A-Z of Activity and Craft Ideas For Toddlers
Keep little ones entertained this summer with this wonderful A-Z of activity and craft ideas for toddlers.
Emma, who is a wife, mumma, dramatherapist and home-maker describes this A-Z as “finding was to keep my little ones (and myself) entertained through creating an alphabet themed activity box for my daughter to find each morning.”
Tips:
- Choose activities that you want to do so you’re excited to do it with your child. Some parents love arts and crafts, for others getting messy is a parenting nightmare. Make it fit you and your family.
- If your child chooses to disengage in an activity you spent time preparing try doing it yourself, I promise it will leave you feeling less downhearted, give you a boost and might even convince your little one it’s more fun than they originally thought.
A is for…
Painting APPLES with icing & decorating them with sprinkles ready for snack time, doing APPLE paint printing, having a paper AEROPLANE competition in the garden whilst dressed up as one ourselves, making an AMBULANCE to play in & saving lots of peoples lives (including a toy helicopter and a duck doorstop) and going on an ANT hunt on our daily walk, which started with one very ANGRY toddler who had been refused an icecream & ended with an ANNOYED mum as the toddler then woke the baby!
B is for…
Celebrating my goddaughter’s BIRTHDAY over Zoom, painting with BUBBLE-wrap, making BUNNY shaped BISCUITS & a BIRD feeder out of a coconut & (my favourite of the week) an indoor BEAR Hunt using the story as inspiration for some imaginative and sensory role play.
C is for…
Changing the names of a game to ‘what’s the time Mr CROCODILE’, writing/posting a CARD to someone we miss, growing CRESS in emotion themed egg cups we had painted, making a paper chain CATERPILLAR, pretending to build a CASTLE to live in & then packing our bag to go pretend CAMPING.
D is for …
Helping Mummy lead a DRAMATHERAPY Zoom session, DANCE competitions, DRAGON craft, playing DOCTORS with teddies, hiding toy dinosaurs around the house for a DINOSAUR hunt & squeezing in DAISY chain making once the rain stopped.
E is for…
ELEPHANT hand prints, bringing EASTER back for EGG hunts in the garden & chocolate nest making, small world play using her EMERGENCY vehicles & dressing up as ELSA to dance, sing and watch Frozen.
F is for…
FIREMAN and FAIRY-themed obstacle courses, FISHING games, making a FROG and FOX out of paper plates and collecting FLOWERS on our walk to make ‘nature FACES’ back at home.
G is for…
Making a GUITAR out of cardboxes, sticking GOOGLEY eyes to objects to make them come to life and eating popcorn in front of The GREATEST SHOWMAN
H is for…
Pretend HORSE showjumping in the garden, playing HAIRDRESSERS, drawing around our arms to send a HUG to someone in the post and creating a HOPSCOTCH obstacle course with chalk for our neighbourhood to have some silly fun with.
I is for…
Rescuing a toy duck from a block of ICE, playing ICECREAM shops and then making some to eat from a frozen banana, playing the party game of Musical ISLANDS and ICING gingerbread men.
J is for…
Using a pillowcase for a JUMPING sack race, decorating a JEWELLERY box, making JELLYFISH out of egg cartons, setting strawberry-shaped JELLIES to eat (which I only remembered were still in the fridge when feeding Hudson at 2am!) and acting out the story of JACK and the Beanstalk (where Lila decided we had to socially distance ourselves from the giant because “all the people getting poorly” 🤣 found a fire in the castle that Jack had to put out and then cut the giant – not the beanstalk – up at the end; vicious!)
K is for…
Making a KING crown and then a KITE which we attempted to fly in a local field, KISSING a piece of paper with lipstick on (Daddy ‘enjoyed’ getting involved too), changing the song name of ‘hop little bunny’ to be a KANGAROO instead and helping mummy clean the KITCHEN – win win!
L is for…
Drinking homemade LEMONADE, hiding the letters of LILA’s name around the house for her to find and then hang up in order on a washing line, making LADYBIRD cupcakes, playing LORRY ‘Pooh Sticks’ (waving at them as they travel under a bridge from one side to the other) and collecting LEAVES on our way home to put in order from LITTLEST to LARGEST.
