Toddler Curriculum

Sand and Water Play – Art and Sensory

A dishtub filled with sand or water can provide entertainment as well as a great learning experience.  Ideas to add to water play: a drop of food coloring, turkey basters, funnels, cups, dish soap, boats, plastic toys, brushes and sponges, ice, cold or warm water, baby dolls or play dishes to wash, toddler safe balls, items that will sink or float.

Paint with Water – Outdoor Activities

On a hot day, take out a small container of water and large and small brushes.  Allow the children to paint with the water.  (Supervise the children at all times.)

Beach Ball Bat – Gross Motor

Hang a beach ball from the ceiling just within the child’s reach.  Allow the children to bat at the ball.

Eat like a crab – Self Help

Show your child a picture of a crab.  Ask them “how does the crab eat?”  Ask them to show you how the crabs eat using their fingers as pinchers.

Play Dough Starfish – Fine Motor

Obtain a few star cookie cutters.  Show your child how to roll the playdough with a rolling pin and cut it with the cookie cutter, to make a starfish.  Can they form a starfish without the cookie cutter?

“My Fishy Song” by chicky-ma-ma – Music and Movement
Sung to “The More We Get Together:

If I could be a fishy,
A fishy, a fishy
If I could be a fishy
What kind would I be?
A swordfish, a guppy,
A goldfish, a molly,
If I could be a fishy,
I would be a (child fills in the blank)

The Rainbow Fish – Listening and Talking

If you read this very popular book just before bed, and the light is still on in the hallway, you can make the rainbow scales glitter on the page, and realize why the Rainbow Fish was so proud of his beautiful decoration.  Sometimes, though, being too proud of outside beauty can blind a fish, or a child ( or even, heaven forbid, a parent) to the beauty people hold inside.  That’s the lesson of this simple tale, imported from Switzerland.  It’s a useful one for future sneaker and designer clothing shoppers, for rainbow fish—and for quieter, plainer minnows, too.

Shell Hunt – Outdoor Activities

Fill a dishpan half full with sand and shell.  Let your child find the shells, and count them when they are done.