If you want to know a little more about Toddler Trays and why I started doing them with my son you can read more here: Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's.
(my son was 2 years and 7 months old when he completed all or these activities)
- Mickey Mouse and Cars Foam Puzzle: These came from the Dollar Tree and have been great for B's fine motor skills and counting in order. Every piece will fit together (it is not a self correcting puzzle) and each piece has a number from 1 to 9, so it requires some thinking to put them together in order.
- Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards: I actually found these at Lion Hearted Toys (if you live in the Tampa Bay area be sure to visit - they excellent toys at a very reasonable price) for less than $5. The P.T. in me loves pattern blocks (although it is more O.T. related). They are great for logic, spatial reasoning, shape recognition, pattern making, and fine motor skills.
- Learning Resources 1 to 10 Counting Cans: We use these for counting, stacking, making soup, etc. There are 10 cans and each can contains the number of food items printed on the front of the can (ie. 6 mushrooms, 9 beans, 1 tomato, etc.)
- Wall Coloring: Occasionally, I tape paper to the wall allowing B to draw and color. This teaches a child to apply pressure through their upper extremity without the assistance of gravity which engages muscles differently than when they write or coloring with paper on a table or the ground.
- Water Bead Cooking: I have talked about water beads before and how they are excellent for sensory play. We use them in a variety of ways, but in the photo above B is using them for pretend cooking with his pots, pans, and utensils.
- Alphabet Blocks: What to do with alphabet blocks? Line them up in ABC order. Build a pyramid in ABC order. Make a tower and knock it over. Build simple words. Place them in a container, draw one out and name an object that begins with that letter and the list goes on.
- Number Bean Bag Toss: I printed some Sesame Street numbers and arranged them in a semi-circle. I would call out a number and he would toss a bean bag to that number.
- Felt Rainbow: This was part of our busy bag swap (tutorial can be found by clicking link). He built the a rainbow while I read What Makes A Rainbow?
- Play-Doh Picnic: You don't have to have the molds to have a picnic, just make your own play-doh pretend food. B loved setting up a picnic with his stuffed friends and plastic plates. We made them all sorts of treats and had quite the conversation going on.
You can view more Toddler Tray ideas here: