Watermelon Themed Toddler School Lessons
Nothing says summer with toddlers quite like watermelon! Are you and your little ones ready for a summer filled with warm weather? I know we are so excited to kick off summer with all the watermelon themed toddler activities! I hope you and your littles have so much fun with the activities from my Watermelon Toddler Unit!
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
- 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 is filled with fun art activities that your little ones will love! One of our favorites this week was a watermelon painting activity. This watermelon plate craft is simple, yet engaging, and all you need is a paper plate with red, green, and black paint. As you are painting, this is an excellent opportunity to talk with your little one about what the inside of a watermelon looks like. Plus, you can practice their painting skills and remind them to make room for all of the colors. Don’t forget to paint the seeds!
Time to work on those important scissor skills! In this next activity, you will give your child a watermelon printable to practice their cutting and pasting skills. Depending on their ability level, your child may need some assistance cutting the small strips. My toddlers love activities that include gluing and I love that they get to use their tiny hand muscles to squeeze the glue onto the strips.
Fine Motor Activities
Toddlers need to develop strength and dexterity in the tiny muscles in their hands. We can help engage those muscles by providing our littles with opportunities to play and explore with all sorts of materials. For this first fine motor activity you will prep your watermelon by poking holes into the watermelon with a golf tee. Be sure to show your little one how to properly hold the watermelon in one hand and the golf tee in another. Give them around 10-20 golf tees to poke into the holes. If you feel your child is developmentally ready you can give them a small wooden hammer to hit the tees after poking in the holes. Of course you know your child best and can adapt the activity based on their needs!
We can also build fine motor skills by simply using items you find in the kitchen. In this next activity, your child will use a melon baller to scoop out the flesh of the watermelon, while also preparing a fun snack! Your little one will love enjoying a chunk of watermelon after all that hard work!
Tweezers are one of my favorite ways to put those fine motor skills to work. To set up this activity, all you need are pom pom balls, tweezers, and a watermelon printable. Your child will use tweezers to place the pom pom balls onto the watermelon workmat. It’s a great way to work on squeezing those little hand muscles!
Sensory Bins
Sensory bins are always a favorite teaching tool for the little ones. Sensory bins allow for an opportunity to play with tactile materials while they are learning. For this first sensory bin, you will add some black beans and let your little one explore with spoons, cups, and measuring cups for open-ended play. Talk to your little one about what they are doing and remember to use vocabulary words such as pour, dump, and measure.
It wouldn’t be a watermelon theme if you didn’t get outside right?!? This sensory exploration activity is one of my favorites. Your child can help you hollow out pieces of the watermelon and then you can assist them by gluing a piece of paper to a pipe cleaner to make their very own boat. Place the boat into a bin of water, and have a boat race with your child! You can make multiple boats and race them around the water!
Here is a fun letter skills sensory bin! To set up the sensory bin, you will add watermelon rice and the letter w letter cards. Then, place two dishes in the bin for sorting. As your child runs their fingers through the rice, talk with your child about the name of each letter.
Believe it or not, my children get excited for every. single. sensory. bin. I love watching how they use their senses to explore which is one of my favorite reasons to use sensory bins with young children. To set up this bin, add the same watermelon rice as filler and the mixed up shape cards. Watch and be amazed as your little ones finish the puzzles. Plus, you can take advantage of the time to talk about shapes and colors!
Math Activity
Exposing your toddler to counting can be done through lots of play based activities. I love using 1:1 correspondence activities with fun counters since they are hands-on and helps them master the skills they need to be successful in Kindergarten. In this activity, you will work on 1:1 coorespondence using fun and colorful watermelon cards and black beans as counters. Then, you will work with your little one to place the correct number of “seeds” onto each card.
Science Activity
Your little ones will love this hands-on science activity where they get to touch and feel all the parts of the watermelon with this dissection activity. This activity did get a bit sticky, so it is best completed outside. As your child takes apart the pieces of watermelon, talk about the different parts they find inside.
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 Watermelon Toddler Unit for 5 complete lesson plans and all the printables you need. I hope you enjoy every minute of playing, learning and having fun with your toddler!
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Written on May 11th, 2021 by Laurin Brainard