All Aboard the Potty-Train!

 

Back when LM was a wee lad, he would get really excited when we talked about potty-training. We finally figured out that when he heard the word, "train" he was thinking of the choo choo variety. So I thought we would capitalize on that excitement, and make a Potty-Train to help him along!

I made a little track out of white paper with black strips and stuck it to the bathroom wall with sticky-tack. I printed out a little train that we clipped to the track with a clothespin. Every time he went potty, he got to move the train down the track. When it reached the station at the end of the track, he got a little prize!

LB recently turned 3 and we're about to start full-fledged potty-training soon. This idea worked so well with LM that I'm going to do it again! I mean who wouldn't want to take a ride on the potty train?

All aboard!

Train Counting

Last week our theme was TRAINS!

My goal was to do 3 activities with LB.....but it was a busy week, so this is the only one we got done! Oh well. That's just life. :)

But this was a fun counting activity. It was good for LB(3) to practice recognizing numbers and putting them in order. And he LOVES trains so it was a fun way to practice!

Prep Work:

• I found this package of train cars at the dollar store a while ago. You could try to find something similar, OR just print some trains out, OR cut out rectangles and add circles for the wheels! :)
• So, whatever trains you decide to use, just write the numbers 1-10 (or lower, or higher) on them. 

Here's what you do:

• Lay out all the trains on the floor.

• Then have your child line them all up in order, connecting the train cars together to make one big long train. That's it!

• You could also play other fun games with these. Any other ideas?

Football Theme

Here is a list of the activities we did for our FOOTBALL themed week! (plus a couple activities we did a long time ago with a football theme too.)

Click the picture below to go to that post.
Or, click HERE to see all these football posts.

Football Team Cookies:

Inside Football & Basketball activities:

Football Painting

Our final activity during our FOOTBALL themed week, was this easy and fun football painting! I was trying to figure out a way to paint the football so it looked like the leather dots on a real pig-skin football. I originally thought of using bubble-wrap....but we didn't have any. Then I thought of pencil erasers!  LB (2) had so much fun since he loves to paint. 

Prep Work:

• Draw a football shape on a piece of brown construction paper. (or any color you want)
• Gather a handful of pencils and put an elastic band around them to keep them together. This is what your child will "stamp" the football with.

 Here's what you do:

• Pour out a little tempera paint (or finger paint) onto a paper plate.
• Hand your child the bundle of pencils and show them how to stamp the erasers into the paint and onto the football. Have them do it over and over to cover the entire football, or as much as they want. :)

•  Let the paint dry.
• Then cut out the football shape and look at your cool design!

*P.S. The best finger paints around are by Crayola. They are the perfect consistency. Not too runny and not too thick. And best of all they are completely washable--and so easy to wipe off tables, fingers, and wash out of clothes. I HIGHLY recommend them for painting crafts with kids. 
And there is a great deal on Amazon right now to get a nice set of 12 different colors. In big bottles that you can use for a LONG time! Check it out!

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Football Letter Game

Another one of our FOOTBALL themed activities was this Letter Game! It was super easy and fast to create and was really fun way to review letters with LB (2).

Prep:

• Cut off a 2 inch section of green construction paper and glue it onto a big piece of blue construction paper (grass & sky)
• Fold a yellow piece of construction paper in half and cut out a shape of half a football goal post, so that when you open it up, it looks like the whole goal post. Glue it onto your blue paper.
• Write the letters of the alphabet all over the whole picture.
• Cut out a small football shape from brown construction paper and draw laces on it with a white crayon.

Here's what you do:

• Sit down with your child and say a letter of the alphabet. Then have them place the little football on top of the letter.
• When they get it right, yell "TOUCHDOWN!!!" They will love it. :)

• When LM(5) got home from school, I played with him, but this time, I said the sound and had him put the football on the letter. It was really fun!

Football Field Graham Cracker

Growing up, one of my favorite after-school snacks were graham cracker & frosting sandwiches. Yum.

Using those same lovely ingredients, you can also create a simple and fun FOOTBALL FIELD snack! We made these to go along with our FOOTBALL themed week, and the boys LOVED them!!!

