There is nothing like a beautiful spring day in Texas to get me excited for all things plants and baby animals! The wildflowers are in bloom, the sun is shining, and I couldn’t be happier.
Since spring in Texas is a small window of time, we tend to spend most of our days outside. We walk the neighborhood to notice all the trees in bloom, catch bugs, play in the water, get messy in the mud, and basically enjoy all the sunshine. Everything we do during the winter can now happen outside on a blanket or at a table!
My spring theme is pretty loosely set around bugs, baby farm animals, planting, and wildflowers. We’re focusing a lot on fine motor skills for both kids (E is 3.5, J is almost 2), language skills for J, and letter and number exposure for E since she’ll start part time preschool in August.
These adorable mom and baby animal puzzles are perfect for both kids. E is working on correctly matching and naming animals while J is using them as language cards. I have a basket of small animals that he enjoys matching with.
For some open ended play I took a puzzle that was missing a few pieces and added houses (from Target’s Christmas dollar spot), peg dolls and other farm animals.
Tell me your kid is into posting objects without telling me he’s into posting objects! Haha!
This is another great activity for both kids. J is really getting into matching objects while E is very much past that stage. For her, we’ve been playing this like a Guess Who game. I will take a card from the basket while describing the bug saying things like “I have black and yellow stripes” or “I’m green and hop in the grass” She loves it! I also printed another set of cards for a memory game.
These puzzles look simple but are just enough of a challenge for E.
I’ve been wanting to add song and story baskets to our shelf for a long time. I remembered printing these cute ducks last year to go along with the song 5 Little Ducks, which is a huge favorite of ours! This Raffi version makes us laugh so much! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WGjv2sN2SU
I love the backwards counting and repetition it provides. We take turns being the mommy duck and rotate who gets to use the plastic ducks and paper ducks!
As much as we love 5 Little Ducks, 5 Green and Speckled Frogs is probably our favorite! The kids love yelling “glub glub”!
Another Raffi version for your enjoyment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WGjv2sN2SU
This was one of those dollar store finds that I wish I had bought more of when I had the chance. It’s so simple which is great for J. We’ve come up with so many extensions to go with it like making patterns, asking for a certain color and shape, and playing a missing shape game. I even took the pieces and drew them inside E’s active learning journal for another challenge.
Another Target dollar spot find from a few years ago which has come in handy for one to one correspondence and fine motor skills. I drew the pieces inside E’s active learning journal for more practice lining up the dots and counting.
In this basket, I added 21 unifix cubes to place onto each peg.
I’ll be back later this week with some new spring themed Active Learning Journals!
Connect with me on Instagram, I’m @rachrunstx or theteachingnannyblog@gmail.com!
The Teaching Nanny 
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