Toddler Activity Ideas - Get Crafty

by Stephanie Goins on June 30, 2011

GET CRAFTY: As part of our summer craft series, here is the 2nd group of fun activities to keep you and your little ones entertained.  Enjoy!

Crafts With KidsBirdseed Art
Use a big piece of poster board or cardboard as the foundation. Give your child a bowl of birdseed, some glue and some paints and let him go at it. The result will be terrific kids wall art full of color and texture. Let dry and hang for all to admire.

Project Brag Book
Each time you do a project, take a picture of it. Then display all pictures of your projects in a brag book that you fill up as you create.

Rain Mobile
On pieces of construction paper or paper plates, have your child draw and color some large raindrops, clouds, a sun, and a rainbow. Try to make them about the same size. Next help your child cut out the pictures and make a hole at the top of each one. Then thread some string or thin ribbon through the holes and tie each one to a clothes hanger. Talk about what each item is and how it happens in nature (i.e. you will only see a rainbow when it is raining and when the sun is shining / a rainbow happens when the sun shines through the raindrops).  The final step is to hang up. Makes great kid room wall décor.

Squishy Glitter Bag
Put hair gel in a plastic storage baggie along with some glitter. Squish until your child's heart is content.

Bunny Ears Footprints
Dip your child's feet in paint and have him step on a large piece of paper to make the footprints. Then turn it upside down, and the feet become bunny ears. Draw in the rest of the bunny. Glue on googly eyes, cotton balls, etc. for an added punch.

Kid Puzzle
Take a picture of your child and blow it up as big as you can get it. Glue it to cardboard and cut into pieces to make a puzzle.

Paper Plate Masks
Make a simple or extravagant mask with a paper plate. Cut holes in the paper plate for the eyes (and/or nose and mouth). Color with markers. Decorate with feathers, felt or whatever craft materials you have on hand. Staple some ribbon to either side of the plate and tie to the child's head. Or use packing tape to affix a popsicle stick (or paint stir stick or chopstick) to the bottom to use as a handle to hold it up.

Peanut Butter Birdfeeder
Take a potpie tin and spread it with peanut butter and bird seed. Or spread peanut butter onto a pine cone and roll in birdseed. Then hang it outside near a window for easy viewing.

Balloon Hands
Staple a rubber band (two or three times) to the back of a paper plate. Insert palm of hands into the rubber bands, and you've got giant hands. Make two of these per person, blow up a balloon, and pass the balloon back and forth.

Matching With Breast Pads (!?)
Do you have a big box of breast pads under your bathroom sink that you just haven't gotten rid of yet (the cotton, completely flat, disposable type)? If so, don't throw them away. Draw sets of pictures with permanent markers on one side, and you've got a matching game for your child. (Note: You don't need to reveal to your child what they actually are!)

Rubbings
Search your house for flat objects that can be used for rubbings (keys, leaves, paperclips, stickers, etc.). Tape them to a table and then cover the objects with paper that you also tape down. Then using a crayon, rub over the objects, try to figure out what they are, and then reveal. Display your rubbings on the refrigerator or in his bedroom as homemade kid wall decor.

A special thanks to the wonderful mothers who contributed their ideas and activities: Aimee, Alyson, Carolina, Carrie, Celeste, Elise, Heather D, Heather I, Jane, Keely, Laura E, Laura H, Laurie M, Laurie WH, Martha, Nan, and Shelly.


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