I made a ladybug even and odd number sorting that the children really liked working on. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and and cut out the ladybugs and laminated them.  I then cut out the leaf patterns and labels and glue them on colored cardstock paper (you could also use construction paper or just leave them as is after printing).  

I set the leaf mats out along with the number ladybugs. Children sort the ladybugs by putting the even numbered ladybugs on the the even numbers leaf and the odd numbered ladybugs on the odd numbers leaf.

​As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added a ladybug upper and lowercase sort.

I made ghost color sorting cards for color recognition and review. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them.

There are twelve different color cards and each card has six blank spaces for the children to put the matching color squares.

As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added a ghost number sequence puzzles.

I made a dump truck color sort for color recognition and review. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them. There are twelve dump truck cards and six color squares for each card. 

In this activity children put the colors squares on the mats with the same color dump trucks.  Play continues until all of the colors have been sorted and matched.  You can download the patterns below.

dump truck color sorting
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I made a not so scary scarecrow sort for color recognition and review. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them. 

I set the scarecrow cards and color squares out on the table. There are twelve scarecrow cards and six color squares for each card.

In this activity the children put the color squares on the scarecrow cards with the same color hats.

As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added four ... six ... and eight piece scarecrow puzzles.

I am always looking for extra ways to incorporate fine motor development into our activities and since Easter will be here soon we decorated playdough eggs. Because this activity uses small items remember to use close supervision with children under the age of three and those still in the stages of putting small items in their mouths. 

The children rolled out the playdough and then cut egg shapes with a cookie cutter.  I set out bowls of jewels that I had purchased from the craft store and the children were free to decorate the eggs any way they wished.

The children pressed the jewels into the playdough and tried to put as many on each egg that they could.  While they could put any jewels on any way wanted I gave them a challenge of seeing if they could put different jewels on the eggs so that each egg did not have two of the same jewels on it which turned it into a sorting activity as well.  

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We have used water beads for a variety of activities and the children really enjoyed them.  I recently found a source for jumbo water beads and decided to give them a try to see what they were like.

I purchased them from etsy but the same seller also sells on ebay.  The water beads were around 7.00 dollars for a package of 24 but the seller included a few extra in case of damage during shipping.

The jumbo beads start out the same size and the finished size of the original water beads.  Because they are small objects you will want to use very close supervision for children under five.

I put the beads in a bucket of room temperature water and made sure the beads always had enough water to cover them.  The instructions that came with the beads were not the clearest as to the specific time frame it would take for the water beads to reach full size.

After one hour of soaking the beads in water they developed the look and texture of raspberries.  I was surprised how much they had grown in such a short time period.

After fours hours in water the beads had grown larger and developed smooth ridges.  The outer area of the beads started to become transparent while the center remained solid.

After twenty-four hours the beads had grown very large but still had some dimples on them which indicated that there was still room for them to grow.  The instructions stated the water beads could take 2-4 days to reach full size.

After forty-eight hours the beads had reached their full size and and we did sorting of colors and sizes as well as counting activities.  The children also free
played with them in the water which was for a sensory play activity.

We observed the changes together and the children could pick the beads up while observing but I always made sure that I was there to supervise.  After the beads reached there full-size they are pretty hard to break by just squeezing them.

You can see a video of the jumbo water beads below: