What is a music lesson I can do with my toddler?

I am so excited about this new series of posts for toddlers! It is also about music and movement activities for toddlers and of course it can be for preschoolers too. I am very passionate about the power of music. In fact, I have even written a long research paper on that very topic. Music has proven to affect lives time and time again. Music is perfect for teaching rhythm, rhyming, memorizing simple things (like the alphabet), a steady beat, intonation, emotion, and so much more. Before I go way overboard on this topic, just trust me when I say that I am passionate about music.

I love doing music and movement lessons with my kids and they always love it too! Throughout this series, I will write about several ways that you can teach/interact with music with your toddler or preschooler. The first post in this series will be about hand signals.

It doesn’t make sense to use hand signals with every single song that you could sing with your child, but it does make sense with lots of them. Here is a list of songs that you could easily make up hand signals for. Many of these songs already have hand signals that you probably already know.

• 5 Little Speckled Frogs
• 5 Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree
• 5 Little Ducks Went out to Play
• London Bridge
• The Bear Went Over the Mountain
• Wheels on the Bus
• Pat-a-Cake
• One, Two Buckle My Shoe
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• I’m a Little Teapot
• This Little Piggy
• Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
• My Hat it Has Three Corners

Don’t forget that you can be creative. There may be a song that you are singing and you realize that you can think of some fun hand signals. Teach them to your toddler! Teaching hand signals will help your child remember the words and it teaches them musical skills as well as some gross motor.

I was singing The Bear Went Over the Mountain with my boys, when I realized that we have lots of teddy bears and we could easily find a “mountain” to sing the song with. So, we sang the song several more times, but each took turns helping the bear over the “mountain.” Smiley Man and Little Bear loved this game and have been playing it lots of times since we took pictures. Singing with hand signals is a great way to do music and movement lesson with your toddler.

How can I teach my child about different fonts and give him or her some cutting practice?

Sometimes children get accustomed to letters in only one font. When they see the same letters in other fonts, they are unable to recognize them because they are so used to only one font. I have noticed Little Bear falling into this rut a little bit lately, so I have been making an extra effort to point out letters in lots of different fonts. Little Bear has been doing much better recognizing lots of different fonts, but I decided to incorporate the different fonts into a cut and paste page.

This cut and paste worksheet for preschool has 12 letters on the top, then the same 12 letters on the bottom. To complete the cut and paste work, have your child cut out the letters on the bottom (with the dotted lines) and then glue them to the letter on the top that matches. The only trick to this activity is that the letters are all in different fonts.

While Little Bear completed this page, we talked a lot about how the letters looked different from the way we usually write them, but they are still the same letters. I also had Little Bear identify each of the letters after he cut them out. He didn’t have that much trouble identifying any of the letters, but I tried to stay away from any of the tricky letters (like “g” for example).

I’m thinking I may make another cut and paste worksheet very similar to this in a few weeks with the really tricky letters. Little Bear could complete this page pretty easily (minus some complaining about all the cutting), but he did have to work at it a little. Honestly, I’m surprised at how quickly Little Bear is realizing that letters don’t always look the same. He often surprises me with his learning power. Young children learn so much in such a short amount of time and of course, it’s easy for me to think my kids are extra smart. ;)

I’d like to start this post by thanking everyone who entered this giveaway. We had a lot of people enter the giveaway and I just want to say thank you to all of our amazing readers! You guys make this blog possible!

And now, the winner is …

Martina Wilkinson!

Congratulations!

If you didn’t win, remember you can buy a set of 6 Do-a-dot markers from amazon.com for only $14.99. A set of 4 Do-a-dot markers is only $10.79. Do-a-dot also makes some fun activity books and almost all of their products are eligible for free super saver shipping. This means the shipping is free as long as you spend $25 or more (or if you have an Amazon Prime membership). If you buy some do-a-dot markers along with a Father’s Day gift (check out our inexpensive gift ideas here), you should be able to get free shipping.

Again I just want to thank all of our amazing readers! You guys are the greatest. Good luck with our next giveaway, whenever it may be.

What are some Montessori themed tot trays I can make up for my child for the summer?

After a very crazy weekend, I was up late last night with a sick Smiley Man. :( So, I’m sorry that this post went up a little late. He seems to be doing a little better this morning, so the rest of the posts for this week should go up without any delay. We will be announcing the winner of the Do-a-dot giveaway tomorrow, so be looking for that post. For now, here are some fun gardening tot trays that I put together for Smiley Man. He did enjoy these trays, although, with the warmer weather, he definitely wants to be outside more and inside doing tot trays less. ;)

Smiley Man is 25 months old.

