Igloo and Train with Squares!

Teaching Shapes for Toddlers - With Paper Collage Activity 

Part 2: Square 

In this Shapes Collage series, the second shape is square. We did two collages, an igloo and a customized train.

1. Igloo Collage with squares

Supplies:

• Construction paper - White and Blue
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Marker

How do we make it:

Draw an igloo onto the white paper. Cut out small pieces of square from the white paper. Hand over the glue to your kiddo, and let the fun begin!

At the end of this activity,

• talk about the square shaped bricks used to make the igloo,
• you can show them the picture of  an Eskimo, 
• talk about the snowy winter climate,
• say them its "I for Igloo"....

Put your kid's creation on their wall and let them feel proud of their master piece!

2. Customized Train Collage with Squares:

We did a Train collage with LO's name on it. Kids gonna love this, since they have their own name on this. 

Supplies:

• Construction Paper of different colors
• Scissors
• Marker
• Glue stick

How do we make it:

1. Trace out a train on the white paper, I drew six boxes, to fit LO's name. 

2. Cut pieces of square from the construction paper, with the count corresponding to your kiddo's name.

3. When all the cutting activity is done, write the name of your kiddo on the square pieces. 

4. Let your kiddo glue the square pieces on to the train. Write the name of your kiddo on a paper, as a reference for them to put the pieces in correct order.

5. For the wheels, I drew circles on white paper, LO colored it with black crayons, cut it and glued.

I did this way since we didn't have black paper.

Chug Chug Choo Choo train is ready! Hope at the end of this activity kids get familiarized with the square shape. Amidst this activity,

• spell the word 'square' several times to your child, 
• talk about the circle shaped wheels of the train,
• sing a train rhyme, 
• spell out their name, 
• talk about the colors used in making the train,
• talk about your recent experience on a train journey....

Hope it would be an interesting activity for you and your kids.

Happy Parenting!

Snowman and Caterpillar Collage

Teaching Shapes for Toddlers - With Paper Collage Activity
Part 1: Circle

The next few posts are gonna be series of shapes based collage activity. In that first shape is the circle. We did two collages, a Snow man and a Caterpillar.

1. Making of Snowman collage with Circles

Easy to do for a beginner, consumes less time, so need not worry about having your toddler sit for long time!

Supplies:

• White and Blue Paper
• Scissors
• Black and Orange Marker
• Stacking cups or any other circular objects
• Glue Stick

1. Draw three different sized circles on the White Paper. I used the stacking cups to trace out. Cut the circles and have them ready.

2. Trace the figure of snowman using the same stacking cups on the blue paper.

3. Your kid is ready to go! Give them the glue stick and the three white circles. After they finish sticking them, help them to draw the eyes, nose, mouth and hands. 

4. Cut a semicircle, color them with black marker and the snowman's hat is ready.

In between this activity talk with your kids about the circle shape or make a count of number of white circles used in the snowman. Cool snow man is ready in few minutes. 

2. Making of Caterpillar Collage with Circles

Colorful Caterpillar Collage, sure this would be your kid's favorite. 

Supplies:

• Color Papers
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Marker Pen

1. Cut small circles of desired size and number using available color papers. Even two colored circles would suffice.
2. Trace out the figure of caterpillar roughly on the white paper, making it easy for your toddlers to glue the circles at the right place.
3. You can use googly eyes if you have, or simply cut it out from paper as I did.
4. Then rest you can draw with the Black marker pen like the mouth, legs, etc.

Funny Caterpillar is all yours! Talk with your kids about the colors and number of circles used in making the caterpillar. Paste the work on your kid's wall and make them feel proud of their work.

Happy Parenting!

A-Z Occupation

I have already compiled a post on A - Z alphabetical list of animals, fruits, vegetables, country, body parts, Vehicles... Now this is an add-on to that list. Alphabetical list of Occupations. Got inspired from the book "LMNO Peas" by Keith Baker, I have complied this list...

