Kite Toddler Activities
Nothing makes it feel more like spring is on the way than diving into kite toddler activities as we learn outside our home or classroom! There’s nothing like watching a child’s face holding onto a kite as it soars through the air. I created this Kite Themed Toddler Unit to bring a bit of the spring, kite-flying season to you and your little ones!
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:
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 activities
- fine motor activities
- gross motor activities
- art activities
Interested in downloading these kite activities that you can print and use right away? Click on the image or button below to check them out in my TpT shop!
Art Activities
I love to use kite art activities to introduce the letter Kk. It’s a great way use a tangible item to help your little ones make the connection between the word, sound, and letter.
To kick off the unit, let’s make a paper bag kite! For this activity, you’ll give your child an open paper bag to decorate. You can use markers, glitter, washi tape, dot markers, or anything else you have on hand. The sky’s the limit! Once your child is finished decorating, you’ll punch a very small hole in the bottom of the bag and thread a string through the hole. This will be the top of the kite. Inside the bottom opening of the bag, you can tape colorful streamers inside so that they hang out of the bottom of the kite. Then head outside on a breezy day and enjoy the fresh air and let your child try to fly his or her kite!
Fine Motor Activities
Stickers are an awesome (and fun!) way to allow your little one to develop fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are so important because they help strengthen and develop the tiny muscles in our little one’s hands, which in turn will help them with things like holding a pencil, cutting, and gluing.
For this activity, you’ll use a kite printable and a sheet of small stickers. Your child will peel the stickers off of the sheet and use them to decorate the kite. This peeling motion is a great way to build hand control, and your child will just think they are having fun!
Sensory Bins
Sensory bins are my favorite way to learn while we play! Anytime we can add a tactile element to learning, it helps solidify the learning with our little ones.
For this sensory bin activity, just fill a bin with a quarter inch of sand. Then, you can add in the kite themed cards from our Kite Toddler School Unit. Your little one will pick up one card and place it inside the bin. Using his or her finger, he or she will write the letter or number shown on the card in the sand. If your child needs assistance, use hand over hand movements to help your child with the correct formation of the letters. Make sure to remind your child of the name of the letter and try to have your child say the letter as he or she writes it in the sand, too.
Teaching Tip: a plastic pencil box will work great for this activity if you don’t have a large bin.
For this next sensory bin activity, you will place “clouds”, also known as cotton balls, into a bin. Then, mix up the kite puzzle pieces from the Kite Toddler School Unit and set them inside the bin with the cotton balls. Then, have your child search for the puzzle pieces and set the completed puzzles on a flat surface outside the bin.
As your child finds each puzzle piece, review the name of the shape on the puzzle pieces. Make sure to leave time afterwards to play with and explore the cotton balls!
Math Activities
This week we are reviewing number recognition and counting to four. For this math activity, you will pre-cut the four pieces of a kite puzzle you have drawn by hand, or you can download one from our Kite Toddler School Unit. Your child will use these pieces to glue onto the workmat like a puzzle. As your child completes this activity, make sure to have your child point to each number and say the name, as well as practice counting to four.
For this next math activity, you’ll create a kite. You’ll punch a hole in the bottom of the kite and string a ribbon through the hole to create a tail. Glue number squares onto clothespins, or handwrite numbers 1-9 onto the clothespins with a permanent marker.
Next, your child will clip the numbered clothespins onto the ribbon tail. Review the name of each number with your child as he or she adds each clip. For an added challenge, you can have your child clip the numbers in counting order.
Since fine motor skills are so important for our little learners, I love to find ways to incorporate as much fine motor practice into our day as I can. This activity works to strengthen fine motor skills while practicing 1:1 counting!
First you’ll print and laminate the number bead cards that are included in the Kite Toddler Unit. Punch a hole in the bottom of the kites. Thread and tie off a pipe cleaner on the bottom of each kite. Then, have your child string beads on each pipe cleaner to match the number on the kite. You can also have your child count out loud as he or she strings those beads to help them stay on track.
I hope you found some great ideas to help your little one soar at home while playing and learning! If you want to make teaching your toddler super simple and fun this week, then check out my Kite Toddler School Unit for 5 complete lesson plans and all the printables you need.
If you want to get started with a full year of learning with your toddlers, then check out my entire Toddler School Curriculum for 26 full units to last you all year!
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 February 20th, 2023 by Laurin Brainard