Marshmallow Sorting

Here’s an activity I had thought of for Valentines Day, but instead of using only hearts, I decided to make it a shape sorting activity instead. I used an egg carton and silicone ice cube tray with hearts. I had the regular round marshmallows and the strawberry heart shaped marshmallows. This is a really simple activity for preschoolers, but toddlers could do this as well. You could add more challenge for preschoolers by having them count the marshmallows or by adding other foods of different shapes to sort. I had counted out the exact amount, but for a little snack, you could add some extra for them to eat. This activity is good for fine motor skills, classifying and learning about shapes.

Transferring Snowballs Tray Activity

I saw a similar activity on this post by Tot Play and I wanted to set up a similar activity of my own. I’ve seen similar ideas on other blogs too, but I first saw it on Tot Play so that’s the post I’m referencing.

I decided to set it up as a tray activity. I put the tongs and shovel at the top, the snowman tin on the left and on the right; I arranged the three bowls from largest at the top to smallest on the bottom. I took a course on tray activities once and it said to set up the tray as you would when you are reading. What they mean is have the very first thing the child will pick up at the top and then have the rest of the activity move from left to right as they work their way from top to bottom. They explained it better than I can, but I hope that makes sense. Since this was the largest tray I had and it still wasn’t big enough, I set it up as close as I could to that format. The snowman tin was a little too big for the tray, but I thought it was cute for the theme.

This is a great activity for fine motor skills. I started with the snowman tin closed.



Next the tin was opened and there were the assortment of snowballs. I used cotton balls, pompoms, marshmallows, beads and paper balls. The three bowls were supposed to correspond to the size of the snowball. The cotton and paper balls were for the large bowl, the marshmallows and medium sized pompoms were for the medium bowl and the beads and tiny pompoms were for the small measuring cup. The kids might decide though that some of the pompoms would work better in the larger bowl and that’s okay. They might also decide to sort them in a different way and do what makes sense to them. I included the tongs and shovel in case one or the other would be too challenging for some reason or just so they can have a choice of which object to use.





Finally, some extensions of this activity would be to make patterns with the snowballs. How many different patterns can you make? They can be sorted in a line from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. Each type of snowball can be counted and sorted. How many beads, cotton balls etc? For children who are a little bit older, you can use the snowballs to work on simple addition or subtraction problems. They can also transfer the snowballs back and forth between the bowls or pour a full bowl of snowballs into an empty bowl. How many snowballs does it take to fill up the large bowl? How many snowballs does it take to fill up the small measuring cup? How many more snowballs do you have to use to fill up the bowl if they are smaller? What other objects around the house can we use for snowballs? If you have snow outside, you can spend some time outside making different sized snowballs and doing some sorting, patterning and counting and making different sized snowmen or snow structures. Either way, playing with snow and snowballs is always fun!

3D Shapes Matching Cards

These are 3D shape cards for matching and learning about shapes. I made them this afternoon. I used pieces of straws, pipe cleaners and uncooked spaghetti. The round shapes are made from the pipe cleaners, the triangles and rectangles are made from straws and the squares are made of spaghetti. When I have more patience and materials, I’ll add trapezoids, hexagons, half circles and different types of triangles. I thought of using tin foil, yarn and other materials to make the shapes too, but I didn’t have any of those things on hand. I’d like to make different colored shapes, but I used what I had and I can always add more later.

To make the shapes, I either bent or cut the straws and pipe cleaners. I broke the spaghetti into four equal parts to make the squares. They are crooked on the card because they slid when I stuck the tape to them. I covered all the shapes with tape so they wouldn’t fall off the card or come apart. Another thing I’d suggest is to tape the shapes to cardboard or thick poster board because as you can see, the index cards are bent from the taped shapes. If they were on cardboard, they’d last longer. You can even have your kids help you make the shapes.

