Welcome to the free sample of my toddler curriculum!
There’s so much curriculum out there for prek, but as a toddler teacher, I could never find anything that is appropriate for toddlers! I mean, you can only keep a toddler engaged in worksheets for so long 😉 So I decided to make what I wish I could have had when I started.
I created this curriculum from my years of experience and a desire to share with those who will love it! If you are a toddler teacher, or a stay at home parent/guardian who wants to do preschool at home – I made all this for you!!!!!!🥰
Each week has EVERYTHING you could need to do the lesson – lots of activities, detailed directions and how-tos, ideas to make each activity more intentional, explanations of what they are learning, teaching tips, an example weekly lesson plan, and links to resources and any print outs needed. And it is all presented in my blog style with humor and lots of adorable pictures and videos 😁
I hope you love what you see and decide my curriculum is worth trying – or that you share it with someone you know will love it and use it!
All weeks of my curriculum are available in my Etsy shop (click here) or my Teachers Pay Teachers shop (click here)
Once you purchase a week, you will receive a page that I refer to as the purchase page and it looks like this:
It will explain a little of what is included, define the icons I use throughout the curriculum, and give you the instructions for reaching whichever week you purchased.
Each week is a password protected post on my blog and can be reached exactly as explained on the purchase page. For weeks with a password, the password will be on this purchase page in bold letters.
I am also right now finishing a printable version of each week which, once finished, will be a PDF included in your purchase – this PDF will basically be a copy-paste of the online version but obviously without videos or links. When there’s a video to see or a link to click, the printable version will direct you to the online version.
And now….enjoy!!!!!!!
For purchased weeks, the full printable version PDF will be included here (I’m working on getting these finished – hopefully all 40 weeks will be done before the end of September!)
Toddler Curriculum Week 2
The themes for this week are:
- Letter: A
- Color: Black and White
- Bible: Creation
I’ll list every activity with details, tips, and developmental area tags, then give an example of how I would divide it up in a Monday – Friday lesson plan!
If you’ve already read through everything and just want a printable version of the activities to print out click here or just want the Bible Lesson click here
This includes all the letter and color activities in alphabetical order as well as a separate page with the Bible story and Activities page for the Bible lesson!
For a simple list of the activities marked with their developmental area focus click here!
I call it the Developmental Focus Cheat Sheet 😁 that way if you realize you need something quick that is STEM, you can find one with a quick glance! Or if you realize you still need a gross motor activity, you can take a quick peek and TADA! You can quickly see all activities that focus on gross motor!
Letter A Video – Here is Bounce Patrol Letter A. Like I said in Week 1, I cannot recommend the Bounce Patrol alphabet videos enough. I love them, the kids love them, and because they use the same tune for each letter, the kiddos pick it up quickly. I saw a huge improvement in the kiddos’ memory of letters and letter sounds once we started using these. Check out Week 1 to see my whole Circle Time routine with more links and tips!
***Little tip! – I like to have a little marker board with me for every activity where I can write the letter A word we are exploring for the kids to have a visual – for example, while playing with alligators in the water play, I’ll write “A for Alligator” on the little board and have it in front of them while they play. This increases letter recognition and literacy as they see the words and make the connection to what they are doing!
Letter A Affirmations! – Big word but easy concept – just spend some time using some words of affirmation that start with A and telling your kiddos how “amazing” or “awesome” or “adorable” they are!
Letter A Snack – Along with tasting apples (see below) gather some snacks that start with A like avocado and apricots
Letter A Trace (click here) – After handing them out in a similar way as described under “alligator” I’ll give them either those big chunky pencils or regular pencils depending on what age group I’m working with. I tell them to trace the letter A, then I walk around and help them do one letter hand over hand to model! Tracing letters is a great activity for beginning writing and literacy and develops fine motor skills as they grip and move the pencil! I start the younger ages with the big blocky letters giving lots of space to place the pencil. Make a point of saying “writing” or “tracing” rather than “coloring” to help them make the distinction! I like to keep these rather than send them home – I’ll keep them in a binder and then show them and their parents at the end of the year how much their skill has improved from A to Z!
