What are some orange themed tot trays I can do with my toddler that are Montessori inspired?
Can I just say that these color themed tot trays have been so fun? Smiley Man has been pointing out colors everywhere, especially yellow and blue. He still gets confused with some colors, but he really understands the concept of color better now that we have devoted a huge chunk of tot school time to it. In case you missed it, check out this post about our new tot school schedule. See below for some awesome Montessori-inspired activities for toddlers, all with an orange theme.
Orange Tot Trays
Smiley Man is 27 months old
Special Orange Tray: Orange Math Links
I got these awesome math links from Oriental Trading several months ago. The set comes with a bunch of colors. My kids love making long chains and sorting the colors. This tray just has a bunch of orange math links.
Color Game: Cups and Blocks Sorting
This game is pretty self explanatory. Simply wrap some cups or toilet paper rolls in construction paper (we did yellow, blue, and orange) and then have a bunch of small blocks in those same colors in a small container on the tray. Smiley Man just has to put the blocks into the cup that matches. He is getting so good at matching and I am so proud! :)
Beading
Bead large orange beads onto orange pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaner was a new beading material for Smiley Man. He has mostly beaded onto skewers. This was hard for him at first because the pipe cleaner is much more “bendy” than a skewer, but he got pretty good at it by the end of the week. I made sure to use big beads so the beading would be a bit easier.
Coloring
I found this cute wooden lion head at the dollar store. I decided to have Smiley Man color the mane orange for this tray. He loved coloring on something other than paper, but he didn’t quite stay on just the mane :). We’ve been practicing how to hold a marker/pencil/pen so this was a good activity to help with that.
Stamping
This tray has an orange circle outline and an orange dot marker. Smiley Man uses his finger to stamp inside of the circle to make an orange. At the very end of the week we may add a construction paper leaf to make it look more like an orange. Smiley Man loved this tray, but it was a little messy.
Small Spaces
This tray has orange popsicle sticks (painted with do-a-dot markers) and an empty container. I poked holes in the plastic lid just large enough for a popsicle stick to go through. Smiley Man just has to put all of the popsicle sticks into the container through the openings. Smiley Man LOVES these kind of games and this tray was no exception. I did have to help him for a little while because the holes were a pretty tight fit for the popsicle sticks. He started to get it on his own eventually though.
Learning Notebook
Our learning notebook has five pages each week. Smiley Man does one page each day. The first page is just a name tracing printable. The second is this rainbow (from this post about a rainbow puzzle) with all of the colors colored, except the orange. Here is a free printable with the last three pages for the learning notebook.
My favorite thing about our new tot school schedule is that I sit down and do these tot trays with Smiley Man. It is the perfect opportunity to talk about new vocabulary and just to be more aware of his learning. I am so impressed by how these Montessori activities are helping him learned. Hopefully you are having just as much success with your little one.
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