Spring Activities for Toddlers

Bug Week

For bug week, we re-used some easter grass and buried bugs. We gave the kids some fun magnifying glasses and bug containers to collect their findings. Afterward, we hid the bugs around the house and had the kids search for them.

This was fun for the younger toddlers too.

The kids swatting flies with fly swatters. A great ceiling activity!

We made some black playdough and had the kids make spiders for art today. Here's George and mom acting scared. This spider was George's creation!

Here are the 7 ant hills I picked up for bug week. This will be a nice take away for the kids. You have to set the domes up with sand and water. After doing 7 last night, I am now an expert anthill prepper!

The order for the ants comes separately. We received 175 ants in the mail yesterday. You have to put the tubes in the fridge for 5 mins to stun them. Otherwise you may have a few ants running around your house when transporting them to their new homes!

We bought a butterfly garden for the spring semester. 3 of the 5 caterpillars have built their cocoon!

Just transferred the chrysalides to their new home. In just a few short days we will watch the butterflies emerge! The transfer required very steady hands!

3 butterfly's hatched just in time for our last day of class!

The kids playing with clay. For local moms-you can buy the clay they use at the children's museum. It's a $1 per lb

Roots and Flower Week

Our toddler class painting a flower on art easels.

Dramatic play- the kids pretend to run a flower shop. We printed out flower money, used egg cartons for the gardener's to plant and sell their flowers, used phones to call orders in and the ever popular cash register!

Jam session. The kids love playing with the instruments. When buying instruments for your munchkins, always opt for the kid powered ones over the electric/battery operated. These guys just love making their own tunes!

A fun science experiment- take celery, put it in a clear cup with water, add food coloring and watch what happens to the celery over the next few days! This was another root related activity.

To describe how plants drink food, we had the kids drink water through straws and explained that plants use their roots as straws to drink water. The kids kept asking for more water!

The kids took turns inspecting their specimens with a large magnifying glass!

Catch a real worm.

Roots and flower week: When pulling some grass from the front to show roots, we discovered worms!

The kids inspecting the roots of the weeds we pulled and the worm hiding in the soil! The kids also learn about shapes with the butterfly shape match up, they learn about numbers with the flower number match up and learn how to set the table with place setting outlines.

Other Activity ideas for Spring

After the kids were done washing and ringing out their clothes, they hung them up on a clothes line to dry.

Georgia shaking her rocks

Great mommy and me times- too precious! The kids painting with rocks using cans. We taped a white sheet of paper inside them. They loved this activity! It's a messy one though!

We built a castle for the kids this week. After they had fun playing in it, we had them paint it with real paint rollers. both activities took up a whole hour!