Absorb – add some sponges to their water play or set up an activity like this one: Let them use a dropper (fine motor) to drop water on a sponge and see the sponge absorb all the water! Pour more water on until the sponge is full, then squeeze it (more fine motor!) to release the water! Use my Experiment page (click here – included for free in any of my other curriculum weeks) to experiment with how much water each sponge can hold and what might affect it. Does size, shape or color affect how much water a sponge can hold? What happens if you put multiple sponges on top of each other?
Acorns – if the season is right, go on a hunt for acorns and once you’ve treated them (you definitely want to do this or there may be worms in them – google “how to treat acorns for crafts”) you can use them in tons of things.
- sensory table
- sensory bottle
- sorting – dip the acorns in different colors of paint, let them dry, then have the kiddos sort them by color for a STEM sorting/classifying activity! Have them separate them into color designated buckets or jars using a fine motor tool like tweezers or spoons.
- talk about the parts of the tree and how an acorn becomes a tree
- create some ramps or use toilet paper rolls to engineer a series of tunnels mouse-trap style for them to roll the acorns!
- addition – use them as counters to do some math!
- music shaker – put them in a container, seal it, and let them shake shake shake to get some gross motor!
- shaker art – put them in an old oatmeal container with some paper and paint, seal it, let them shake it, and the acorns will roll around in the paint leaving unique designs across the paper!
Addition – You can add this to pretty much any activity. Doing math with tots is always easier with visuals and using actual items to count. You can buy cute little counter toys like bears or cubes or just use the things you are already using during the lesson! Use simple addition with the animal sorting (if I have two birds – grab 2 bird toys – and two cats – grab 2 cat toys – how many animals do I have? – count the toys, 1, 2, 3, 4!), the apple slices (if I put two apple halves together – one half and one half – I get a whole apple!), or the water play (I put two ducks and one alligator in the water – how many animals are in the water? 1, 2, 3!).
Airplane
- Airplane feet – This is a super cute footprint picture that you can send home or hang in your classroom! (In week 4 I make clouds so I always hang them together) To start, just paint one foot and make a footprint (I try to make a different combo of colors and footprint angles so it looks like the airplanes are flying in different directions when I hang them). Next draw on the wings, propeller, and A is for Airplane. Lastly, I like to glue construction paper that matches the wings onto the back for a nice frame (if you spread the glue thin and evenly then leave it to dry under a heavy book or two it will dry flat and with fewer wrinkles). This isn’t a project for art expression, but it makes a cute keepsake and with intentionality it can be sensory and social-emotional! Click here to see my tips for the perfect footprint and how I make it more fun (and developmental) for the kiddos!
- Little tip: Since this is not a child-directed art project, I’ll pair it with a very free/child-directed sensory activity that the kiddos can stay engaged with while I am painting feet one on one.
- Paper airplanes – This is really fun no matter what age and a great beginning engineering activity! At the age I normally taught, folding an “official” paper airplane wasn’t really a realistic goal, so we just colored them and “folded” them however they wanted. Then we tested their flight ability which gave them an excuse to use their gross motor skills! To incorporate more STEM, use my Experiment page (click here – included for free in any of my other curriculum weeks) to design an experiment! Construct a few airplanes in different ways, test them against the kiddos planes, then talk about why different styles flew better than others. You can even have the kids vote on which one they think will fly better or farther and why then test out their “hypothesis!”
