Flower Themed Toddler Activities
Spring is in the air and that means flowers are starting to bloom! Do your little ones love to take walks around the neighborhood and try to pick every flower they see? I know mine do! I created this flower themed toddler unit to bring a bit of spring to you and your littles.
Lesson Components
This unit is made up of 5 lessons that will each work on the following activities:
- literacy/language
- sensory bin
- math and science activity
- fine motor activity
- gross motor activity
- art activity
If you want to learn more about how to get started planning activities for your little ones, download my FREE guide for everything you need to know about the skill areas we incorporate into toddler school:
Toddler Art Activities
This unit includes so many fun art activities that I know your littles will adore. To kick off the unit, we had the best time making flower popsicle stick puppets. Your little one will love choosing all the bright colors for their flowers. This is a perfect opportunity to work hard on coloring in the lines and expressing their creativity. They may need some assistance with cutting the flowers, but then watch them use those tiny muscles independently to squeeze out the glue. I have no doubt their flowers will turn out super cute!!
For today’s art activity, we are headed out to the great outdoors to take in all the sunshine! All you need to do is cut out the flowers from the gross motor flower template and watch your little one have a blast tracing the chalk flowers! This activity is perfect for a variety of different skill levels so you can challenge your little one at their current skill level. If you find that your little ones are needing a bit of help, try placing your hand over their hand and helping them trace. If you find that tracing comes super easy for your little ones, then challenge them to draw a few flowers without the template.
Fine Motor Activities
Practicing fine motor skills in everyday situations are so important for developing finger control and learning how to manipulate different objects…but it can be tough work! In this activity we are using plastic tweezers because they are a great tool to help build strong muscles. To begin, have your little one use plastic tweezers to place beads on the flower printable. We chose to outline the flower in glue prior to placing the beads because my son LOVES to create artwork. This also made it easier to keep the beads in place so they didn’t start rolling all over our home! If you see your child struggling to pick up the beads with the tweezers, then this activity can be modified by using pom pom balls. Don’t be afraid to modify so you can do what works best for your child’s skills. You know them best!
A lot of parents have a love-hate relationship with glitter, but I definitely on team glitter! In this next activity, you get to create glitter flowers. I mean what could be more fun than an afternoon of glitter and glue?!?! To set up this activity, all you need is the printed out flower, glitter, and glue. From my experience, it works best to print on card stock and use a squeeze bottle of glue.
You can assist your child with squeezing the glue, but you might be surprised how great they are at doing this independently! Then, watch how hard your child pinches their little fingers to sprinkle all of that glitter. I promise you that the mess is worth the reward!
Sensory Bins
Sensory bins are always a household favorite for us and they are a great teaching tool. For this sensory activity you can use colored rice, beans, or any other fun filler you can find. Simply place the cards into the bin and let your child work hard to find the matching pieces to complete the flower puzzle. I bet your little one will be so proud of themselves when they finish the puzzle!
Sensory bins are the perfect way for your little ones to practice their letter skills. For this next sensory bin you can keep the same filler and just add in the big f and little f letter cards. Your child will sort the letters into two dishes. As they sort, take advantage of each opportunity to ask the name of the letter. You will be shocked at how engaging these sensory bins are for the littles they seriously love them.
I don’t know about your kiddos but my kids get so excited every time I break out the play dough box. Do your little ones ask you to play with play dough multiple times a day??? If so, then they will be thrilled when you set up this play dough station! All you have to do is place the printable inside a sheet protector and you are ready to go! Depending on your child’s skill level, they may need a bit of help getting started. You can assist by showing how to roll some snakes and different shapes out of the dough. Watch and see how focused and engaged your little one will be to make the perfect flower.
Math Activity
I love to expose little ones to counting skills through 1:1 correspondence activities. Plus, it is so easy to prep this activity! All you do is print, cut, and give your child the cards and some counters to use. By using pom pom balls, you can also brush up on those color matching skills while you work on counting and number identification. You can also use another favorite counter that you have on had such as spring erasers or small candies.
Science Activity
We can’t seem to go anywhere without seeing lots of spring flowers. This parts of a flower book is the perfect way to teach your little one some new vocabulary while working on coloring skills. I bet they will head straight outside just to tell you all about the different parts of the flowers that they know. I love taking advantage of perfect moments like this to teach vocabulary!
Gross Motor Activities
Since it is spring, it’s definitely time to get outside and enjoy the fresh air! For this gross motor activity, you will tape down about eight flowers on the ground and practice those hopping skills. Be sure to remind your little one to use both feet. Once they master the two foot hop, you can work on hopping on one foot as well.
I hope you found some great ideas to use at home with your little ones! If you want to make teaching your toddler super simple this week, then check out my Flower Toddler School Unit for 5 complete lesson plans and all the printables you need. I hope you enjoy every minute of playing and learning with your little ones!
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.
Written on March 23rd, 2021 by Laurin Brainard