15 Activities with an Alphabet Puzzle Mat

When the girls were 5 months old, they received a Foam Letter & Number Floor Mat Puzzle.  It was useful to keep them from getting hurt as they learned to crawl, stand, and walk, but they soon discovered that they could take the pieces out (and throw them / put them in their mouth), so it was retired shortly after their 1st birthday.  Recently we re-discovered this puzzle mat when cleaning out a storage closet.  I was debating whether to even keep it, but L and E (35 months) have been asking for their Alphabet Mat every single day this week.  Accordingly, I've been making up tons of new activities with this toy, and wanted to share some of these ideas...

Misc Preschool Activities

When I was going through my photos I realized I've taken a few pictures of activities that we've been doing this week that either I've already blogged about, or are not really worthy of their own blog post.  Here's a glimpse of some of these miscellaneous preschool-level learning activities that L and E (35 months) have been doing ...

Yogurt Dots and Banana Ice Cream

Last week I tried out two snacks that I found on Pinterest: Frozen Yogurt Dots, and One Ingredient Banana Ice-Cream.  Initially I was planning on having the girls help me make these for our weekly Cooking Day, but I was low on time, so I made them myself while the kids played with play-dough (making their our meals for their 'babies').  Both treats were fairly easy to make...

Fine Motor Skills Practice with Playdough and Whole Cloves

I love activities that involve multiple senses.  This one combines fine motor skills work with the lovely aroma of cloves.  We've been going through the Story of the World, and just finished the chapter about the start of farming in the Nile Delta.  I decided that it would be fun to invite L and E (almost 3) to plant some 'crops' next to a playdough river using whole cloves...

Caps for Sale Activity: Dramatic Play with Hats

Dramatic play with hats is an activity we've done many times before (nothing's easier than taking a bunch of hats out of the closet and letting the kids have fun with them), but I haven't blogged about it yet, so I thought I'd share.. Today we read Caps for Sale by Ephyr Slobodkina.  We have an audio version that has sound effects and songs in it, and L and E (almost 3) love to sing along.  After the story, we did a number of activities.  I contemplated printing out some of the free printables for this book, but playing with hats sounded like a lot more fun than doing worksheets!  So here's what we did...