- Airplane Races – pretend to be airplanes and fly around! Our favorite thing to do during our gym time was all line up against one wall, say “Ready…set…GO!” then run/fly/skip/spin etc to the other wall – back and forth until we get tired 😆
Alligators
- Coloring page – I chose alligator for my weekly coloring page (click here)
- *Normally I like to do the coloring page on Monday so the picture can hang on the “This Week” bulletin board all week, but because I pair this letter with the Creation story, I will do this alligator coloring page on Thursday to go along with animals being created near the end of Creation week.*
- During circle time I will show them the A is for Alligator page, a video of an alligator, sing the 5 monkeys in a tree song (along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be), etc. Then I’ll tell them we are going to go color our alligators! Then they adorably run to the table in excitement and get ready to color. I would suggest already having their papers ready with names on top, but for times I didn’t I would use it as an opportunity to add a little social-emotional by calling out their names as I write: “Is Callie going to color?” (kids scream yes, Callie giggles) “Yay! Callie is going to color with us! Who else?” Once the papers are ready, I again hand them out with intentionality – “Callie’s paper and black crayon…Elena’s paper and black crayon” etc. The more you can narrate everything you do, the more they will learn Coloring is a great activity for art expression and fine motor skills as they grip and move the crayon and will help prepare them for early writing! Also, since you are including the color of the week this will continue to reinforce color learning, and as the paper has the letter and the word this develops early literacy as they will see the connection between the letter, the word, the picture and the sounds! I know it’s a bit weird to color an alligator black 😜 but the intentionality and connection may just be worth it 😉
- Water play – I haven’t had a kiddo yet who doesn’t enjoy water play! To keep things dry, I like to do water play one kiddo at a time while the others are doing another engaging activity. I set up a bucket in the sink with water related animal toys (for sure an alligator this week), roll up a towel for them to lean on and to catch the water, and use a timer on my phone to give them about 5 minutes each
- *side note* – I have found a timer with sound really really helps with transitions. There was a huge difference between times when I did and did not use one. Without the timer, the kiddos would really struggle and protest, but for some magical reason if they heard the timer go off, they would accept their turn was done without question (in most cases – there’s always hard days).
Angry – add another social-emotional component by talking about being angry. Talk about what might make them feel angry (if they are old enough you can ask them what makes them angry and why) then talk about what to do when you’re angry. To make it fun and add some music and gross motor, sing if you’re happy and you know it, but in a way that talks about and models emotions.
- “If you’re angry (sing it angrily and model with face and body) and you know it stomp your feet *stomp stomp*… If you’re angry and you know it then your face will surely show it…
You can do this with every emotion, changing your body language and tone to match the emotion you’re singing about. They love this and you can really get creative! I like to sing if you’re: happy, sad, angry, excited, sleepy, scared, silly, jumpy and more. With the ones that are more full body like jumpy or wiggly I’ll sing *if you’re jumpy and you know it then your body will surely show it*
Animals
- Favorite animal/pet – add a social-emotional component by asking the kiddos what their favorite animal is! Talk about their pets at home and have parents send pictures and names. You can even do a little show and tell and let the kiddos hold their pet pictures and tell their friends about their pets.
- Animal motions – pretend to be different animals (I was gifted these super cute animal ear headbands that we made good use of!), play a good animal motion song, or re-write “If you’re happy and you know it” to be “If you’re a sheep and you know it say baa – baa baa!”
- Animal or plant flashcards – I made a set of flashcards (click here) that have 8 animals and 8 plants. Not only can you use these to work on literacy (letter and word recognition and sounds, connecting words to pictures and ideas etc), but you can also use them as a memory matching game or as a math classifying and sorting activity. Have them pick out the animals, pick out the plants, or make a chart on the board with plants on one side, animals on the other and let them stick each one on its corresponding side. You can even add them to a sensory table to give a sensory experience an added literacy and math component! Have them find the matching pairs in the sensory table, or hold up one card and ask them to find the matching card in the table.
- Animal sorting – grab all your animal toys or pictures and develop their math skills by classifying and sorting. Sort the animals by color, size, kind, whether they live in the air, water or on land etc. You can even create three sensory tables – cotton ball clouds for air, water for water, and potting soil or black beans for land – give them all the toys or pictures and have them put each one in the matching sensory table (bird to the air table, fish to the water table, horse to the land table etc)
Ants
- Ant Counting Cards (click here) – (for purchase in my TPT shop – in all other curriculum weeks, all printables are included for free) use these cards I made for counting practice! They go up to 100 so use up to whatever number your kiddos are learning. Use them just to count, mix them up and have the kiddos line them up in order, or line them up on the floor to march from ant to ant in order!