Gardening Tools in Dirt

This tot tray has some gardening tools I got from the dollar store. There is also some “dirt” (I didn’t want to use actual dirt because of the bugs so I made this sensory dirt using 1 cup baking soda and ½ C cocoa powder). The tray also has some beans which we pretended were seeds.

Carrot Playdough Mat

I found this cute gardening playdough mat from somewhere. I actually printed this mat about a year ago for Little Bear and it has gotten a lot of use since then. Smiley Man really liked playing with this mat because usually Little Bear is the one playing with it. The idea is simply to put the correct number of carrots in the dirt.

Vegetable Cutting Practice

I made this tray by getting several paint chips that I cut and decorated to look like vegetables (carrot, cucumber, corn, and potato). I put the “vegetables” on the tray along with some scissors. Smiley Man uses the scissors to cut on the lines of the paint chips. Smiley Man obviously loved this tray because it used scissors. :)

Put “Seeds” in the “Dirt”

This tot tray has a popcorn box with brown construction paper glued on the top of it. There are also holes in the top of the popcorn box that are just big enough to fit some penne pasta. To the side is a bunch of penne pasta. We pretended that the pasta were seeds to plant. Smiley Man really enjoyed putting the pasta into the holes, then dumping them out and doing it again. This was one of his favorite trays.

Fruit Puzzles

I found these cute fruit puzzles from the dollar store and thought they were perfect for our gardening theme. Smiley Man did have a difficult time putting them together since the pieces were thin. He still enjoyed this tray though and liked looking at all the different pieces.

Gardening Tot Book

I read this book at least once during the time that these trays are out. If Smiley Man uses this tray while I am working with Little Bear, he can color the pictures or just look at the pictures as he turns the pages. I do not in any way expect Smiley Man to learn how to read by looking at this book. This book is simply for exposure to words and letters and concepts of print.

Printables

Matching Cards (Garden Preschool Pack, part 1 page 4&5), Pre-Writing Practice (Garden Preschool Pack, part 1 page 6).

Featured Toy

Mater Truck

Themed Books

Jack’s Garden by: Henry Cole

My Garden by: Kevin Henkes

In the Garden by: Elizabeth Spurr

Who’s Hiding? In the Garden by: Christiane Gunzi

Put Veggies in Basket

I wanted to have some knitted or plastic vegetables for this basket. I think it would have been better, but Smiley Man still enjoyed this tray more than I thought he would. Instead of using 3D vegetables, I just printed these vegetable pictures in black and white and let Smiley color them before gathering them into the basket.

Plant Seeds

This tray uses more sensory dirt and some dried pinto beans. I showed Smiley Man how to plant a seed (make a hole, put the seed in, then cover it with dirt). He was supposed to plant all of the pinto bean “seeds” correctly. He had a hard time with the “correctly” part, but he still enjoyed this tray quite a bit.

How can I teach shapes to my toddler or preschool child?

Teaching shapes to kids is something that can be very easy, if you are armed with a collection of great ideas. For the past several weeks I have been posting lots of shape activities for toddlers. These activities are great for toddlers and for preschoolers. They will help teach shapes to a child that doesn’t know them, or they will reinforce the shapes your child already knows. If you ever looked for a shape activity, then look no further because this post has a roundup of all my shape activities as well as several more.

Identification

• Shape Cards from Moms Have Questions Too
• Find the Shape from Moms Have Questions Too
• Coconut Tree Color by Shape from Making Learning Fun
• Multisensory Shape Identification from Miss Allison’s Class

Matching

• 2 Part Shape Puzzles from Moms Have Questions Too
• Shape Pizzas from Moms Have Questions Too
• Shape Apple Tree from Moms Have Questions Too
• Tape Shape Matching Game from Toddler Approved
• Double Trouble Shapes from Walking by the Way

Sorting

• Shape Sorting Cut and Paste from Moms Have Questions Too
• Sticky Easel Sorting Shapes from Learning 4 Kids
• Foam Shapes and Paper Muffin Cup Sorting from 1+1+1=1 (2nd down)
• Flannel Board Shape Sorting from Teach Preschool

Make Shapes

• Decorate Shapes from Moms Have Questions Too
• Popsicle Stick Shapes from Moms Have Questions Too
• Shape Cutting Practice from Moms Have Questions Too
• Rock Shapes from Mamas Like Me
• Ghost Shape Tracing by Three Ghost Friends

Exploration

• Shape Sensory Bin from Moms Have Questions Too
• Shape Quiet Book from Moms Have Questions Too (Smiley Man’s Favorite!!)
• Shape Lacing Cards from Moms Have Questions Too
• Texture Shape Exploration Station from Not Just Cute