Here's what you do:

• Put a few dollops of white frosting into a bowl and add green food coloring.
• Lay out whole graham crackers and spread green frosting all over them.
• Put a big spoonful of white frosting into a ziploc baggie and squeeze to one of the corners. Clip a small hole out of the tip of the corner and squeeze the white frosting out to draw lines and numbers on your football fields.
• Spread some white frosting on each end of the crackers to be the End Zones.
• Get 2 chocolate chips. Wet the bottoms of them and stick them together to make a "mini football," and place it on the field.

Football Laces Counting Game

With Football season in full swing, I thought it would be fun to have our weekly theme be FOOTBALL! 

This activity was incredibly simple to make, and LB(2) had so much fun with it. And I was very impressed with how well he counted!

Prep:

• Using a piece of brown construction paper, cut out 5 football shapes
• Tape or glue them onto the blank side of an index card (or cut out pieces of cardstock)

• Using a white crayon, draw a line down the long way of the footballs, and then cut the football cards in half.
• Next, draw laces on each half of the football starting with 1 and going up to 5, like the picture below:

Here's what you do:

• Lay out all the cut cards and have your child pick 2 and put them together to make a football.
• Show them how to count the laces and then have them do it on their own!

• Since there are so many possible combinations, this is a fun game your child can play over and over to practice counting up to 10!

Bug Theme

We recently did a BUG Theme for our weekly "Preschool at Home." Here are the activities we did, PLUS some other Bug-themed activities we did previously.

Click on a picture below to go to that post. 

Or, click HERE to see all these posts.

Love Bugs:

Bug Sticker Memory

Our final BUG-themed activity of the week was this simple memory game. I bought a booklet of these cute little bug stickers at a craft store a year ago or so. I almost forgot I had them tucked away. But they were a perfect addition to our Bug week! And LB(2) has recently become a huge fan of memory games, so this was a big hit!

Prep:

• If you can find any, buy some bug stickers. If not, you can print off pictures of bugs, or be even MORE daring and attempt to draw your own!
• Cut a piece of cardstock into squares (however many you want! We did 12)
• Put the stickers (or pictures) on the squares.

Here's what you do:

• Turn the cards upside down and play memory! Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
• An added bonus for our stickers was that one of each of the matching bugs was big and the other was small. So when we found one, LB would say, "BIG bee" or "SMALL bee" etc. A fun way to learn about sizes.

Build a Butterfly!

One of LB's favorite preschool activities during our BUG week was this one! We have played with it several times so far and had so much fun coming up with new and beautiful butterfly designs! Some of the designs are LB's creations, and some are mine. 'Tis fun for all ages! :) Can be used as a great butterfly or bug craft, or even to teach kids colors as you mix and match!

Prep:

• Using different colors of craft foam, cut out the following:
• 3 (or more) butterfly bodies, and draw smiley faces on each of them
• 3 (or more) pairs of wings
• 5 (or more) sets of different shapes (about 8-10 of each shape)

Here's what you do:

• Lay out all the craft foam pieces on the floor or table and show your child how to put them together to create a beautiful butterfly.
• Then let them do it on their own. It's so fun to see what they come up with! (I was surprised to see LB make his designs so symmetrical and simple. Since he's a wild and rowdy 2 year old, I expected something crazier from him, so it was fun to see how he did it on his own.)
• Then take them apart and start again!

originally posted 9-2012

You might also like our awesome activity we did using the same idea to build DINOSAURS using craft foam pieces. My kids loved it. Check it out!


And if you're looking for more fun ideas with a Butterfly theme, here are some ideas!
You could make butterfly cookies and decorate them! Or play this super cute butterfly sorting game!

(this post contains affiliate links)

Caterpillar Patterns

This is a very simple activity we did to go along with our BUG Themed Week. It was a fun way to introduce the concept patterns to LB (2).

Prep Work:

• Choose 3 (or more) sheets of scrapbook paper in different patterns and colors. 
• Cut out 3 (or more) circles from each paper.
• Cut out 1 circle from another color and draw a smiley face on it for the Caterpillar's head.

Here's what you do:

• Sit down with your child and lay down the caterpillar's head. Then start a pattern using 2 (or more) of the patterns. leave off the last 2 (or more) circles and ask them to finish the pattern (like in the pictures below). You may need to walk them through the pattern and show them how to do it.
• If they are older or catch on quickly, you can add more circles and make the patterns longer or more complex. Or switch back and forth creating patterns for each other to finish. :)