- Ants go marching – a great song for both counting and getting them moving!
Apples
- Apple Basket Matching – I made this printable to practice matching letters! There’s a version for matching just upper case letters (click here) (for purchase in my TPT shop – in all other curriculum weeks, all printables are included for free) for the younger tots just learning the alphabet. There is also a set for matching uppercase and lower case included. Cut them out and have the kiddos put the apples in the matching basket! (Laminate for extra sturdiness and easy cleaning!) Add an extra challenge by making it a match hunt! Set up one set of baskets on the table or the floor as the “home base” and hide the apples around the room. Hide them in places that they will have to use gross motor muscles to reach (ex. climbing, jumping, reaching, crawling, bending ect) Either one by one or everyone together go search for the apples, bring them back to the “home base” and match the letter you’ve found to the basket letters until every letter is found!
- Apple Basket Toss – create a gross motor activity with a basket or bucket and some apples! I think the mini lunch box apples work great for this but you can even use plastic apple toys or counters. Give them a basket of apples and let them toss them into another basket
- Apples & acids – a great early chemistry experiment! Use my Experiment page (click here – included for free in any of my other curriculum weeks) to do it following the entire scientific method! Set up this experiment by filling cups or bowls with different liquids including water, an acid like lemon juice, and if you want a base like milk. Also have a cup with nothing in it as a control (the part of the experiment that you are not changing or affecting to help see and compare how the parts that you do change make a difference). Have the kids make a “hypothesis” about which liquid will keep the apple fresh. Put an apple slice in each cup and leave it for a few days (if you did use milk, you’ll want to leave it in the fridge 😉 ). After a few days inspect each apple slice to see if their hypothesis was correct!
- Apple painting – It’s always a fun experience for them to be able to paint with things that are unique or unusual. Just cut an apple in half and stick a fork in it for better grip. Put some paint on a plate and let them use the apple to stamp paint. For an extra classifying boost, use a red apple for red paint and a green apple for green paint.
- Apple Sink or float? – Test out the density of the parts of an apple! Have the kids design an experiment by making a “hypothesis” (aka – educated guess😉) about each part of the apple (whole apple, seeds, stem etc) and whether it will sink or float. Then test their hypothesis and see the results! Experiment with what might change those results – does the color or size of the apple matter? What happens if you cut it in half or in slices (early fractions!)? Use my Experiment Page (click here – included for free in any of my other curriculum weeks) to do this following the scientific method!
- Apple tasting – Pair this with the apple painting to tie all these concepts together! Let them taste the difference between the different colors of apples, then let them paint with them!
Arms – How many arms do we have? What can we do with our arms? Practice using arms by giving each other lots of hugs!
Arrow Adventure! – Set up a trail of arrows to follow to a treasure! You can print some arrows, buy stickers, or just make them with masking/painters tape on the floor. Have the arrows lead to the next numbered ant and march to each one singing the Ants Go Marching or throw in some social/emotional and have the arrows lead to pictures of each kiddo in the class (can use the name and picture flashcards from week 1) until every friend has been found!
Artist – Talk about art and let the kiddos be artists! Do a child-directed art project letting each “artist” choose their medium (crayons, markers, paint, brushes, finger-painting etc), their colors, and their style. Let them express their creativity and praise the art they create! Connect it to the creation story by talking about how God is an artist too and the art He created is all of creation! Have them “paint the sky” like God does or “draw the flowers” like God does.
Astronaut – Read a good astronaut book, talk about the planets, then turn off the lights and go for a space walk! Pretend to walk like an astronaut and talk about how on different planets the gravity can make you heavier (walk as though you feel super heavy) or lighter (walk as though you can float!) Talk about everything that is in space that an astronaut could explore.
