Giant Shape Puzzle

Yesterday I shared a DIY basic shape puzzle that I created using a cardboard box and felt pieces. We used those same felt pieces to create a GIANT shape puzzle! All you need for this activity is white paper (THIS is the kind we use). I taped the paper to our coffee table and outlined the shapes.

This activity took only a few minutes to set up and served its purpose! It isn't something we will keep for long (lets be real - someone ripped the corner in less than a few hours!), but it worked for that days activities and can be easily created again! And I love that I was able to use the SAME felt pieces we'd been using!

DIY Basic Shape Puzzle

We are in the beginning stages of working on shape identification, so I wanted to share this very basic DIY shape puzzle. So many shape activities and puzzles include multiple shapes and I really felt it would be beneficial if we began our focus on the four basic shapes: square, circle, triangle, & rectangle. 

I created this DIY puzzle using two pieces of a cardboard box (thanks Amazon!) and felt pieces. I would suggest using a sturdier piece of felt than I did here, but this works for its purpose! You could also add velcro which would help the shapes stay in place. 

I have lots of fun shape activities planned and will be sharing lots here!

Visual Scanning Activity

We work on visual scanning quite often, so I thought I would share this easy activity for working on visual scanning skills. One easy activity is to use a book with various pictures to "find" certain objects. "Where is the cat? Where is the dog? Where is the banana?" etc.

My little ones LOVE this book, but when I would hold it up they would see two pages at a time and that can be visually distracting. So, I ordered a second copy from Amazon and used a box cutter to cut out each page.

Each page varies in the number of objects, but overall it's much less visually distracting! I'll hold up each page and ask them to find certain objects. For older kids, I would suggest the Look & Find Books, Where's Waldo, etc.

Valentine's Themed Gross Motor Activity

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is our last Valentine's themed activity. This activity is so easy to prepare and is a great way to work on gross motor skills.

Materials:

• Various pieces of felt cut into hearts

First, I placed the hearts around the room and had my littles run to the colored heart I called out ("Run to pink! Run to orange!"). Then, we added in jumping on various hearts. 

Next, we placed the hearts in the sequence you see below and jumped from one heart to the other. 

After that, I just followed their lead and we did several other activities with them. One girl lined the hearts up in a row and jumped from one to the other. Then, she would tell her sister "Jump to pink. Jump to blue, etc". 

This was such an easy way to work on gross motor skills! I created with a Valentine's theme in mind, but will definitely keep this activity as a regular rotation! I love that you can work on various gross motor skills AND add in some color identification!

Valentine's Day Canvas Painting

Today I am sharing a Valentine's canvas fingerprint painting that my kiddos did earlier in the month. I planned it Valentine's themed and loved it so much that it is now part of our playroom decor!

Materials:

• Canvas size of your choice (I actually planned on doing a smaller one, but had this already so we went with it!)
• Various colors of paint
• Print a heart of your choice in size 

First, I printed a heart and used painters tape to place it in the middle of our canvas. Next, I had my kiddos take turns painting fingerprints all around. This project took several hours since we had to let the paint dry after each kiddo took a turn (to keep the mess contained!). 

It turned out so cute and is the perfect decor for a playroom or a bedroom!

Sorting Hearts by Color

We have been working hard on sorting by color, so I wanted to share a few of the ways I've used the materials from our Valentine's Day fun for sorting. 

Activity #1: 

I purchased this set of multi colored hearts on Amazon and I found the printable at Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. 

For this activity we didn't use them as stickers. We just placed them onto the correct heart. We will use the hearts as stickers in the next activity.

Activity #2:

We used those same foam hearts for another color sorting activity! This time I cut out hearts from construction paper and taped them to the wall. We used the stickers to match to the colored heart. 

Acvitiy #3:

These foam hearts came in a pack of hearts that I used for Valentine Multiplication. We took a few minutes to sort the large hearts by color. You can sort into two groups as shown here (reds and pinks):

 Or you could take it a step further and divide into four groups (colors with and without glitter):

Activity #4:
I purchased these red and pink plastic hearts from Dollar Tree and we have used them in both sensory bins this month. For this activity, I gathered them and we sorted them by color.

Activity #5:
Another easy color sorting activity you can do is to sort candy conversation hearts! They are a classic Valentine's treat!

Valentine's Craft

We recently did a Valentine's Day themed craft that I thought I'd share today with you. We now have it displayed in our playroom for decorations and my littles love seeing something they made hanging up!

The printable came from Learning With Letty on TPT and can be found here. I used leftover scrap paper to cut out random pieces of paper in red, pink, and purple. 

It's really a simple and easy craft for Valentine's Day!