Learning to recognize their own name and the letters that it contains is one of the first steps towards literacy. For young toddlers the key is to introduce and get them familiar with seeing the letters of their name. Here is a simple and fun art name activity for kids.

For this activity you’ll need:

• Paper
• Paint
• Alphabet dough cutters or cookie cutters

This activity:

• Teaches letter recognition
• Teaches name recognition
• Explores art and creativity

First gather your paint, paper and alphabet letters that are in your child’s name. Then I used the cookie cutters to spell out my daughter’s name, so that she could she what it looked like.

Then I let her go for it and she took the letters and stamped them on the paper. She knows the names of all the letters of the alphabet, so when she picked one up I would ask her what letter it was. If your child is still learning letters, then this is a great opportunity to label each letter they use.

When she was done with her project, we then lined the letters underneath her name in the correct order, naming each letter as we went.

This is such a simple way to introduce your toddler or preschooler to the letters of their name. Use every opportunity available throughout the day to point out the letters of their name and to let them see their name by labeling their stuff or through art projects such as this and they will be right on their way to learning to spell their name!

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I ran across this Easter Bunny House Kit for a few dollars while I was grocery shopping. I thought it was super cute, I had never even thought about making something similar to a gingerbread house for other holidays. It opens up a whole new door. Halloween candy house? I think so! Although Easter is already over I thought we could still be a fun family activity. We decided it could be the house from Hansel and Gretel or if your child is anything like my 2 year old, a week after Easter and she is still talking about the Easter bunny so you could still have it be the Easter bunny’s house. Wilton also carries something similar which are probably on sale at crafts stores right now like this one. You could also make this by cutting out sugar cookie shapes to make a house and using your own frosting and candy.

This is what is looks like after you assemble it.

My daughter had a great time decorating the house.

If you want to keep it as the Easter bunny’s house, this is the final product courtesy of my two year old.

And here is Hansel and Gretel’s house

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We love making bucket lists as a way of organizing the most important things that we would like to as a family in a given season. We have done one for summer, fall, and Christmas. Here is our Spring bucket list! Here is a free printable with the list.

1. Visit a farm and see the baby animals

2.Feed ducks

3. Take a nature walk

4.Picnic in the park

5.Fly a kite

6. Play a game of miniature golf

7.Dance in the rain

8. Visit the zoo

9. Plant a flower

10. Visit botanical gardens

To print this spring bucket list for free click here.

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For this activity you’ll need:

• Colored rice
• Shredded easter paper
• Plastic Easter eggs
• Easter container
• Assortment of Easter themed toys and decorations ( I got all mine at the Dollar store)

This activity:

• promotes learning through all the senses
• builds fine motor skills
• builds language and vocabulary skills
• Builds pre-math skills
• Teaches about Easter concept
•  Click here for more benefits of sensory bins

First she used the plastic eggs to scoop up rice and transfer it to the Easter bucket

Next she become smitten with the little chicks.

I talked to her about how baby chicks come from eggs and so she put the chick inside one of the plastic eggs. This is an example of how you can use sensory bins to introduce new concepts to small children.

Next, she used the plastic eggs to transfer rice into each hand which was great for hand-eye coorination

Next, she gathered all the little “baby” eggs as she called them and put them in her bucket, counting them as she went.

For the remainder of the time she used the bin for pretend play. She put the baby chicks “night night”.

Then she needed to make room for the Easter bunny.

This was such a fun sensory bin. We loved the bright and vibrant spring colors. This is a sensory bin that we will be getting a lot of use out of this spring!

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This is a simple tutorial on how to dye rice with Kool-aid. This is a great way to add vibrant colors and scents to rice for sensory bins.

You’ll need:

• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 teaspoon Kool-aid
• 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol
• large ziplock bag

Directions:

1-Pour your rice inside the bag and add 1/2 teaspoon of Kool-aid.

2.Next add the rubbing alcohol and close the bag and shake, shake, shake. My toddler loved helping with this step.

3. Let the rice sit in the bag for a few minutes and then spread the rice out on tinfoil to dry. Dry overnight or for several hours. Speed method: I used a blow dryer on low, to quickly dry the rice and it was ready in minutes!

Dyeing rice in this way provides nice vibrant colors and a great scent which is a great sensory experience and great for spring and summer sensory play. For more DIY Play Recipes click on the image below.

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This is a fun Easter egg activity using chocolate scented play dough.

