Letter M: moon activities for toddlers

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During our nighttime stroller walks, Manu is always pointing out at the moon. So I decided we should learn more about it.

That’s why we are kicking off this new month with week one dedicated to moon activities for toddlers Specially 2.5 to 3 yrs old.

Below you will find out weekly lesson plan as we embark on learning the letters and recognize numbers.

Our Moon lesson plan, our moon craft for toddlers, and all of the other fun activities we did this week.

Moon Activities for toddlers lesson Plan

I always create a moon lesson plan ahead of time. I know what skills I wanted to work so I created moon craft activities, moon dramatic play printables, and moon printables to work on the letter M in a fun way.

I always start with an initial moon lesson plan. Here is what I started with. At the end, I always shift the activities form day to day to fit our mood and Manu’s interest. Sometimes we do more than one morning mat during the day and other days we repeat activities he absolutely loved.

• Letter of the week: M
• Number of the week: 8 (because there are 8 planets in our solar system)
• Vocabulary words: Galaxy, Space, Austronaunt
• Color of the week: Silver (because we have already mastered our basic colors we are adding new ones)

Letter M Lesson Plan: A week at a Glance

Take the lesson plan with you

Get the full lesson plan and printables we used here: Letter M

Follow along our activities we did this week to combine both, the letter M and the Moon/Space theme this week.

We had to skip our Monday fieldtrip because our plantarium is currently closed. Insteady, we will take some extra time outside at nightime and look at the stars and moon.

Galaxy Sensory Bottle

To start of the week I was totally excited for our week I did a galaxy sensory bottle! it was not in our lesson plan but I couldn’t help myself! Get the step by step tutorial here

playdough Moon activities for Toddlers

Letter M playdough mats

Ahead of time, I prepared the Galaxy Playdough to go along with our theme. I knew that I wanted to work on the play dough mats for the letter M and the moon as well as used it to create a play dough tray with some stars and astronauts to encourage free play.

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Moon Invitation to play

During the week we used the Playdough for free play as well to work on fine motor skills. I created a small space-themes invitation to play.

The tray is a dinner plate I got at the Dollar store. I placed glow in the dark stars, astronauts and a wooden spaceship 🚀 I had purchase and painted a while ago at the craft store.

When it comes to Playdough trays I like to keep it simple and let him use the imagination. We also have a Playdough box with different materials and tools he can use no matter the theme. We have soft scissors, rolling pins, stamps etc…

HOW TO MAKE GALAXY PLAYDOUGH

Save and print this recipe! or head over the to Galaxy Playdough Recipe post and ready about my step by step process (with photos) for making it.

Scissor Skills | Space Themed

We have been working on learning how to control the movement of the hand. Coloring and using scissors. These are all pre-requisites for toddlers to lean how to write.

We have been working on learning how to use scissors all last year. The steps into working and getting ready to use scissors on paper is mentioned in the Love 2 Learn Curriculum along with the activities to get here. Now, we are ready to use scissors on paper and following direct lines.

I created a simple coloring page that we could color and then use toddler scissors to practice cutting. This was the first time cutting a line he had to follow and I was very impressed by his accuracy,

He did end up going all the way until he cut out the page completely. So we must definitely need to work on stopping once he reaches the object.

moon puzzle

Scissor skills is a favorite activity around here but this time we paired it with some cognitive thinking skills. We had a moon puzzle that we cut, the idea was to mix all four pieces and then put it back together.

Manu insisted that it needed to be cut just in two places and then glue it onto the paper. i may have an idea of what I want an activity to look like but I always “follow the child” , so we did what Manu wanted, after all we used scissor skills, gluing skills and made sense of puzzle concepts.

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Which scissors to use for toddlers?

Cutting with scissors is a skill that must be built upon. First, they need to master tongs, then tongs with the scoop then cut soft objects, and then they can move onto paper. (Source: Love 2 Learn Curriculum.)

