6 Fantabulous Activities for Toddlers

Hey everyone! I’m Lauren from Teacher Types and I cannot even contain my excitement to be here at Fat Mum Slim today – I’m like a ‘woo girl’ from How I Met Your Mother.

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Now with that out of the way, I’m sharing 6 fantastic + fabulous activities for toddlers (especially with Chantelle’s little Lulu in mind). I have a three year old myself so have survived toddlerhood with her, and now have a 4 month old baby boy who I’m sure will put me through my paces when he enters the terrible twos!

Please note – most of these activities are designed for toddlers who are past the putting-everything-in-their-mouth phase and of course, adult supervision is always important with such activities.

Beach Themed Sensory Tub
If you follow Chantelle – you’ll know that she and the kids spend a lot of time at the beach. Well, you can bring the beach indoors by placing kinetic sand (the most glorious sensory play material – you won’t believe it until you try it yourself), pretty shells and a variety of pebbles to this large floor tub. Miss 3 named this doll ‘Beach Lily’ and she comes with all the little accessories little ones will need to encourage imaginative play. If you’re feeling brave, use real water and real sand – but this is the low mess version!

Colour Sorting in a Muffin Tin
Toddlers are like little sponges learning all the time and they’re at just the right age to start learning colours. Grab a muffin tin, some coloured paper circles as well as some interesting coloured objects or toys and encourage your child to sort them into the correct places. Use less objects to make it easier (one per colour) or more to make it harder.

Rainbow Rice Tea Party
I’ll never forget the first time my little Miss played with rainbow rice. (Here she is – visit my blog here to get the perfect recipe for rainbow rice).

There are a lot of play possibilities with rainbow rice, but a tea party is super fun. Your toddler can scoop the rice into teacups, mix it around in a bowl, combine it with playdough to create biscuits, or sprinkle on top to make cup cakes. Invite their soft toys to join you and they’ll be kept busy for ages. I guarantee it!

Kerplunk Straw Play
This one is nice and simple – it only takes a couple of minutes to set up, but you’ll be surprised at your toddler’s level of concentration when removing each of these straws. Add pom poms or marbles to create your own version of ‘kerplunk’.

Zip Lock Bag Painting
Love painting but hate the mess? This one’s for you. Place a piece of paper cut to size into a ziplock bag and squeeze in some pretty paint colours (make it extra special with glitter too!). Toddlers love the sensory experience of mixing all the squishy paint together (and a great way to learn colour mixing as well).

Shaving Cream + Water Beads
Ready to get messy? If you can embrace the mess squirt a can of shaving cream into a large tub. Leave it at that, or combine other materials such a food colouring, bath toys or beautiful water beads like we did. Now I must admit the first time Miss 3 tried this, she instantly wanted her hands washed (not every child will love it). She spent more time wanting to wash the water beads! But after that, she decided she liked it after all. Make sure your toddler is wearing an apron or old clothes for this one – I set it up in the bathroom to minimise the mess.

If you try any of these ideas I’d love to see them – please tag me @teacher_types or use the hashtag #teachertypes on Instagram. You can also find and follow me here on Facebook.