After staying at home for a couple of years, and especially going into full-on stay at home during quarantine, some creativity and new ideas are definitely required to keep toddlers entertained and engaged!
Enter weekly themes!
Most preschool teachers have expertly put together themes and integrate activities, crafts and stories to tie it all together through the weeks! So you can absolutely do the same thing (on a smaller scale) for your kids at home! There are a few key elements to build from, and after that, only slight changes need to be made with each different theme.
Here’s how to put it together!
Enter weekly themes!
Most preschool teachers have expertly put together themes and integrate activities, crafts and stories to tie it all together through the weeks! So you can absolutely do the same thing (on a smaller scale) for your kids at home! There are a few key elements to build from, and after that, only slight changes need to be made with each different theme.
Here’s how to put it together!
Choose a Theme
You can really have fun with this starting point! What are some topics or areas of interest for your little ones? Are there any seasonal or holiday topics that you can incorporate? The possibilities are really endless. For example, in summer, you can do weather, beach, ocean, bugs, etc.
Last week, we focused on the ocean and I found some activities, books, stickers, etc. to go along with it.
Last week, we focused on the ocean and I found some activities, books, stickers, etc. to go along with it.
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Choose an Art Project
These crafts can be as simple or elaborate as you want! Remember to choose something that is at an appropriate age level for your kiddos. You can also differentiate the same activity if you have an older school-aged child and a toddler. If you are painting, let the older child use some different materials to paint with. For the toddler, maybe just fingerpaints.
For our project, I put some blue and yellow finger paints on large paper for the boys to smear around. This lasted a pretty decent amount of time until they got bored. We let those dry and then followed up the next day by adding some ocean-themed stickers to their “oceans”. Again, this lasted longer than you might think!
For your art projects, think simple, cheap & engaging!
For our project, I put some blue and yellow finger paints on large paper for the boys to smear around. This lasted a pretty decent amount of time until they got bored. We let those dry and then followed up the next day by adding some ocean-themed stickers to their “oceans”. Again, this lasted longer than you might think!
For your art projects, think simple, cheap & engaging!
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Choose a Science/sensory Activity
I always try to integrate science into our themes because it is truly what I know! There are so many resources and ideas online for simple experiments and activities to do with kids! I usually go to Pinterest as my first stop, but also have a few books to pull ideas from.
For this theme, though, I decided to go more of the sensory route and had the boys play with some ocean-themed water beads! These things can get a little messy, especially if you don't have a large area for them to be contained in, but the boys love digging their hands in and filling up little containers with them. This set was a gift and happened to come with some little ocean toys like sharks, seaweed and fish, so they also played with those.
Some more sensory play ideas could be homemade playdough, foam, beads, beans, rocks--really anything that they can dig their hands into!
For this theme, though, I decided to go more of the sensory route and had the boys play with some ocean-themed water beads! These things can get a little messy, especially if you don't have a large area for them to be contained in, but the boys love digging their hands in and filling up little containers with them. This set was a gift and happened to come with some little ocean toys like sharks, seaweed and fish, so they also played with those.
Some more sensory play ideas could be homemade playdough, foam, beads, beans, rocks--really anything that they can dig their hands into!
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Choose a Literacy/Math Activity
Activities with learning letters and numbers can, again, be as elaborate or simplistic as you would like! This part could even be as simple as reading a book that goes along with the theme that you have chosen!
Letter matching, letter recognition, letter tracing are all places to start for literacy. There are typically a variety of themed handouts that you can print from Pinterest, blogs or Teachers Pay Teachers! For numbers, you can do similar activities and obviously add in some simple counting!
I made some easy name puzzles (just using a marker, construction paper & scissors) and some number cards (construction paper, stickers, marker & mini clothespins) for the boys and it was a nice, quick breakfast time activity to start the day!
Letter matching, letter recognition, letter tracing are all places to start for literacy. There are typically a variety of themed handouts that you can print from Pinterest, blogs or Teachers Pay Teachers! For numbers, you can do similar activities and obviously add in some simple counting!
I made some easy name puzzles (just using a marker, construction paper & scissors) and some number cards (construction paper, stickers, marker & mini clothespins) for the boys and it was a nice, quick breakfast time activity to start the day!
Optional: Cooking, Outdoor Activity, movie or show
Adding in some other activities to your theme never hurts! See if you can find a fun recipe that uses colors or ingredients associated with the theme! Find an outdoor game, scavenger hunt or even take a field trip! At the end of the day or when you’re ready to start settling down, find a show or movie that also fits in!
The idea behind this isn’t perfection! Do your best with the materials you have and be creative! If you have kids that are on the older side, have them help you prep activities for the little ones or even come up with their own activity to run! What are some of the themes you can come up with? I’m always looking for new ideas so be sure to share them!
Enjoy!
XOXO
The idea behind this isn’t perfection! Do your best with the materials you have and be creative! If you have kids that are on the older side, have them help you prep activities for the little ones or even come up with their own activity to run! What are some of the themes you can come up with? I’m always looking for new ideas so be sure to share them!
Enjoy!
XOXO
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