It's been a busy couple of weeks in our household, but Sweet E and I made time for several activities! I mostly stuck to a heart theme, but we did a red/pink sensory bin as well. Take a look!
Gluing Hearts
This is a simple activity using some heart cutouts that have been in my craft stash for ages. It's like a never-ending supply. 😄
I demonstrated for her how to add glue to the paper, and press a heart onto it. Then she did some herself.
We talked about the colors as she did so.
A simple activity, but very engaging!
Valentine Stamps
Sweet E really enjoyed self-inking stamps in previous themes, so I purchased a small set of heart stamps for this activity.
As usual, she stamped a few times while sitting...
then stamped a few times from over on the couch...
and finally, hopped onto the table to stamp some more. What a silly girl!
Magnetic Sensory Bin
I cut up several red and pink pipe cleaners, and dropped them into a bucket of water for Sweet E to explore, along with a magnetic wand. She picked up several pieces at once.
And dunked her hands in also.
Her favorite thing to do was watch the water drip down off of them lol.
She explored their soft texture.
And then rediscovered the art of splashing!
Splash!
It was a fun bin, but after a while I decided to take the pipe cleaners out, and replace them with small hearts and a dropper.
She loved playing with the dropper, and placing hearts into the ice cube tray.
I think any water play is sure to be a favorite for toddlers, no matter what else is in there with it!
Heart Stickers - Fine Motor Activity
For this next activity, I drew a large E onto a sheet of construction paper. Then I encouraged Sweet E to place the stickers onto it. This is a pretty new concept for her, as she's used to placing stickers randomly. She did well, but got bored quickly!
Playdough + Red/Pink Manipulatives
Next we headed downstairs to make a fresh batch of playdough! When it was ready for play, I quickly gathered some things to help engage her: a mini rolling pin and sculpting tool, pipe cleaners, cupcake liner, cookie cutter, heart gems and craft sticks.
She immediately got to work, sticking craft sticks into the center of the dough.
Then we made a cupcake and some hearts cutouts.
This time she really got into helping me cut them out!
We returned to this activity several times throughout our Valentine's Day weeks. We made more cutouts:
Squished the heart gems and pipe cleaners into the dough:
And even did a little bit of counting:
The next time we played, we rolled out snakes:
And then made lots and lots of hearts! Definitely one of her favorite activities right now!
Heart Stomping - Gross Motor Activity
Another fun one we did was this heart stomping game. I folded several sheets of construction paper in half, stacked them together, and cut out a heart shape. Then I taped each one to the floor. I asked Sweet E if she could find the blue heart. "Can you find it? Stomp on the blue heart!" And she did!
We practiced this with several colors.
"Where's the green heart?"
"Jump on the green heart!"
She liked jumping just as much!
We left these out for a day or two, and she enjoyed playing again.
Honey Pot and Little M&M's toy cars are located in this hallway (I actually moved the road rug to get this open space) so Sweet E started playing with the cars. I encouraged her to do some color matching then.
"Drive the green car to the green heart!"
She had a lot of fun!
Beans + Heart Gems - Sensory Bin
I dyed some dried garbanzo beans red and pink, placed them in a bin with the heart gems, and offered it as another activity for Sweet E. She is always playing with our other bin of beans, so I thought she'd enjoy this.
She liked scooping them into the cups.
And pouring the cups back into the bucket.
Again and again. Even kitty was curious about this!
This bin was left out in my room for Valentine's Day week, and she returned to it several times.
Sticky Paper Heart Craft
For our final activity I needed a craft for display! I cut a heart out of a paper plate, and covered it with con-tact paper. Then I provided Sweet E with some assorted tissue papers and sequins to place onto it.
Sticky paper makes for such an easy toddler craft!
She filled the whole space!
Even stood up in her chair to do so, as usual.
When she was finished, I covered the other side with another piece of sticky paper. It was very cute! I hung it up in her window.
And that's a wrap! We resume color themes next week!