A - Astronauts, Artists, Acrobats,
B - Builders,Bikers
C - Climbers, Clown, Campers
D - Drivers, Dancers,
E - Electricians, Explorers,
F - Farmers, Fire Fighters,
G - Gardeners, Goldsmith
H - Hikers, Hairdresser
I - Investigators, Inventors,
J - Judges, Jugglers,
K - Kayakers, Kickers, King
L - Listeners, 
M - Miners, Musician,
N - Nurses, Neighbors,
O - Officers,
P - Painters, Plumbers, Pilots,Policeman, Parachutists,
Q - Quilters, Quaterbacks,
R - Readers, Road Worker,
S - Swimmers,Sailors, Scientists,
T - Teachers, Truckers
U - Underwater divers,
V - Voters, Volunteers,
W - Weavers, Waiters,
X - X-ray Doctors,
Y - Yogis,
Z - Zoo Keepers, Zoologists

Please share your own experience with ABCs in the comment box.

Happy Parenting!

Vehicles Puzzle

This post is about a vehicle puzzle which is store bought. You can take this as a product review but I personally want to share this stuff, just to give an idea like, what is available in the market for the new mothers here.

This is a "Transport" puzzle, and you can find it online or in your local baby/toy shops. Since my Little One is fond of vehicles, I bought this to encourage his Vocabulary.

He loves playing with this puzzle off and on, and this time he gave a new dimension to it which I thought would share here.

 LO combined the puzzle cards and the vehicles, matching the cards to the vehicles available with him.

There are lot of similar cheap stuffs available in the market, which you can buy to engage your demanding toddlers, rather to download an app from the play store!

Happy Parenting! 

DIY Tick Tick Clock...

Once your preschooler has started to recognize numbers, taking forward its a great idea to introduce the concept of clock and time for them. With no assurance they would learn to tell time after making this DIY clock, lets take a look at the clock which I made for my Little One, with the supplies available handy. Complete this DIY clock in just 5 min... its that easy...

Supplies

• Paper Plate
• Marker Pen
• A push pin
• Any card/plastic card (To make the 'hands' of the clock)

 

How do we make it:
Write numbers on the paper plate with the marker to create a clock face.

Cut the Hour hand and Minute hand from the card.

Fasten both with the push pin and insert the push pin into the paper plate clock. Its ready!

The push pin helped me to pin the clock on the wall. LO had great joy in moving the pins round and round the clock!

In between the fun you can try to teach them how to tell time, to start with, using the hour hand.

Have a great time with your clock...

Happy Parenting!😊

We color on anything and everything..

Bored of coloring the coloring books and white paper, Little One wanted to color on something different.. Thank God until now he hasn't started to scribble on wall! So I give him anything to color that's about to go to trash. 

First on this list is Calendar...😝 Since LO has started to recognize numbers, it happened to be a dual activity.. Learning numbers and coloring! And yeah, he asked me 'Where is 29 and 30?', looking at the February month sheet. You can teach days of the week and months of a year with the calendar!

Next in the list is the "Egg Cartons"..😜 You can do so many crafts with the egg cartons, which I will share sooner. But for LO, I gave them for coloring! First attempt was with paint and brush..

Secondly, we used Oil Pastles, which I thought would be easier to slide on the egg carton's rough surface. The texture of the egg carton is different from the usual, so I hope it would have been a different experience and challenge for LO.

This pic was taken when LO was in his second year.. Invitation card painting!

When LO learned to draw vehicles with markers......

LO's first finger painting experience. After lot of hesitation he finally decided to touch the paint with his fingers!

We almost color on anything.. I think this way kids get to explore different textures and get to use varied coloring supplies available. Please share your kids experience in coloring, in the comment box.

Happy Parenting!

Alphabet Activity with mini Jenga Blocks!

Hurray! We are back with an alphabet activity..😀

Jenga Blocks.. I bought these mini blocks for Little One when he was around 18 months old just to encourage his hand eye co-ordination. And when I started to introduce Alphas for LO, I used different ways to do it, and the Jenga blocks was not an exception. 

This picture was taken when LO was 20 months old. Initially, I wrote only the uppercase Alphas on the blocks. That time LO wasn't familiar with the Alphas, and look how randomly he has arranged the blocks.

                 

After he got familiar with the upper case Alphas, I wrote the lower case letters correspondingly. 

With the remaining blocks I drew shapes, kinda puzzle for LO to sort out.

LO stacked the blocks one above the other, tried to balance some ten blocks.

Then we did simple sight words.

Then we built a tower imitating the Jenga game.

And that's the end! The other face of the block is still open for scribbling...😉

Happy Parenting!