My two-year-old is obsessed with stickers and animals. This ABC Sticker Animal Art activity was a simple way to combine her favorite things while exploring the ABCs a little bit.
You don't need to drill toddlers and preschoolers on their ABCs with flashcards, just grab some stickers, markers, and paper and create this simple ABC exploration activity.
Supplies: markers, ABC stickers
, crayons, and large paper
Directions:
To start off this activity I drew my daughter's current favorite animal- a giraffe. You could also just use a coloring page or have your child draw her own picture. The picture doesn't have to be perfect... just make it something that your little one loves!
Then grab the ABC stickers and have her start adding them to her animal!
While your toddler pulls the stickers off and sticks them down you can talk about the sticker colors and the letters she is choosing. We talked about words that the letters started with too. The conversation was open ended and filled with commenting and labeling... I wasn't quizzing her. I did say things like, "Wow! You put the letter A on the giraffe's nose." I didn't say things like "What letter did you put on his ear?" If you notice, the first statement gives the information... the second statement asks for information. This activity was related to exploration and teaching... not checking to see what she knew, so I skipped the second type of questions.
After awhile of doing this activity, she was begging me to teach her more. "What letter is this mom?" "Does this letter go in my name?" It is amazing how much learning can happen when you keep activities simple!
In order to help her do this activity as independently as possible, I pulled the stickers off a little bit for her so that they were easier to grasp and then re-stick. After awhile, she got used to the pulling and sticking and was able to pull them off without my help.
We had so much fun with the stickers that we moved into making a number mouse sticker craft next. We could've done this activity all day. Even my five-year-old wanted to join in because he liked chatting with us about the letters and numbers while adding them to his picture.
What a fun way to learn the letters of the alphabet!
Wow, that giraffe is amazing. I could never free hand draw something like that. I love all your ideas for the activities though. I really like your point about not pushing your child. You gave her information and she ended up asking for more. I love that. 🙂
Too funny Kirstylee, my husband thought it looked like a unicorn 🙂 thanks for the compliment!!
I love your Mom and Tot craft time ideas! Excited to try some with my littlest (17 months) when his big brothers and sister are at VBS this summer!
Thank you Anna!
I love your approach that it isn't always about what they know. With the young kids I teach at church, they get turned off when everything is a quiz. I like that you can teach them without it becoming a test.
I am trying to be better about not quizzing… I think it can turn into a bad parent habit 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!