Once your toddler is ready to cut paper, I recommend scissors that are sharp but have a tip that is covered in plastic and safe for kids to handle. Also, look for the little tab that works like a spring and allows for the scissor to open automatically, helping your toddler cut easier.

We got ours at the dollar store but they don’t always carry it in store. If you are looking for a high quality pair then, this kid scissors on Amazon have everything I am mentioning.

Arts & Craft | Space activities for toddlers

Arts and crafts are a super important activity to do at this age. Experimenting with different textures, learning to use the materials, controlling how much glue to pour, and how it feels to paint using different art materials are all concepts toddlers should master when in pre-k and kindergarten.

Creating a telescope

I had no idea this was going to be such a hit! Back in September we did color binoculars when we were working on colors and using the same concept, we created DIY telescopes.

I created a coloring page to go along with it and I wrapped two paper towel tubes. Secure them with tape and off they went!

This activity, we did it at the park and it was so much fun because the kids looked for the moon (even though it was day time), birds and each other.

This was some of those toys that lasted for the whole week and I’m sure it will be played with for a while!

Moon paper plate craft

Paper plate crafts are my new favorite craft thing to do with 3 year olds. So each week we do one simple paper plate craft.

This week was the easiest! A moon! Some grey paint with glitter and a foam circle brush.

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Space collage

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Math & Science Skills

i Spy Game

To be able to spot what things are the same or different is a critical math skill to work listing this age. I also wanted to paint that discrimination skill with math but creating cards that ask him to find 3 starts, or 5 spaceships (card not on photos)

he was more interested in playing matching with the mini erase boards (I purchased them on the dollar section at target during back to school). We still counted what we had and worked one some number recognition as we played.

If you don’t have mini erasers, you can use other things like foam cubes, color what you spot using washable markers or use do-a-dot markers as well.

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comparing: big & Small | heavy & Light

Being able to compare items will build skills to later on compare if you have more or fewer objects, if a number is higher or lower, Ana is the basis of many math and science concepts.

We covered some small and big rocks with foil, and the used the big moon rocks and small moon rocks to compare if they were big or small. During that exercise, I introduced the concept of heavy and light. We will work on that concept more and more later on as part of our science activities, but for now, it was a quick introduction to the concept.

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Entertainment & Fun

Moon Sensory bin

Sensory bins are part of our daily activities. I used to do many sensory bins during the week, but the cleanup was too much! So now, I choose one filler base and just switch things up to play with during the week.

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Books for Space theme

Our library is closed right now so we cannot check out any books. These were the books we already had at home and I used to show the concept of the moon and everything around it.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy using my link I get a percentage of the sale. I only share what I really like and think you will find value

• Goodnight moon
• Nerdy Babies Space
• Astronauts (First Explorers)

Other fun books available in Amazon (That I wish I had)

• Pop-Up Peekaboo! Space
• Moon! Earth’s Best Friend (Our Universe, 3)
• There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
• ABCs of Space (Baby University)

Videos we watched

Some families are screen-free, and we try to be, but we are on lock-down and there are so many activities I can set up during the day. During this week’s quiet time (the time where he is suppose to nap but refuses) we watched Curious George: Back to the Jungle. It features George going to space, so it fit right on with our theme. It made it for a great opportunity to start some conversations about what we were seeing.

Songs about Space

If you know me you know I LOVE kids songs, I spend hours looking for fun songs I can use for my sensory classes and I have been collecting space theme songs for them.

zoom zoom zoom we’re going to the moon

My favorite is zoom zoom zoom we’re going to the moon. I love the countdown to blastoff, and how fun the lyrics are. Definitely recommend it!

Blippi Outer Space

I had no idea Bluppi had an outer space song! It’s actually very catchy and fun.

Get the lesson plan

I prepared everything in a pack before we kicked off our week. Having everything printed and the few materials used gathered made the world of a difference when it came to doing the activities. It was grab and go and that was such a time saver!

If you want to recreate our week, put your own twist and take it as inspiration grab the full pack on our store.

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