15+ Simple Toddler Activities – using everyday materials
Simple Toddler Activities
If you read through the toddler activities on the Toddler Years Must Do List two things strike you.
- One, is that while it's a very busy time, this is also such a sweet age; that post always makes me grin.
- Two, is that many of the most fun, most successful activities for toddlers are very, very simple.
When my daughter was younger we had a toddler activity cupboard filled with things like clean recyclables, tongs and other toddler pleasers. The list below is filled with simple things you can do with every day objects with your toddler.
Find Treasures:
- Hide treasures in a wipes container and let your toddler figure out how to get them out.
- Put pom poms in a bin and let your tot search for plastic animals or other treasures in them.
- Use scoops or hands to search for treasures in a bean box or other sensory bin.
- Play I-Spy with the trinkets-in-rice. We have this DIY tutorial for making an I-Spy Treasure Hunt, or if you'd like a closed container, try filling a clear plastic bottle with rice and treasures and super-gluing on the cap.
Recycle Bin Fun
- Let your toddler break a foam tray into pieces.
- Stick toothpicks or broken noodles into the foam tray and show your toddler how to thread beads onto them.
- Makes dents in the foam tray with caps, a chopstick, a pencil or other dull item you have.
Fine Motor Stashing and Moving
- Uses the baby wipes container for many different “stashing” activities. Poker chips, pom poms and small treasures like game pieces are all good fun to push through the wipes slot.
- Use tongs to transfer pom poms between a foam tray and an egg carton.
- Use toothpicks or broken noodles to make a fine motor challenge out of an old spice container.
Make eating fun
- Use tongs to eat lunch.
- Try out using pudding or another easy edible finger paint to finger paint.
- Make and “edible sensory bin” out of things like quick oats, cereal or jello.
More Simple Play Activities for Toddlers:
- Scoops and droppers are great for water play in the bath or on a towel on the floor.
- Remember the four secret words that make any playtime with toddlers fun.
- Do lots of pretend play – use containers for a baby bed, pretend the pom poms are baby animals and let your toddler carry them around in their pockets, pretend cook with containers and scoops.
- Use this list of 20 No-Waste Sensory Play Items to get inspired for sensory play from your backyard.
- Check out Hands On As We Grow's list of No Setup Toddler Activities.
And finally, if you'd like to have toddler play activities at your finger tips, you may enjoy my collaborative ebook, Zero to Two: The Book of Play.
Alissa Zorn is an author, and founder of the website Overthought This. She's a coach and cartoonist passionate about helping people overcome perfectionism and shame to build authentic, joyful lives. Alissa is certified through the International Coach Federation and got her Trauma-Informed Coaching certification from Moving the Human Spirit. She wrote Bounceback Parenting: A Field Guide for Creating Connection, Not Perfection, and is always following curiosity to find her next creative endeavor.