12 Ways to Learn While Playing with Food (Love to Learn Linky #42)

We all have probably told our kids at one time or another to not play with their food! Well, sometimes you can let them play and use it as a learning experience. Here are some awesome ideas for learning with common snack foods including goldfish, oreos, M&Ms, crackers and more!

How about some STEM learning with goldfish crackers? Use these free Goldfish Printables to practice math skills, and see how to engineer a Goldfish pulley system.

Read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear and try this color matching activity with Teddy graham crackers.

Sort your lunch into different shapes with this free Shape Sorting Printable.

Have a blast cutting up your food with this Scissor Skills Lunch activity.

Got M&Ms? Practice spelling words with these free M&M Word Printables, and have fun counting with this M&M School Bus Math game (also includes free printable).

Try one of these 8 creative ways to learn with Oreos.

Learn about constellations with Fruit Gummies and this free printable.

Practice addition with these free Jellybean Math printables.

Make your own Very Hungry Caterpillar out of these healthy snack foods.

Learn to count to 100 with Skittles in this free printable basketball game.

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Fun Ways to Paint with Kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Making Animal Tracks

Happy Friday! Next up in my guest blogger series is Meghan from Playground Parkbench! Meghan blogs about kid's activities and crafts, parenting, financial and household tips. Some of my favorite posts are Montessori Animal Match, 9 Ways to Ease Daily Transitions, and Yoga for Toddlers. Today she is sharing a really unique activity and a free printable to go along with it.

Big M, my overly imaginative 3 year old, has become fascinated by animal tracks. It started last summer, going for walks on the beach boardwalk by our house. She loved to make footprints in the sand, and check out the tracks left behind by the seagulls. Fast forward a few months to winter, and she was over the moon that she could make visible footprints again in the snow… and better still, see all kinds of animal tracks in it as well. MerMer, our Texas Grandma, further fueled the fascination by sending us Whose Tracks Are These?: A Clue Book of Familiar Forest Animals for Christmas.


Now, every night after her bath, she stomps back and forth, and stares with pride at her “paw prints” all over the bath mat.

I’ve started correcting her:

“M, only animals, like bears and dogs, make paw prints. What do people make? FOOT prints!”

“Oh, right, Mama… foot prints!”

But her continued fascination with the topic, got me to thinking – how excited would she be to make her own paw prints and animal tracks? So I set out to make it our activity one snowy afternoon. 

Supplies:
Cardboard box
Animal Track Template Printable
Hot glue gun
Ribbon
Paint
Builder’s paper
Painter’s tape

Cost: Less than $10

Prep Time: 30 minutes, to make two sets of animal tracks

Clean Up Time: 10 minutes

While the girls had their daily quiet time (Lil’ M, my 18 month old, naps while Big M plays quietly in her room), I printed off page size animal tracks – a bear paw, dog print, wild cat print and a moose track. I used these as my templates to create pairs of animal tracks out of a cardboard box. I first cut out the outline of the track, then made a second cardboard layer with the track details, attaching the two layers with hot glue. To make the matching pair, be sure to flip the track over so you create a left and a right track.

To attach them to her feet, I made two 1.5” long incisions with an X-Acto knife, about a 3 year old foot width apart, and threaded through a 2-3’ long piece of ribbon. If I did this activity again, I would have added the ribbon BEFORE gluing on the track details, so the ribbon didn’t show up in our tracks. But that didn’t stop Big M from having a great time…

When quiet time was over, I told her we were going to make “paw prints!” She was so excited. I rolled builder’s paper down the length of our dining area, and taped it to the floor with painters tape. A roll of builder’s paper has over 150’ of paper on it, and is great for murals, wrapping gifts, or as a quick clean up surface for messy crafts. You can buy it for $5 to $10 on Amazon or at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot. We are still on our first roll after almost 2 years.

She wanted to try on the bear paws first. I tied them to her feet, and had her sit down on the floor while I painted a thick coat of paint on them. Then, I helped her stand up and let her walk up and down the paper. Next, she tried the moose hooves. As always, her 3 year old ingenuity drastically exceeds my own - when she tired of making the big animal tracks, she asked me if we could make some smaller ones with her plastic frogs and lizards.

While she ran to grab them, I cut a sponge in half, wet it and added some paint to it on a plastic plate. She spent another half hour making small animal tracks with her plastic animals. Lil’ M got in on the fun with these too. Now, every time we read Whose Tracks are These?, she talks about the time she made her own animal tracks.

To create your own animal tracks, download our free printable. It includes templates for four different animal tracks, as well as a fun Whose Tracks Are These? matching game to play after reading the book and making your own animal tracks.

