Fun Arts and Crafts for 2 Yr Old

My 2 year old LOVES stickers! He doesn't really do much with them, he just loves to peel and stick or have help to peel and stick. I buy the big booklets of educational or character stickers whenever I find them cheap. We keep lots of "destruction paper" as I affectionately call it around and fat crayons and stickers to create pages of fun! We practice writing, teaching my son to write his letters, since he has already learned to recognize them, I will write one and we practice saying them or I help him write his name...

Just bought safety scissors to introduce cutting later this year too. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, just keep it simple with lots of colors and textures and you're good to go!

hit the family fun website. Better Homes & Gardens is good, too.

I also regularly "search" for preschool crafts. Lots of good sites out there. Lots of free printables. Lots of fingerplays & seasonal songs.

Right now, in my daycare, we're working on St Pat's. Here's a few of our activities:
1. using the shamrock to teach ....the Holy Trinity, counting & identifying #1-3, cutting & gluing (only for the 3y.o. - the others are too young to cut).
2. I use a handful of cut-out green hearts. I have labeled them #1-3 & the 1st initials of the kids' names. Each child draws from the "pot", finding their initial & then the #1-3. We line them up in front of us, & then sing the song "1 L., 2 L., 3 L. Hearts...sitting in front of me", repeating the line over & over ....to the tune of "1 L., 2 L., 3 L. Indians". This game teaches a song, the #1-3, letter recognition, & sequential patterning. It's amazing what a L. bit of construction paper can do! For Easter, we will expand on the #s & letters...using egg shapes. (using multiple colors will really help my younger group - 2 18month old boys!)
3. we listen to the Irish music on "Sounds of the Season" on MusicChoice. With this, we tie in drums & music makers, dancing, & comment on the wallpaper flashed on the tv screen. The girls are fascinated with the men wearing kilts!
4. We've been making a lot of rainbows! We use paint, crayons, & markers. This teaches colors & sequencing. + the actual shape of the rainbow prepares them for beginning writing. (simple shapes, before letters)
5. I made a 1/2 poster board "story". It's of a leprechaun sitting in a tree. His hammer & a pile of shoes are below the tree. There are shamrocks growing in the grass...where the children are playing. The children are wearing letter shirts (again with the letter recognition). There's a rainbow & a pot of gold at the end of it. .......with all of this, I read a short story to the kids - which explains the whole setup. The kids love the story...especially the part where you have to listen for the sound of the hammer...telling you to look for the leprechaun. They also love acting out catching him & not letting go....so he'll give you his gold! We do this daily & it's a BLAST!
Again, one 1/2 of a poster board. I used perm. marker for the design & markers to fill it in. A quick printout from the computer for the story. All of this provides an entire month of learning!! (& again, for Easter, I will draw a new storyboard.)

Another resource would be your local library or early childhood center thru your school district. They usually have monthly handouts. & I'd like to add that what I like about my approach is that it's not rote.....it's hands-on & fun. The kids are learning while they play!! Good Luck!

My son (just turned 3) loves to do anything with markers (Washable) and construction paper. He lights up whenever we get new "narkers" at the store. Since about 2 1/2 I have been letting him cut index cards using safety scissors (under my supervision). He is so proud of his creations. He also likes the L. foam shapes and we will lay them out on paper and he has me glue them into place to tell his stories.

Hi!

I'm not sure where you live but you should come and try a Gymboree Art class. Most Gymborees offer the first class free and then if you enroll you get the benefit of open gyms as well. For information on classes, you can go to www.gymboreeclasses.com. The Art classes are theme related with projects corresponding to the theme.

At age 2 my son loved play-doh. What I did was keep a couple of tubs always out and readily available filled with play-doh, tub of play-doh toys, finger paints, paint, brushes, markers, chalk, crayons, scissors, tubes of glitter, glue, colored cotton balls, stickers, construction paper, regular paper, brown lunch bag, paper towel tubes, dried pasta, different color yarn, paper plates, etc. The possibilities are endless! My son loved making masks out of the paper plates. You can google it or get a book from the library.

I also would use the construction paper and cut out shapes, numbers, letters etc and we would play, for example, “shapes” hide & seek. Basically take a cut out shape, hide it halfway under something and then have a race to find it. My son learned all his shapes, numbers and alphabet this way.

My son is now 6 but those tubs are still out and he still uses them daily.