Toddler Craft Ideas for Winter

There are many craft ideas for the winter holiday season for young children to make. Sometimes, the material and steps are not age appropriate for toddlers, ages one to three. The following crafts bring fun results through simple methods. They allow toddlers to have the hands-on enjoyment of creating art, as well as providing sensory experiences and introduction to new material.

 

Photo from Kiwicrate.com

 

 

Winter Snowflake Art Activity

Materials Required:

• Dark construction paper (black, or blue)
• Large Paper Doilies
• Small Paint Rollers
• White Paint (kid safe)
• Tape
• Small shallow paint containers

For the following art activity each toddler is provided a piece of dark construction paper, black or blue, with a large paper doily taped in the middle. White tempera paint is then placed into small shallow containers beside each child with a small paint roller made for children, which can be purchased at most craft establishments or large outlet stores. Alternatively, the toddlers could use a large paintbrush or sponges for painting. Young children love to paint, and enjoy the process equally and perhaps even more than the product. The children will hopefully paint their entire paper white. When dry, the doily is carefully peeled off by grown up hands and the image left behind resembles a winter snowflake.

Photo from SheKnows Parenting

 

Snowmen Craft Activity

Materials Required:

• Contact Paper
• Scissors
• Cotton Balls
• Googly Eyes
• Orange Paper
• Black Paper
• Paper plates or firm paper (optional)

Before the toddlers begin this activity, the caregiver has some material to prepare. Small carrot noses and black hats should be cut out as well as snowman shapes from the contact paper. If this activity is being prepared for a large group of toddlers and there is a budget, simply make the snowmen smaller to allow the contact paper to be spread into more individual projects.

This activity is a fun, sensory experience for young children as they place soft cotton balls onto sticky contact paper. This paper can be found at most stationary or office supply stores. The children are provided snowman shapes and when the paper is peeled back, they are left with adhesive paper that can hold the cottonballs. The children can cover their snowman and finish the project off with eyes, carrot nose and a hat. Alternatively, the contact paper can be glued or stapled to a firm paper, such as small paper plates or thick white paper.

 

Painting with Holiday Cookie Cutters

Holiday cookie cutters provide wonderful winter shapes for paint stamping. The material required is paint, paper and the cookie cutters. This activity can be done as a group activity with toddlers on a large piece of paper taped to a table. The paper can then be used for wrapping paper or card making.

Final Thoughts

Toddlers love to be introduced to new material and fun hands-on activities. They may try to place the material into their mouths, but through the learning experience of cause and effect will soon realize it's better for paint to be used on the paper! Parents and grandparents truly appreciate these first time holiday creations.

Babies and Toddlers and Music!

Even though a young child is not talking or is in the first steps of learning a language, he/she can still communicate and enjoy songs through other forms of communication. If a song comes on that a child enjoys he/she will inevitably display facial expressions or body language that the particular song is a favourite. A child might clap his/her hands or jump up and down, perhaps even do a little dance.

Baby Communication

If an older baby or young toddler likes the music playing or is familiar with a song being sung, there are signs of communication.

• eye widening
• looking to where the music is playing
• feet kicking
• smiling
• arms flapping
• clapping
• pointing
• jumping up and down
• dancing
• actions from the song

Beyond Action Songs

Fingerplay and action songs have been the most well known way of allowing young children to participate with a song without actually singing the words. Thus, when singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", a child will bring his/her hands down to represent rain or turn his hands around and around to make the "Wheels on the Bus". But, there are still other ways that young children can communicate through visual presentations about what songs they want to hear.

Letting them Choose

With each option, a baby or toddler can choose the song to sing or listen to. One of the easiest ways of offering the choice is to place an item in each hand and then presented the items for a baby to choose from. Look for the baby's communication, such as a pointing gesture or smile. Following are some suggestions:

1. Song Cards: cards with pictures/symbols which represent the song, such as a star for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". These cards work well as magnets.

