Texture Activities
I was trying to think of ways to incorporate some of the work we’ve been doing exploring opposites with some Easter crafts. This craft can also be made more challenging by turning the stripes into a patterning lesson for older children. Toddlers like my son can keep it simple learning about hard and soft materials while making a cute holiday craft.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 sheets of construction paper in different colors, some buttons , pom poms , pencil crayons or chalk, glue and scissors.
- Cut one sheet of construction paper into a large oval.
- Have your child color the egg to their liking. Pencil crayons and chalk both make pretty light and muted marks that won’t over shadow the rest of the egg. But if you want to use markers go for it !
- While they are coloring, cut some stripes of paper from the other sheet.
- When they are done introduce the buttons and pom poms. Ask your child to feel them, tell you how they feel and if they are the same or different. With older children this is a great time for them to make practice patterns before making them permanent.
- Hand them the stripes and glue.
- Add the collage materials one type at a time.
- Keep going until they are satisfied- I cut out 4 stripes but my son was done with 3.
- Let the stripes dry
- Glue onto the egg and trim the ends if needed.
“The Golden Egg Book” by Margaret Wise Brown is one of those books I have clear memories of from childhood. Thing is I don’t really remember the story so much as the cover. In this case it’s ok to judge a book by it’s cover because although the ending has always seemed tacked on to me I enjoyed this simple and cute book about a bunny and the egg that he finds. My son liked it too, although he was much more into the illustrations of butterflies in the first and last few pages.
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- Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of construction paper, one a lighter color and the other black. Scissors, cotton balls, glue, markers and googly eyes.
- Have your child draw the farm background, ask them what sheep eat, even my 23 month old could do this and drew grass.
If you are doing multiple textures have them glue on the grass and fence here, make sure there is enough space for your sheep! - While they work on the farm, draw a sheep body and head out of the black paper and cut out.
- Glue the body on and add glue and cotton balls, we ripped our apart to spread them out.
- Glue on the head.
- Add the eyes!
- All done!
Books!
Touch Bowl
This is a fun activity that anyone can do. Older children should be encouraged to close their eyes and try to identify the objects while describing the way they feel. Toddlers can just explore with you labeling the textures, and if they are able you can play a little game of “Find the Texture”. Simple games like this are so valuable even if they seem bland to us on paper your child will love it. So try and see! My son loved the sticky tape and bumpy gourd.
Gentle Touch
What a perfect time to talk about gentle touches. Having been both a teacher and the dreaded director of a childcare center sometimes I felt like all I did all day was talk about gentle touches, remind little people that we use gentle hands and words with our friends. So this is my plea for all of us parents to practice this with our kids, it doesn’t come naturally to most but with lots of reminders and praise we can help teach them how to be gentle even when it’s so hard to , basically from ages 1-5 !
- Gather your materials. You will need a piece of card stock or construction paper, some markers/ crayons, glue and then some smaller pieces of things like feathers, aluminum foil, sand paper- anything that can easily be glued on and have an obvious texture.
I used some foam ( squishy)
, foil wrapping paper ( smooth)
and feathers ( soft)
. - I had my son start out with markers, because writing / scribbling is an important skill so practicing it is fun and worthwhile, but you don’t need to do this step.
- Drizzle or have your child put some glue on the paper.
- Put the collage materials on one at a time,
talk about how it feels when your child is handling it.
- With older children you can ask them to close their eyes , put the collage material into their hands and ask them what it feels like!
- Gather your materials. For this duck I used 3 different pieces of paper, one for the background, one for the duck and one to cut the feet and beak out of. Also a marker for the outline and eyes, and of course glue and feathers.
- Draw the outline of a duck. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect, you’ll be covering most of it with feathers anyway.
- Spread the glue! And start feathering your duck, I thought my son would love this , and as it turned out he refused to touch a single feather. Toddlers keep you on your toes!
- Let the glue dry, meanwhile cut out the feet and beak.
- Cut the duck out and glue it onto a 2nd piece of paper, this will help make it more sturdy. If your child wants to they can decorate the background too.
- Add the beak and feet
- Voila your very own touch and feel duck!
Six little ducks that I once knew,
fat ones, skinny ones, and fair ones too,
but the one little duck with the feather on his back,
he led the others with a quack quack quack!
Quack, quack , quack,
he lead the others with a quack quack quack!
Books!
” Brian Banana Duck Sunshine Yellow” by Australian author Chris McKimmie is a whimsical book, that may get some parents wondering if the author is a creative genius or an avid drinker. Kids will love the silly storyline and adults will enjoy the bits of dry wit put in especially for them. There are a few terms that are not seen often in the United States so this book would also be a fun one to use while teaching an international theme. I loved it!
“One Duck Stuck” by Phyllis Root looks like an everyday book , but inside you will find a brilliantly repetitive storyline, that promotes teamwork, and mathematical skills! My students a few years ago were nuts about this book and yours will be too!