Color of the Week : Black and white
Black and white – slip black and white in anywhere you can. Use it in art projects as the crayon/marker/paint/paper color. Find all the black and white things in the classroom and when you go on walks, point out anything black or white you can see. Point out who is wearing black or white that day or have a day where everyone wears black and white! You can also do these:
- Chalk – give them some white chalk and let them color on a black piece of construction paper. This is a super simple art activity that is not thought of often but fits black and white week perfectly!
- Black and white sensory table – add some black beans and white rice for one of the easiest sensory tables to prep! Put some scoops, spoons, bowls etc for them to use their fine motor skills, or add the plant and animal flashcards for sorting and literacy. Practice math skills by sorting the black beans from the white rice or creating repeating patterns of black and white.
- Zebra stripes – not only is this a great sensory art project that also ties into A for animals, but because the stripes create a repeating pattern it also has a math component! Place some masking or painters tape in a zig zag pattern across the paper, place a dot of black paint in the middle, and let them use their hands to spread the paint around. They will feel the squishy paint and the rough edges of the tape as they paint. Then peel back the tape to reveal the zebra stripes! Practice naming the pattern of black, white, black, white. You can also look for other things with stripes or repeating patterns and compare.
Bible Lesson
Bible Story: Creation – based on Genesis 1
Repeatable phrase: God made everything and said it is GOOD!
We always say GOOD really dramatically with two big thumbs up to encourage engagement 🙂 I will repeat the repeatable phrase often throughout the week whenever we are doing an activity that connects.
Here’s how I would read along with the Bible (my personal favorites: the Beginner’s Bible and the Jesus Storybook Bible – feel free to use your favorite!) but add my own insight to help the kiddos connect with the story:
It’s time to read the Bible! Do you know what the Bible is? It’s God’s story! The Bible tells us God’s story from the beginning where God made everything to the end where everyone who loves God will get to be with Him in heaven forever!
Let’s start in the very beginning.
In the beginning, before you and me, before your mommies and daddies, even before your grandmas and grandpas – before everything that has ever happened – there was nothing! Nothing at all! It was dark (turn off lights) and quiet (shhhh!) But God had an idea! God had a really really…..GOOD! idea! He was going to make the heavens and the earth! And it was only going to take 7 days!
One the first day, Day 1, (hold up one finger – continue this for each day number) God decided to make…light! (turn on lights) Now we have light to see everything He makes! God decided to call the light – day time, and the dark – night time! God said, “Let there be light!” and it happened just like God said! God had made light and He said, “It is GOOD!”
On the second day, Day 2, God decided to move some things around and make some space. So He put all the water on earth in one place and covered it with the sky! Now we have air to breathe! God said, “Let there be sky!” and it happened just like God said! God had made the sky and He said, “It is GOOD!”
On the third day, Day 3, God gathered all the water into the oceans and made dry land appear! Now we have oceans to swim in and ground to walk on! But He wasn’t done! God covered the land with all kinds of plants! Grass and trees and flowers and every kind of plant you could imagine! Now we have grass to run in, trees to climb, and flowers to smell! God said, “Let there be oceans and land and plants!” and it happened just like God said! God had made the oceans, the land, and the plants and He said, “It is GOOD!”
On the fourth day, Day 4, God decided to decorate the sky with the sun, the moon, and the stars! Now we have the sun to shine, the moon to glow, and the stars to twinkle. God said, “Let there be a sun, a moon, and lots and lots of stars!” and it happened just like God said! God had made the sun, moon and stars and He said, “It is GOOD!”
On the fifth day, Day 5, God decided the ocean and the sky were a little empty. So He filled them with animals! He filled the ocean with every kind of fish, whale, shark, dolphin, starfish and more! He filled the air with every kind of bird with wings to fly! Now we have fish and birds to see and love! (Do any of you have fish or birds at home?) God said, “Let there be animals in the ocean and animals in the sky!” and it happened just like God said! God had made all the animals in the ocean and the sky and He said, “It is GOOD!”
