We are back to tray work with some square toddler trays. These simple activities help your toddler recognize and explore the square.
What are some Montessori inspired square toddler trays that will teach my toddler shapes?
After our very short break from toddler trays, we have started up again with some square toddler trays. Look out for the different shapes in the coming posts in the next 6 weeks. This week is all about squares and we are excited to share these activities with you!
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Shape Activity
What you need
- lacing cards
- punch holes
- laminate
- shoelace (or yarn with tape on the end)
How to Play
Print the lacing cards, get them ready and set aside all the shapes besides the square for this week. For more detailed instructions check out this post about lacing cards.
Decorating Shape Craft
What you need
How to Play
Check out this post for more details and variations on the activity. Print out the Shape outline pages, or at least the square page. Have your toddler glue around the outline of the shape and then put pasta on the glue to make the square.
Beading
What you need
How to Play
Bend pipe cleaners into various sizes of squares. They don’t need to be perfect, feel free to eyeball the shape. Bead pipe cleaner squares onto pencils stuck in an egg carton. This is a super simple beading activity that is perfect for very young toddlers. This activity is so your toddler will get a lot of experience touching and feeling squares.
Matching
What you need
How to Play
This toddler tray has a white piece of paper with a large orange square and a small orange square taped to it. It also has several large orange paper squares and small orange paper squares loose on the tray. Have your toddler match the loose squares to the squares that are taped onto the paper.
Stickers/Stamping
What You Need
How to Play
Many toddlers love stickers which makes this a toddler tray that will love. Just draw a simple square outline on a piece of paper. Put this paper and the stickers on the tray. Have your toddler put stickers around the edge of the square. This is great find motor practice even if some of the stickers end up on their hands and arms instead of the paper.
Small Spaces
What you need
How to Play
For this tray, put the cardboard squares and the empty wipes container on the tray. Have your toddler put the squares into the container. Putting things into a wipes container can be really fun for toddlers. (See our beach toddler trays and space toddler trays for other examples of this).
This was a really fun set of square toddler trays. They may not be very challenging but your toddler will get to look at a lot of squares. Hopefully this helps them understand the concept of a shape.
Find more activities like this one on our how to teach shapes page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need special supplies for toddler trays?
Not at all. Most trays use things you already have at home or cheap finds from the dollar store, like pom poms, tongs, and ice cube trays.
What are toddler trays?
Toddler trays (sometimes called tot trays or tot school) are simple activity invitations set up on a tray or in a divided container. Your toddler works on one at a time, which keeps things focused and low-mess.
How many trays should I set out at once?
Start with just two or three. Too many choices can overwhelm a toddler. Swap in new ones as the old ones lose their shine.