A Toddler Thanksgiving!

Sweet E and I did several Thanksgiving activities over the last week or so. Keep scrolling to see what we did, or take a look back at previous Thanksgiving themes I did with Honey Pot and Little M&M!

Thanksgiving + Quiet Bins - 2015

Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities - 2014

Thanksgiving - 2013

Thanksgiving - 2012

Books

These are the Thanksgiving books we've accumulated over the years. "Turkey Trouble" and "One is a Feast for a Mouse" are the two favorites in this house! But Sweet E is just a toddler, so for now she requested the two lift-the-flap board books over and over!

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

We made a fresh batch of playdough for this week, and it smelled SO GOOD! The recipe:

Mix

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of salt

2 TBSP cream of tartar

2 TBSP vegetable oil

1 TBSP pumpkin pie spice

3/4 cup of water

...and stir over medium heat until a dough forms, then knead it for a couple minutes. It was super soft too!

I provided Sweet E with some basic tools, a pumpkin cookie cutter, our Thanksgiving playdough mat, beads and craft sticks.

She cut out a pumpkin first!

She decorated several, and then rolled out snakes for our turkey feathers!

Then, while we were rolling out snakes anyway, she grabbed her plastic knife and practiced her cutting skills!

We made another turkey on our laminated page too, with craft sticks this time!

Then we flipped the page over and played with our empty plate next! We made peas, noodles and of course some slices of turkey!

And then she pretended to eat!

She loooves using this tool, so she made lots and lots more noodles!

And for dessert... pie!

We brought this out again two more times throughout the week. Her favorite thing to do? Make lots and lots of noodles!

Name Turkey

This is a simple gluing activity I set up for Sweet E (please pardon where I erased her actual name).

She just had to match the letters on the cut-out feathers to the ones on the turkey, and glue them on!

Such a simple, but great, name recognition activity! The coloring page of this particular turkey comes from here!

Build-a-Turkey

I found a cute turkey craft at the store, but the felt was too stiff. So I glued together the body pieces, and made my own feathers out of soft felt from my stash. This way Sweet E could build a turkey over and over, and have it stick to the soft background.

Here was her first creation! 😂

She enjoyed this, and did it a few times in a row. 

Color Sorting - Turkey Feathers

This is part one of a larger activity. I asked her to sort these stickers onto the four feathers!

She happily obliged!

Feed the Turkey!

Then I used her feathers to create a turkey out of a coffee can. And I provided her with our pom poms and two sets of tongs.

Isn't he cute?

Then she fed the turkey again and again!

She had such fun with this. It entertained her for quite a while.

  

And she switched tongs, to use the small pair for a small pom pom now and then.

We took this out a couple times during our Thanksgiving week. It was a great grab-and-go activity when she was looking for something to do!

Cranberry Sensory Bin

I offered this to the big kids when they were little too. Something about cranberries in water is so engaging to them! I provided her with two buckets, a ladle and a straining spoon. And she got to work right on the kitchen floor!

Scooping cranberries into the bowls...

Digging her hands into the bucket...notice kitty is curious too!

She was at this for a long time!

And eventually she discovered that she could splash! Good thing we lined the floor with a towel first!

More scooping and pouring...

And finally, she started squeezing them and discovered they made a fun popping noise! This was very satisfying to do, and she did it many times lol.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

F is for Farm!

Sweet E and I had a lot of fun this week learning about the letter F and farm animals. Take a look back at similar themes I've done with with Honey Pot and Little M&M, or keep scrolling to see what we did this week!

F is for Farm - 2015

Pigs - 2012

The Letter F - 2012

Books

We borrowed a few farm books from the library, combined with one of our favorites from our home collection, Open the Barn Door. And we love the I Spy series--so perfect for toddlers, and the peekaboo style is a lot of fun.

Letter F - Do a Dot

I printed an F from Twisty Noodle and Sweet E got to work with her dot markers.

At first she dragged it along like a regular marker, but she soon realized it worked better as a stamp!

And she finished the whole thing that way.

Cow Craft

I supplied Sweet E with a few pieces of felt and glue, and let her adhere them however she pleased.

She just loves glue!

And I figured the felt would add a nice new texture to her project that she wasn't used to.

So cute!

Build a Fence - Counting

I printed this page from Fairy Poppins. Sweet E is at a wonderful age for this type of activity. She loves counting, and is learning so much each time we practice.

I added a little bit of magnetic tape to the back of each craft stick, to help prevent them from sliding around. When she picked up a number, she'd either say it herself or I'd talk about it conversationally. "Oh, you picked up the seven. Where does the seven go?" She is starting to recognize several of these though!

When she finished building the fence, she counted them all up, pointing as she did.

Then she brought her farm animals over to it!

Corn Sensory Bin + Letter Hunt

I had a near-full container of popcorn kernels about to expire. So I poured them into a bucket and hid magnetic letters inside it. Just the letters we have done so far. She had to find them, and match them to the letters on the paper. 

She knows the first letter of her name, and everyone in the family! She's always sure to say it! And I don't know how, but she already recognizes the letter F. I remember Little M&M knew it right away too. There's something about this letter!

She enjoyed scooping, and digging her hands into the bucket.

When she had finished finding and matching all of the letters, I brought over another bucket so she could keep playing.

And eventually, she put the letters back inside the bucket so she could match them all over again!

And then she kept scooping and playing with the corn kernels! I love when an activity holds her attention for so long.

Herd the Sheep - Gross Motor

I had some leftover white balloons from a birthday party, and drew some sheep faces onto them. Before I even showed her the activity, Sweet E noticed them and said "Sheep Balloon" so I'm glad to know they actually looked like sheep!

I created a little pen around the couch, and Sweet E needed to herd the sheep back into it.

I let her use my retractable bug swatter, which made it even more fun!

Oftentimes she'd use her hands and say, "I got you, sheep!"

She loved this game, and we did it a few times in a row.

Actually Honey Pot and Little M&M came home from school later, and wanted to play with them too. I mean, look how cute!

Muddy Pig Craft

I saw this project at Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. I love the idea of a mess-free painting craft, plus it has a little sensory element to it with the addition of shaving cream.

Sweet E enjoyed squishing the shaving cream around in the baggie!

And spreading it around.

When she was done, I took it out to dry and then cut it out. What a muddy piggie!

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