paper Strip Hearts from Housing a Forest.

Paint with balls to make these super-fun Toddler Painted Heart Doilies from Hands On As We Grow.

The end of a piece of celery makes a perfect heart shape. So, let your little one use celery stamps to make pretty valentines like these from How Wee Learn.

Practice simple beading on pipe cleaners with this simple Beaded Valentine Heart Craft from Inspiration Laboratories.

Paint with cotton swabs to make a pretty Q-Tip Painted Heart like this from Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

Use some glue and tissue paper to make these awesome Tissue Paper Heart Cards from Rainy Day Mum.

Use a heart-shaped sponge to make some pretty printed Valentine’s Day Sponge Art like this great idea from Emma Owl.

Paint with yarn to make these pretty Heart Suncatchers from Minne Mama.

Sticking things on with glue is always a fun idea! Use this simple concept to make pretty cardboard hearts like these from Teaching 2’s and 3’s.

It’s fun and pretty to paint on foil. So your little one will love to create these Painted Foil Hearts from Read Science.

Make fun pipe cleaner heart stamps so your toddler can make a pretty Valentine’s Day Printmaking project like this from Where Imagination Grows.

Use frozen hearts to paint a pretty picture with this fun sensory painting idea from Teaching 2’s and 3’s.

Paint with balls of foil to create these unique Foil Textured Hearts from Crafts on Sea.

Put out some supplies and let your toddlers decorate hearts that you can put together to form a pretty Valentine Hearts Bunting like this from Rainy Day Mum.

Which of these Valentine crafts for toddlers do you want to try with your little one?

If you enjoyed these fun and simple Valentine crafts for toddlers, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest.

You may also enjoy one of these toddler activities:

Indoor Color Scavenger Hunt for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Shape Hopscotch

Ice Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Cardboard Roll Stamping

Stained Glass Window Ornament

November 20, 2017 By Terri Thompson

The girls love making new ornaments for our Christmas tree.

In fact, if I ask them if they want to do a craft project, they usually tell me they want to make a new Christmas ornament.

One of our recent creations was our Stained Glass Window Ornament. This was so easy to make and are a perfect choice if you’re looking for a mess-free kids’ Christmas craft.

This Stained Glass Window Ornament is fun for toddlers and preschoolers to make. Plus, it makes a colorful addition to your Christmas tree.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed:

Clear Contact Paper
Black construction paper
Colored tissue paper torn into small pieces
Scissors
Hole punch
String

Prep your project

In order to prep this project, I cut the window shapes out of the black construction paper. You’ll need two window cutouts for each ornament. If you double-up the paper and cut two at once, it will make it much easier to match up the two pieces in the end.

I taped down a piece of Contact Paper and placed the window pieces on it.

Each girl was going to make two stained glass window ornaments.

Make your Stained Glass Window Ornament

Now for the fun part!

The girls started applying the tissue paper. Don’t worry about covering up the black construction paper, we’ll take care of that part later.

My toddler, in particular, loved the stickiness of the Contact Paper. Not only was this a fun craft for her, but a great sensory experience as well.

She wouldn’t stop applying tissue paper until the entire piece of Contact Paper was covered.

After we were done with the tissue paper, we took the coordinating window pieces and lined them up with the ones already on the contact paper.

You will now have two window cutouts with tissue paper in between.

Finally, cover the entire project with a second sheet of contact paper.

Cut out each window, punch a hole in the top and add a string for hanging on the tree. Voila, it’s done!

Now, we have a beautiful Stained Glass Window Ornament hanging on our tree.

Do you have any fun and simple ideas for Christmas ornaments? I’m running out of ideas!

*Special note: This post was originally published in 2011. It’s a timeless activity that’s been updated for this year.

Indoor Color Scavenger Hunt for Preschoolers and Toddlers

May 1, 2017 By Terri Thompson

There are so many fun and playful ways to learn about colors.

One of my favorite ways is with a color scavenger hunt.

It’s fun for both preschoolers and toddlers.

This preschool scavenger hunt is so easy to set-up. There is very little prep time so there is more time for fun.

Learn all about colors with this fun and simple indoor color scavenger hunt for preschoolers and toddlers. It's easy to set up and perfect for a rainy day!

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Set up is easy!

It took me only a few minutes to set this up.

I chose several sheets of construction paper: red, yellow, green, and blue and laid them in a row on the floor. You can choose whatever colors your would like, but I just stuck with the basics.

Let’s go on our color scavenger hunt!

After our color hunt was set up, I sent the girls on their quest. They needed the find items that matched these colors and the items must be small enough to fit on a piece of paper.

It turns out our house is full of small items in primary colors! Who knew?

The girls found puzzle pieces, Duplos, crayons, card games, craft supplies, game pieces, play food, and more. They brought all the items over and put them on top of the correct piece of colored paper.

It was so much fun to see the items that they found.

This simple color scavenger hunt got the girls thinking and moving. It was perfect for some indoor fun on a rainy day or a cold winter’s day!

Do you kids like to go on scavenger hunts? It’s a favorite game at our house!

Make this a family adventure:

Cost: Free

Planning time: Under 5 minutes. Or, as long as it takes you to find some construction paper.