2. Felt Stories: felt pieces on a flannel board illustrating the song, such as "Old Macdonald Had a Farm"

3. Songs Books: Many musicians publish their lyrics into a book format. A good example is Raffi's "Baby Beluga"

4. Puppets: Glove puppets and other similar props can be presented for a baby to choose.

The Benefits of Music for Language Development

Singing songs with repetitive lyrics encourages language development with babies and toddlers. Listening to the same word again and again in an appealing format of music, will encourage the process. Many children's first words come out of classic songs as the melodic sounds can be very conducive for learning. Music is an integral component of creating a rich environment for children of all ages.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Action Songs for Toddlers

Action Songs for Toddlers

The following song suggestions allow toddlers to move around or use their hands to join in...

1. Eensy Weensy Spider

2. Five Little Ducks (have the children swim away like the ducks and then return at the end)

3. Ants go Marching (march around the room)

4. Sleeping Bunny (switch the animal again and again)

5.  I am a Little Teapot

6. Zoom Zoom Zoom We are Going to the Moon (toddlers can launch themselves like rockets)

7. Open and Shut Them

8. Hokey Pokey (change the lyrics with different themes)

9. Head and Shoulders (sing slow and then fast)

10. Engine Engine Number Nine (be a train around the room)

11. Wheels on the Bus

12. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (make up actions for children to twinkle stars)

13. If you are Happy and You Know It

14. Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree

15. Farmer in the Dell

17. Teddy Bear Turn Around

18. Baby Bumblebee

19.  Ring Around the Rosie

20. Shake my Wiggles Out ( Raffi)

Children Counting Songs for Hand Puppets

Young children love singing and puppets, and combining the two provides an entertaining and learning experience for toddler and preschool ages. Many songs for puppets involve counting and numbers.

The puppets provide young audiences a visual presentation of things being subtracted and added while the number is being sung, thus fostering the development of math concepts and skills. The following article focuses on glove and stick puppets for songs that involve counting.

Finding the Puppets

Many puppets can be purchased, but they are also easily made. Glove puppets can be made by using a garden glove and felt pieces or other material glued to each finger. Some glove puppet makers use pom poms and googly eyes to make animals.

Stick puppets can be created with the use of large popsicle sticks or chopsticks and pictures on firm paper, preferably laminated, attached to each stick. Pictures can be downloaded on the computer or coloring book images can be copied. Alternatively, foam is a useful craft material for making stick puppets.

Singing with Puppets

In early childhood settings, the adult caregiver will use the puppet as a visual presentation for the young children to enjoy. In smaller group settings or home environments, the children themselves can be the puppeteers.

Either way, number recognition with the use of the puppet and lyrics still occurs. The songs can be sung by all those participating or listened to through recorded music. One album which holds a fair amount of songs appropriate for glove puppet use is Raffi's Singable Songs albums which can be bought in a collection containing all three CDs or by purchasing the individual albums.

Counting Songs with Things that Grow

The following songs correlate well to glove puppets and stick puppets, and they can all be used as poems instead of singing.

"Five Little Pumpkins"

Five little pumpkins sitting on the fence

The first one said, “Oh my it’s getting late”.

The second one said, “There are witches in the air”.

The third one said, “But we don’t care”.

The fourth one said, "Let’s run and run and run”.

The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun”.

Ooooh went the wind, and out went the light

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.



"Way Up High in an Apple Tree"

Way up high in an apple tree

Five little apples working looking at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

And down came an apple, mmm, it was good.

Continue singing down until there are no apples left.

"Five Tulips in the Ground"

Suggested tune: "Down By the Station"

Five tulip bulbs planted in the ground,

Waiting very quiet without a sound.

The sun came up and the rain came down,

And one little tulip popped out of the ground.

Puppet Songs about Animals

The following songs are appropriate for counting and number recognition for they are about animals leaving and sometimes returning. By clicking on the title, the reader will be connected to further information, such as lyrics and tune.

• "Five Green and Speckled Frogs"
• "Five Little Ducks"
• "Five Little Monkeys"

Toddlers and preschool children learn through play, and the use of puppets to teach math concepts falls into this theory incredibly well. The puppets can easily be made and presented to young audiences with songs enjoyed through singing and listening.

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