Friday, April 27, 2007

Crafts for 2-year-olds

thanks, Kristy Maligro, for these great ideas!

Craft ideas to do with two-year-olds:
- cut out shopping cart and have them glue on cut outs of food items (cut out of local newspaper) or cut out paper people and glue on clothes for them
- threading cardboard bookmarks (punch holes in cardboard and use string w/ tape around end to thread through the holes)
- glue cotton balls onto a sheep cutout to make an ornament
- maybe we could have everyone at playgroup bring a t-shirt and then use a fabric pen to trace all the kids hands on all the shirts w/ their names/age in the middle of their hand.
- Rice, oatmeal, beans or noodles in a dish pan is a great sensory experience let her use measuring cups, funnels, strainer, pastry brush etc
- Take two paper plates and staple them together putting beans or rice in the middle. Let the child paint or glue or put stickers and ribbon on the outside making their own tambourine
- have races with hotwheels cars… make ramps /tunnels for them
- make shakers w/ toilet paper roll (fill with beans or rice and cover each end securely)
- playdough day
- music day - bring any instruments/rattles/etc. or scarves/ribbons... for a time of music where the kids can sing or play or dance along... can do hand motions to songs they may already know too. tagen seems to be fascinated by this lately
- make cheerio necklaces (string w/ tape around each end makes for easy threading)
- crumple paper into crazy shapes and glue onto paper... or can use pasta shells or string or something
- fingerpaint day? do we dare? May be messy but we could do it outside on a big old sheet or in the kiddie pool/hose them down after
- paint a little pot then plant something in it... take it home and have them help take care of it and watch it grow
- bring a tshirt or onesie and we can tie dye them for the kids
- ideas for learning shapes, colors, abc's, numbers...
-Get a sand/water table. Fill it with all sorts of sensory things- hard beans, noodles, water, sand, cotton balls, etc. It really helps kids learn by feel.
-For ABC's, each person bring a stuffed animal. An animal they can easily recognize as that letter- a bird for B, a deer for D, a sheep for S, etc.
-A color basket. Fill it with all sorts of items that can be passed around of that color. Red apples, a red feather boa, red flowers, red stuffed animals, etc- stuff they can touch and feel, and enjoy.
-Kids paint or color paper plates, then a grownup cuts them in a spiral. (Cut a bit of a bulge for a head in the center.) Voila! Snakes! These can be hung, too
-Use old tights/nylons to pull around wire shaped like a butterfly. The body can be a sock filled with sand (rubberbands to separate head). Kids can paint or glue on glitter
-Finger painting with pudding. (outside in the kiddie pool)
-"painting" by putting paper into a 13x9" baking pan. Put some paint on the paper and have the child blow the paint around on the paper through a straw. The results can be really pretty and after they dry, they can be hung on the wall.

--Kristy Maligro is a mother of two (a 2-year-old boy and 9-month-old girl) who used to live in Santa Barbara and recently moved to Hawaii and is a good friend of mine--

5 comments:

Barbie said...

Go Kristy, these are amazing. I'm sharing them with all the toddler mammas I know :)

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