Ages: Preschool and toddler. While anyone can play and it’s a fun family activity, this activity is best enjoyed by kids under age 5.

Time Needed: Varies. You can follow your child’s lead with this activity. When they start losing interest, it’s time to wrap up the scavenger hunt.

Notes: It can also be fun to set a timer. For example: How many red items can you find in two minutes?

Have more colorful fun with one of these activities:

Colored Ice Fun

Color Mixing Lab

Story Time: Great Book About Color

Fun Color Games for Toddlers

Color Sorting Train at Mom Inspired Life

Colored Ice Fun

June 6, 2013 By Terri Thompson

I can’t imagine anything more fun and refreshing on a hot summer’s day than playing with ice. So, grab some fun ice cube trays and create some colored ice cubes (or sticks) for some creative fun.

Today I’m happy to welcome Ana from Babble Dabble Do to this space with a fun ice play activity perfect for summer. While you guys are reading this, I’m going to head out to the store to buy some of these fun ice cube trays! Take it away Ana…

Make some simple colored ice to use for creative activities, sensory play, STEM experiments, art projects and more. Colored ice is such a fun tool to use!

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Hi there, I’m Ana from Babble Dabble Do and I’m excited to be guest posting on Creative Family Fun today!

With summer finally here I’ve been itching to play with ice as a “cool” outdoor activity for the kids. If you’ve been to my blog you know I’m obsessed with color, and food coloring is something I use on a regular basis in our projects. This week I thought it would be fun to experiment with colored ice and see what interesting activities we could come up with!

Materials:

Water
Food Coloring
Cups/Bowls
Ice cube trays and/or different molds- I used trays that make ice sticks for water bottles. The pieces of ice were like logs, perfect to build and draw with!
Salt and salt shaker
Shaved ice (optional)– use a snow cone maker to make it
Small plates
Spoons or eye droppers
Paper

You’ll need to factor in a little prep time for these activities because you have to freeze things in advance BUT a few minutes of freezing the day before is all you need. Using food coloring, tint several glasses of water with different colors and pour into ice
cube tray molds. Freeze overnight or for several hours.

Building:

Stack your ice cubes on top of one another to try and make a structure. Using drops of water and shaved ice, “glue” the pieces of ice together. “Gluing” only worked for us about half the time. When finished, carefully move the sculpture back into the freezer to fuse it together! If you plan on refreezing, use a sturdy tray underneath the sculpture as too much movement will cause it to break apart.

Salt and Ice Experiment:

I don’t think the interaction of salt and ice ever gets old to watch. Give your child a salt shaker and let them sprinkle salt on the
ice to make holes and give it texture.

Color Mixing:

Using red, blue, and yellow ice sticks and three different bowls, encourage your child to experiment with color mixing. Let them melt two colored ice sticks in the same bowl to make a magical new color appear!

Water Table:

They might not last long in the blazing heat, but colored ice would make a fun addition to a water table.

Drawing with Ice:

You’ll need to use a strong concentration of color for this one to work well; use the ice sticks like crayons to color on paper.

Melting Artwork:

Place several ice sticks on a piece of white paper and let them melt to make a free form painting.

Open-ended Play:

I had originally planned to make only ice sculptures but when I gave my kids the ice sticks they had ideas of their own! They stacked and sorted them and just loved the sensory experience of playing with a cold material.

Ana Luisa Dziengel is an architect, award winning furniture designer, and creatively inspired mom making magic with her three kids in sunny Los Angeles!

Web: http://babbledabbledo.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Babble-Dabble-Do/206167262806000

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BabbleDabbleDo

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/babbledabbledo/

Toddler Activities

Silly Heart Puppet Valentine Craft

Supplies Needed

How to make a Silly Heart Puppet

You may also love one of these fun Valentine’s ideas

Find your supplies here:

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Fun and Simple Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

The Best Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

You may also enjoy one of these toddler activities:

Stained Glass Window Ornament

Supplies Needed:

Prep your project

Make your Stained Glass Window Ornament

You may also like one of these Christmas crafts:

Indoor Color Scavenger Hunt for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Set up is easy!

Let’s go on our color scavenger hunt!

Make this a family adventure:

Have more colorful fun with one of these activities:

Colored Ice Fun

Materials:

Building:

Salt and Ice Experiment:

Color Mixing:

Water Table:

Drawing with Ice:

Melting Artwork:

Open-ended Play:

You may also like one of these activities:

Categories

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Toddler Activities

Supplies Needed

How to make a Silly Heart Puppet

You may also love one of these fun Valentine’s ideas

Find your supplies here:

Are you looking for more kids activities?

The Best Valentine Crafts for Toddlers

You may also enjoy one of these toddler activities:

Supplies Needed:

Prep your project

Make your Stained Glass Window Ornament

You may also like one of these Christmas crafts:

Set up is easy!

Let’s go on our color scavenger hunt!

Make this a family adventure:

Have more colorful fun with one of these activities:

Materials:

Building:

Salt and Ice Experiment:

Color Mixing:

Water Table:

Drawing with Ice:

Melting Artwork:

Open-ended Play:

You may also like one of these activities:

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