What animals leave tracks around your house? Have you ever gone on a nature walk to look for tracks? If you enjoyed Making Animal Tracks, be sure to check out all our At Home Activities on Pinterest! 

Follow Meghan @ PlaygroundParkbench's board At Home Activities on Pinterest.

Meghan is mom to two girls, Big M (3) and Lil’ M (18 months). A former hedge fund professional turned stay-at-home mom, she was frustrated by the lack of online resources to find engaging, age appropriate activities for her toddler in her town. Her best information came from fellow parents while at mommy and me playgroups or on the Playground Parkbench as her kids played in the sandbox… she founded PGPB to capture all those tips and share them with other parents.

In addition to maintaining a database of local family-friendly events and activities, she also writes as the PGPB Guru, offering weekly household and parenting Tuesday Tips, shares kids’ crafts, adventures and recipes in At Home Activities, and informed by her former career, publishes Financially Savvy Fridays.

Goldfish Printables for Preschoolers

Goldfish crackers are a favorite snack at our house. Pair them with the classic Dr. Seuss children's book and these free printable activities, and you have some great learning opportunities. You'll never look at goldfish the same way again. This post contains affiliate links.

This Free Goldfish Printable pack includes the following activities:
-Color sorting
-Number recognition 1-20
-Counting 1-10
-Patterns
-Color word recognition

Note: These activities were designed to be used with rainbow colored Goldfish crackers.

Click here to Download your FREE Goldfish Printables

The Gingerbread Man Pretend Play Printable Activity

This post contains affiliate links.

As part of the Christmas Read & Play Blog Hop, I created a fun activity to go along with the classic story, The Gingerbread Man! This is a pretend play activity where kids can "bake" gingerbread cookies (free printables included) and then bring them alive by decorating them with playdough!

We started off by reading the classic children's book The Gingerbread Man, and talking about how the gingerbread man came alive after being baked in the oven.

Then, I printed off and laminated these FREE Gingerbread Cookies printables. 

The girls played with their awesome and inexpensive Little Tikes Cupcake Kitchen, pretending to bake the cookies in their oven.

Then I gave my 3 year old daughter some playdough and helped her decorate the cookies. Now the cookies are ready to "eat"!

We also stood up the cookies inside playdough to really make them come alive!

I hope you enjoy reading The Gingerbread Man and playing with these pretend cookies. For more fun activities based on Christmas books, check out the Christmas Read & Play Blog Hop.

Book Activities for Preschoolers (Love to Learn Linky #6)

I am always on the lookout for great book activities, so I was very excited to see some super creative ones shared right here at our Love to Learn Linky!

Goodnight Moon Sorting Activity by Munchkins and Moms

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bath by Kitchen Floor Crafts

Goodnight Construction Site Sensory Bin by Stir the Wonder

The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities by Stimulating Learning with Rachel

 Dragons Love Tacos by Dabbling Momma

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Learning Letters, Colors and Food by A Little Pinch of Perfect

For some printable book activities, check out:

Board Book Printables for Toddlers

Are you My Mother? Book Activity

Visit my co-hosts to see all the other features!

10 STEM Activities for Preschoolers from Left Brain Craft Brain
15+ Simple Ways to Teach Kids at Home from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Choosing Great Kids Books from One Time Through

If you were featured, grab a button!

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LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

The Love to Learn Linky is Hosted by:

Totschooling: Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

Left Brain Craft Brain: Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.

A Little Pinch of Perfect: Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.

One Time Through: Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son.  She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity.

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Eric Carle & Pirates (Love to Learn Linky #4)

 

Welcome to Love to Learn Linky #4! My favorite posts linked up last week have to do with Eric Carle books... and pirates!

 

Looking for activities based on Eric Carle books? Teacher Types compiled a great list of resources, ideas and free printables for some of Eric Carle's most popular stories.

 

 

Check out this adorable sensory bin from rubber boots and elf shoes for another great Eric Carle activity, plus more free printable resources for The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

 

Where Imagination Grows shows us how to make this amazing Pirate Slime for tons of sensory fun!

 

 Find out how to make this beautiful pirate treasure from Kitchen Floor Crafts and all the different learning activities you can do with it!

 

Visit my co-hosts to see all the other features!

Learning Sensory Activities from One Time Through
Love to Learn Book Activities from Left Brain Craft Brain
Water Play, Pirates, and the Love to Learn Linky from A Little Pinch of Perfect

If you were featured, grab a button!

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LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

 

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

 

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

 

The Love to Learn Linky is Hosted by:

Totschooling: Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

 

 

Left Brain Craft Brain: Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.

 

 

A Little Pinch of Perfect: Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.

 

One Time Through: Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son.  She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity.

 

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

 

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up