For this activity you’ll need:

• Chocolate play dough 
• Pom poms
• Pipe cleaners
• Beads
• Plastic Easter Egg (Optional)

This Activity:

• develops fine motor skills
• builds creativity
• Great for hand-eye coordination
• teaches Easter concepts
• great sensory experience

First she put it inside the plastic egg to make an egg shape.

Next she decorated the play dough egg with beads.

Next we rolled out a big egg using all the chocolate play dough and she used pom poms and pipe cleaner (with my help) to decorate the egg.

Next we made flat egg and decorated them with the pom poms and pipe cleaner and then pom poms and beads.

Lastly, we made an Easter Bunny with pipe cleaner for ears  and googly eyes! She thought this was awesome!

This activity was a huge hit with my toddler. She loves playing with play dough and the chocolate scent added a little something extra! To find more play dough ideas and recipes click on the image below!

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This is a simple recipe for chocolate scented play dough. Chocolate play dough is great for pretend play; use in a pretend bakery, make pretend chocolates, or decorate chocolate easter eggs.

For this recipe you’ll need:

• 2 1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
• 1 cup salt
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 TB cream of tartar
• 2 TB vegetable oil
• 2 cups water

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all dry ingredients together and then add vegetable oil

Next add boiling water and mix well. If at this stage the dough is still really sticky and not forming a ball, add some more flour and mix with your hand. When the dough has cooled knead it for a good 2-5 minutes until no longer sticky. If the dough is still sticky you will need more flour and if it is too dry add some water.

There you have it! Yummy chocolate scented play dough! Click below for more play dough recipes and ideas.

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Happy National Goof Off Day to you! March 22nd is National Goof Off Day and we are celebrating it as part of our {Celebrate the fun} Silly Holiday Series. Do you or your kids need an excuse to goof off and have some fun? Well, now you have one!

Part of goofing off is putting off optional responsibilities, so I say no house work today! C’mon everyone needs a break and you have an excuse remember? No chores for the kids today and mom and dad get a break too!

Other ideas: 

• Go on a fun outing
• Wear clothes backwards
• Have a goofy dance party
• Take a “mental health” day from work if possible

For our fun Goof Off Day activity we made goofy and silly felt faces for our DIY flannel board.

For this activity you’ll need: 

• Several different colored felt squares
• Flannel Board

First cut out a round oval for the face. Then cut out several different silly looking eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hair. You really can’t go wrong here as it is supposed to be goofy and silly. Just makes sure you have enough to allow for plenty of mix and matching. Here are all the shapes I cut out.

My daughter thought this was pretty silly. Suprisingly, It actually turned in a great way to label body parts. She would label each body part before she put it on. She also recognized some of the shapes.

She was pretty proud of her silly face creation.

Here are a few of our silly face creations.

She really enjoyed this activity as part of our “goof off” day.

How are you going to celebrate National Goof Off Day?

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Spring is finally here! To celebrate and to get in a festive spirit for Easter we decided to make this Easter bunny paper plate craft. My daughter’s cousins joined us in making these.

For this activity you’ll need:

• paper plate
• colored pencils
• scissors
• glue
• construction paper
• googly eyes

First we drew the Easter bunny’s nose and mouth and then we added googly eyes to it.

Next we added ears that we cut out of construction paper

Next they used construction paper to cut out whiskers

There you have a simple and darling paper plate Easter bunny craft for kids!

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Since this is the first Easter that my daughter is actually understanding the concept, I thought it would be a great idea to ask my fellow bloggers for their Easter Book recommendations. For Thanksgiving, I asked my fellow kids bloggers for some great Thanksgiving book recommendations and I got fantastic suggestions, so I knew I would not be disappointed this time with Easter books.

Amie at Triple T Mum recommends The Bunny Who Found Easter by Charlotte Zolotow

Roopa of Putti’s World recommends Ollie’s Easter Eggs (a Gossie & Friends book), The Easter Egg, and Henri, Egg Artiste

Laura from Play Dr Mom recommends The Easter Egg by Jan Brett and  shares a fun Easter Egg Activity to go along with it.

Jacquie from KC Adventures shares 8 amazing vintage Easter books for kids

Kristina from Toddler Approved recommends The Tale of  Peter Rabbit and has many fun Peter Rabbit activities to go along with the book.

Kim from The Educators Spin on it shares her Easter Board Book Recommendations that are great for Easter baskets and some fun activities too!

Deidre from JDaniel4′s Mom shares her book suggestions for teaching the true meaning of Easter.

Carrie from Crafty Moms Share shares her suggestions for teaching little ones the Easter story.

Chelsey from Buddy and Buggy shares her 7 favorite Easter and Spring Books.

 Do you have any Easter book recommendations?

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