This week will be the first week of a new kind of toddler trays. For the next few weeks we will be doing colored themed toddler trays. My toddler is okay with his colors, but I want to work on them extra hard with him so he has them down pat. We will actually only be doing one color each week, so this post covers two different sets of trays. In the future I will probably do a separate post for each color, but I haven’t decided yet. Next week I’ll tell you all about the new toddler school schedule that I am doing and I’ll tell you about the Learning Notebook that we are now using. For now, enjoy two sets of toddler trays: yellow and blue.
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Yellow Tot Trays
Special Yellow Tray: Yellow Pegboard and Pegs
You can use these great yellow pegboard and pegs (along with several other colors) from Amazon for this tray. You can set this on the tray and just let your toddler explore the pegs and pegboard.
Color Game: Popsicle Stick Color Match
Have your toddler play this game! The instructions to make it are in the link below, but playing with them is really easy.
Pouring
Make yellow rice using this rice coloring method. Have your toddler simply pour the rice from the liquid measuring cup to the cup and then back again. Pouring is one of my toddler’s favorite trays.
Counting
Make these simple counting cards and put numbers 1-3 on the toddler tray. Once your toddler understands the concept of numbers 1-3 (which may take awhile) you can use the fourth number card. This tray also has 6 yellow pom poms. Have your toddler put the pompoms on the circles, then help them count the pompoms on each card and point out the number on the card.
Gluing
This toddler tray has a piece of paper with a large flower that you can hand draw. You don’t have to be the greatest of artists. 😉 Anyway, the tray also has a bunch of yellow squares and a glue stick. Have your toddler use the glue stick to glue the yellow squares to the center of the flower.
Fine Motor
This tray has a yellow do-a-dot marker and a coloring page with a few pictures of things that are yellow. Have your toddler paint the pictures and not the rest of the page. Of course, once the pictures were satisfactorily painted, they can dot the rest of the page, too. 🙂
Blue Tot Trays
Special Blue Tray: Blue Sensory Bin
You may remember this mini blue sensory bin from this post about sensory bins. This sensory bin is pretty simple to make and is a great opportunity for your toddler to explore the color blue.
Color Game: Colored Fish Matching
Use the fishies printable from this game for a simple matching activity.
Transferring
Have your toddler transfer a piece of pasta to the ice cube tray. You can stand by and remind them that there should only be one piece of pasta in each cube.
Pasta
Make some blue pasta for this toddler tray using this method. The tray has some skewers stuck in blue playdough and the blue pasta. Have your toddler put the pasta onto the skewers and then take them off again.
Sensory
If your toddler loves playdough, this activity is just for them. You can also include some blue straw pieces and some playdough scissors on this tray.
Spooning
This tray has an egg tray that I got from a thrift store a long time ago. It just happens to be blue too! It also has some blue glass gems in a Tupperware container. You can put the gems in a Tupperware or a bowl, whichever makes spooning easier. Have your toddler use a spoon to put one glass gem into each empty egg spot on the egg tray. When finished, have them use their fingers to put the glass gems back into the Tupperware.