M is for…
Playing the MEMORY tray game (guessing which object is missing), making MUD hot chocolate, paint-printing using silver foil to create a MOON and finishing the week with an obstacle course that featured waving a MAGIC wand at MONSTERS in a cave, feeding a baby MEDICINE and pretending to be a MONKEY and a MOUSE 🤦♀️🤣)
N is for…
N is for going on a NATURE hunt around the garden, making play-dough NATURE bird NESTS, making animal NOSES out of egg cups and paper plates, dressing up to play NURSES, making and eating chocolate Easter NESTS, opening our own NAIL salon and playing pin the NOSE on the snowman.
O is for…
O for running as fast as we can for an OSTRICH race, having a strop in a homemade OCTOPUS costume during a game of tickle-tag because Lila wanted to be a tiger not an octopus, obviously print painting using ORANGES, making a hand printed OWL picture and going on a colour scavenger hunt for everything ORANGE we could find.
P is for…
P is for making PIRATE handprints and a PASTA necklace, making homemade PIZZA’S for a PICNIC lunch, role playing POSTMAN PAT and pretending to be PENGUINS by sliding down the water slip and slide on our tummy’s, and making a Mr POTATO head using a real potato and bits we could find in the fridge.
Activities and craft ideas for toddlers – Q is for…
Q is for making QUEEN handprints and using them to put on a puppet-show, doing a toddler friendly QUIZ, painting using Q-tips (earbuds to us in England), making a QUILT for a soft toy bunny using wrapping paper offcuts and playing the QUICK/slow game where you run really fast or move really slow around the garden when they are shouted out.
R is for…
R is for doing RUB drawings using leaves, getting messy making footprint ROCKETS, collecting flowers to make a RAINBOW, using masking tape as a ROAD for car play (which Lila had limited interest in, but Daddy had lots of fun with after work) and hysterical giggles on a virtual ROLLERCOASTER ride whilst sat in an Amazon delivery box on Daddy’s lap (Mummy also got to have a turn, and broke the box 🤣).
S is for…
S is for blowing bubbles using a SOCK snake, making a SNOWMAN out of kinetic SAND, going on a SCAVENGER hunt around our village, blow painting with STRAWS, using ourselves as counters in a giant SNAKES and ladders game and doing a SCIENCE experiment of SINK or float.
T is for…
T is for painting bread using milk mixed with food colouring to then TOAST for a snack, decorating a TREASURE box, walking a TIGHT-rope in the garden, making a cup TELEPHONE, having a TEDDY bears picnic and brushing giant TEETH (my maddest idea yet, but Lila genuinely loved brushing pesto sauce out of yogurt pot teeth 🤣!)
U is for…
U is for playing UNICORN hair salons and having a UNICORN obstacle course, making an UMBRELLA from a paper plate, having phone conversations with her UNCLES and hilarious laughter over milking a pretend cow’s UDDER (washing up gloves with holes in the fingers).
Activities and craft ideas for toddlers – V is for…
V is for laughing hysterically whilst making talking-chin VIDEOS, flower arranging into a VASE, painting using toy VEHICLE tyres and taking them to a pretend car wash after, screaming in excitement at an exploding VOLCANO science experiment, making music using our VELCRO shoes and playing a silly game we named VULTURE scavenging where Lila had to search for her snack around the garden and pick it up using her mouth.
W is for…
W is for WATER play using guttering, making fairy WINGS using cardboard, sellotape and fresh flowers she picked, making a WORM house, playing a WEATHER themed game where Lila had to get dressed as quickly as possible in different outfits depending what weather I shouted out, throwing pennies into a pretend WISHING WELL, helping mummy make a pretty front door WREATH and joining daddy before bedtime for his WORKOUT.
X is for…
X is for making a XYLOPHONE out of loo rolls and later playing a water XYLOPHONE, pretend play of ‘going to the hospital for an X-RAY’ and playing X-marks the spot where Lila had a map of the garden and had to stand in the location I marked the X with – this game was a hit and went on for weeks after.
Y is for…
Y is for going on a YELLOW scavenger hunt around the house, making YOGURT paint – which meant it was safe for Hudson to paint with/eat, making rainbow frozen YOGURT, using the empty YOGURT pots to make a pull-a-long snake and a ball-in-a-cup game and playing with a giant YO-YO made from paper plates.
Z is for…
Z is for making a ZEBRA using a paper plate, setting up a small-world ZOO using playmobile and cereal as textured flooring on a tuff tray, making Z shaped biscuits for a Z themed tea party with her Z named friend Zanna, having the ZOO visit her at home using Google 3D and making music using her coat ZIP.
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9 easy and adorable nature crafts for kids
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