Fun With Sidewalk Chalk

A very simple and fun activity to do with  your toddler is using sidewalk chalk.

Hailey and I spent a very long time the other morning writing with sidewalk chalk.  She directed me to write all of her favorite names.  (Brooke, Dottie, Daddy, ‘Ga,’ ‘Pa’)  We drew shapes and just spent time coloring.  Hailey loved it!

We didn’t do it this time, but if you wet the chalk before you write with it the colors will be much more vibrant. 

**One thing to keep in mind is that if the chalk breaks it can pose a choking hazard to toddlers who are still putting everything in their mouth.  So, this activity needs to be very closely supervised.

Tags: free toddler activity, toddlers and sidewalk chalk

Planting Activities

I used to spend time doing some gardening- planting flowers, pulling weeds, all of that good stuff.  Having a toddler makes it a little more difficult to get that kind of stuff done.  But rather than not doing it anymore I decided to involve Hailey in taking care of the plants.

We had a deck in our back yard that had to be taken down and new deck was built in a different place. So, where the old deck was we planted some grass.  Hailey and I have been checking the progress of the grass and I talk to her about how the grass needs sun and water to grow.

She also helped me pull all of the weeds out of our flower beds in our back yard.  She thought that was fabulous!  Hailey has her own little gardening set that uses to dig in the dirt to pretend to plant.  One of the tools is a watering can which she uses to help water the flowers.

When we are outside doing our gardening I talk to Hailey about how the flowers smell and feel.  She does not have a lot of toys for outside, but rather spends most of the time exploring.  Simple things like leaves and rocks can be turned into a learning experience for a toddler.

Give your toddler a bucket to use for collecting leaves and then talk about how they feel, look, smell, etc.  Let your toddler tear and crumble the leaves.  Collect rocks that are big enough to not pose a chocking hazard- meaning they can not fit through a toilet paper roll.  Talk about how the rocks feel.  Let your toddler take them in and out of containers.  Put the collection of rocks into a container that can be closed (ex- old coffee container) and shake for a fun noise.  You can also let your toddler wash the rocks.  All of these things will provide a lot of entertainment and learning for your toddler.

Anything hands on in nautre is a great way to teach your toddler.  And the more they participate in what they are doing the more they will learn and remember from the experience.

Tags: free toddler activity, planting with toddlers, toddler leaf activity, toddler rock activity

April Ideas

I try to do other things with Hailey, besides the crafts that I take pictures of to share here.  So, I thought I’d give a brief summary of the non-craft activities we have done or that I plan to do with Hailey this month.

• I created cards with pictures of adult and baby animals on them.  Then we matched up the babies with their mommies.
• We are going to plant some grass seed and take pictures as it grows.  (It’s still been a little bit chilly here, but hopefully we can start this in the next couple of weeks.)
• Play matching and sorting games with these umbrellas.
• I have a Randy the Raindrop story that I am going to use on a flannel board (that I still need to make).  I’ll take pictures of it when I actually do it.
• Make dice with farm animals on them.  Then sing “Old MacDonald” and roll the die to see which animal we will use for that verse.



• Raindrop writing- practice the letters in Hailey’s name using these raindrops.  The reason the raindrops are white is that is the color I am focusing on this month.

 That’s all for now.  I’ll be back to share more ideas as I come up with them. 

Tags: activities for april, farm animal activities, free toddler activities, matching, sorting, srping activities