Snowflake patterning

I’ve found these different colored snowflake pictures on Google Images to use for sorting and patterning. You can print out two or three copies of each picture cut them out and laminate them for sorting and patterning cards.
There are three patterns below as examples, but they can be arranged however the kids want. Patterning cards are good for beginners to learn the simple A B pattern, but they can be used for more complicated patterns as well. These can also be used as matching cards or to simply learn about colors. You could also find additional pictures of snowflakes that have different characteristics to pattern and sort with.

Sweet Treats Sensory Tub

This sensory tub is full of sweet treats.

What’s in it:
Candy corn,
Marshmallows,
Peppermints,
Scented cotton balls,
Measuring cups,
A lemon drop tin,
An M&M tin,
Mini spoon,
Wooden tongs,
Cupcake wrappers,
Blueberry cake candle,
And cupcake cups with little feet.

I first sprayed the cotton balls with different scents. Most of them were body mists that I have, but spices and using some actual foods might work better. I used apple, strawberry, vanilla, sugar cookie and cranberry. I left them in the bucket by themselves for a while to dry.


Then I put the rest of the stuff in.


The M&M tin was something I found at Christmas time a few years ago. It’s actually shaped like one. The cupcake cups with feet were a gift. I think they were found at Bed Bath and beyond. The blueberry cake candle was found on Ebay and it smells really good. The measuring cups and spoons are for scooping and pouring. The tongs are for transferring to the cupcake pan shown in the last picture. Including the cupcake pan is good for sorting or pretending to make sweet treats.





For other scents, you can use chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, orange, bubblegum, watermelon, etc. Basically any scent you can find in a spice or a spray. For other candy ideas, you can use small chocolates, skittles, M&M’s, gumdrops, jelly beans, mini candy canes, etc. I hope you enjoy this idea.

Christmas Present Sorting

I had thought of this at the beginning of the holiday season, but hadn’t wrapped any gifts yet. Here are some wrapped gifts, unwrapped gifts and some different sized boxes for Christmas present sorting.
You can sort them into many different groups depending on the shape, size, height, weight, color, texture, etc of your gifts.
Sorting from:















The larger the variety of gifts or empty boxes, the more sorting you can do!

Shadow Cards

Shadow Cards

This activity is for those of you who are living somewhere where it is sunny!


Materials:
Colored construction paper
Small objects (e.g. shells, pine cones, pebbles, flowers, leaves, small branches or other items)
Bright Sunshine

Preparation:
Collect the objects by going on a walk
Ideas:
Choose some of the objects and arrange them on the colored construction paper.
Arrange the objects in different patterns or groups.
Overlap some of the objects.
Add writing or drawing to the finished design.
Create shadow cards by folding the paper into card shapes.

Leave the paper and its objects in the bright sunshine for several hours.
Later, remove the items and you should be able to see shadows of the objects.

Good For:
Patience
Creativity
Sorting
Classifying

This idea was found in the Play-Activities.com E-mail newsletter!

Sorting and Counting Snack

I got some random food together and put it on a plate for counting and sorting. Kids can learn about healthy and unhealthy foods, sizes, shapes and textures of foods, food groups etc. I put the platter there for an easy sorting tray. Since Thanksgiving was yesterday, it's a good time to make a post about food.

What’s on the plate:

1 role,
2 apple slices,
3 candy corn,
4 pieces of celery,
5 coco puffs,
6 marshmallows,
7 grapes,
8 pieces of cheese,
9 raisins,
And 10 pieces of blueberry granola cereal.







healthy foods in the top sections and unhealthy foods in the bottom.


hard, Soft, rough, smooth, crunchy etc.


Round coco puffs, rectangle pieces of cheese, oval grapes, etc.

I made it so that each food had a certain number from one to ten. This platter only has five sections so here it is with just five foods.

You can add toothpicks to all these foods to make any creation or design. Here's a simple one with a grape, apple slice and two marshmallows. Using toothpicks with marshmallows is always fun and it works the best because they stick.