What are some ideas for green tot trays?
It is green week for tot school which means green tot trays! It’s weird to think that we only have one more color week after this. Doing one set of trays a week (as opposed to a set of trays for two weeks) sure goes by a lot quicker. These Montessori inspired green tot trays are so fun for Smiley Man, plus he learns so much. Green week for toddler school was definitely a success.
Green Tot Trays
Smiley Man is 27 months old
Special Green Tray: Green Math Cubes
We’ve had these awesome math cubes (another set of great math cubes) for several months now and honestly, we haven’t used them that much. :( Shame on me, I know. Anyway, Smiley Man loved playing with the green ones on this tray, so I definitely anticipate using these math cubes a lot more in the future.
Color Game: I Spy Color Cards
Smiley Man loves these cards! Check out the original post to see how we play with these I Spy Color Cards.
Transferring
This tot tray has a bunch of green popsicle sticks (that I painted with do-a-dot markers) in a green cup. It also has this really cool water bottle ice cube tray (we’ve used this to make bathtub crayons and for another fun transferring activity). Smiley Man takes the popsicle sticks from the cup and puts them into the ice cube tray. I have to remind him that there should only be one popsicle stick in each opening. This is great one-to-one correspondence practice!
Fine Motor
I have done several tot trays like this for Smiley Man since we started tot trays in January and it continues to be one of his favorite activities. Smiley Man pushes the green golf tees into the green flower foam. I painted the golf tees with do-a-dot markers, but it didn’t stay very well. I think the golf tees had a layer of varnish on them or something. Regardless, Smiley Man loved this tot tray. I have found golf tees to be a wonderful Montessori material for toddlers.
Sensory
This tray has green glass gems and playdough. I have used playdough several times already for these color trays, but Smiley Man just loves it so much right now and it is a great sensory material for toddlers. I added the green glass gems for Smiley Man to explore with and I was surprised at how creative he got.
Spooning
Spooning is a common Montessori activity. I love it because it teaches my toddler how to use a spoon. Smiley Man has much better control of a spoon than Little Bear did at this age and I attribute it to our spooning tot trays. This tray has a green bowl, a green cup, some green pompoms, and a spoon. I used a regular kitchen spoon because that is the one I want Smiley Man to learn how to use. :) He had to spoon the pompoms from the bowl into the cup. I love these tot school activities that translate so well to real life.
We also had a fun time with the green learning notebook pages. His favorite page this time was definitely the traffic light page. I’ll be using that page again when we get to our red tot trays. Toddler school has been going well and I really loved putting together these green tot trays for Smiley Man. I am constantly impressed by how much he is learning.
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First of all, i recently found your blog and LOVE it! Im going crazy pinning your posts haha. Secondly, i was so excited to see this post because i just started a color study with my toddler! Yay! I hope you do all the colors!
Rebecca, I’m so glad you enjoy my blog! Nothing makes me happier than to hear that. Thank you!!! :) Also, we are doing all of the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), but we have already finished all of them except red. Red will be next week. Hope you enjoy. :)
I’ve followed your posts for a little while now, and I love reading all your ideas! One thing I want to know, though, is when / how you have time to prepare all these activities, go shopping for supplies, etc? I have four little ones (ages 0 – 5) and I barely have time to clean up after them and get all the laundry done! By the time they get to sleep at night I’m so tired myself that I don’t have energy to prep stuff like this. When I have prepared some of your activities for them, they breeze through it all and seem to make more work in cleaning it all up. Any ideas? Can you do a post about your daily schedule, not just the schedule of activities for the kids, but also when you prepare things and get everything ready for when you need it? Does that make sense? Thanks!
Becky, I imagine it must be so busy with four little ones under the age of 5! I feel so busy with only two. ;) The thing that takes up the most amount of time for me is the planning and shopping. Once I know what I’m doing, it honestly only takes me 20-30 minutes to set everything up. Also, I usually have to sit with my two year old and do the activities before he’ll get interested in them. I spend a lot of time doing the trays with him (sometimes up to an hour) at the beginning of the week. However, by the end of the week he can usually keep himself busy with the trays for at least 30 minutes at a time. And he often will do the trays multiple times a day. Hopefully that helps with some of your questions.
Love the trays! As always, great ideas!
{And I love the freshly combed toddler hair!}
Ah yes, there is something so cute about freshly combed toddler hair isn’t there. :)