On the sixth day, Day 6, God decided the earth need more animals! So He filled the land with every kind of animal you can think of! He made dogs and cats, cows and sheep, lions and tigers, lizards and snakes and more! (What other animals can you think of?) Now we have animals to love and take care of! (Do any of you have any animals at home like cats or dogs?) But God wasn’t done! He had one last idea to make everything just right – what do you think it was? You and me! God wanted to make people, and we were His favorite idea yet! God said, “Let’s make people!” and He made us just like He said. God had made people, His best creation yet, and as He looked around at everything He had made, God was so happy that He didn’t just say it was good! This time God said, “It is VERY GOOD!”
On the seventh day, Day 7, everything was all done! God was so happy with everything that He had made, that He took the whole day just to rest and enjoy it!
And that’s the beginning of God’s story! God made everything and said it was GOOD! and that is how God wanted His story to be – GOOD!
In the Bible, God’s amazing story, we get to read about lots of people – some do good things and make good choices (you can substitute whatever language you use for right and wrong) and some do bad things and make bad choices – but the best part of the story is that no matter what, God still loves them and He has a beautiful, amazing, perfect, awesome plan to make everything all better!
That plan is Jesus! One day, when the time was right, Jesus was going to come and make everything…….GOOD! again! Hurray!
Prayer Point: Thank God for making everything and for making it GOOD! Go through all the things He made each day and thank Him for them. Ask them what their favorite thing He made is and thank Him specifically for making it so GOOD! Ask Him to help us remember that even if there are things that are sad or scary, even if some things seem bad, He made all things good! Thank Him that one day Jesus will come and make it all GOOD! again!
Bible Lesson Activities
Connect creation to the week’s activities – Astronaut (He made space, the sun, moon and stars, and all the planets), the water play (separated water and land), and the plants vs animals by focusing on their day of creation. In my lesson plan, I separate days 1-5 through Monday-Friday and do only activities pertaining to that day of creation (Monday: Day, night, space – Tuesday: Sky, land, water – Wednesday: Plants – Thursday & Friday: Animals)
You can also do these:
- Air, land or water? – Talk about the differences, what you do in each one (fly, walk, swim etc – add gross motor by pretending to do each one) and which animals go where (Where does….a bunny go? In the sky? No! That’s silly 😅 Bunnies hop on the ground! That’s called “land!”)
- Counting to 7 – how many days did it take? Count with me! 1…2…etc Day 1 was the “beginning” and day 7 was the “end” – that means when God had counted to 7 days, He was “all done” (add in the sign language for “all done”)
- Day and night – talk about what you do in the day vs what you do at night. Talk about how the sun is out during the day and the moon at night. Play an extremely easy (and yet for some reason one of their favorites) game of light/dark by turning the lights on and off. Every time you flip the switch say light, lights on, dark, lights off etc. to help them understand the connection between the concepts of day, light and on and night, dark and off.
- GOOD! – He said everything was GOOD! Just like in our daily prayer (see Week 1 for a video of the prayer!), when I say “GOOD” I don’t just say it – I yell it with two thumbs up to reinforce the meaning of the word! What do you think is good? – ask them what they think is good and what part of God’s creation is their favorite!
- Song – I love doing the “He’s got the whole world” song for this week but expanding it to name all the days of creation (sun, moon, stars, birds, fish, kitties, doggies etc) and all of the kids by name.
- Space Stamp Painting – get some space shaped stamps or paint sponges and let them paint sun, moon and stars!
- Star Sorting – get some foam stars of different colors and have them use their STEM (sorting and classifying) and fine motor skills (finger pinching or using tweezer tools) sorting them into color designated bowls or jars
*for a printable version of the Bible lesson click here!*
Sample Lesson Plan
Here’s an example of how I would plan these activities in one week – feel free to pick and choose or copy it exactly! Whatever works best for your class or home 😊
On the Notes or Needs line, I will give examples of things related to the week that I may have announced or asked the parents for (in my experience, parents are eager to help!)
I like to do it in marker so I can draw pictures and use colors 😁 don’t judge my handwriting and drawing skills 😂
If you can’t read my writing, I’ve included a (boring 😜) typed version below:
Click here for the typed plan
Click here for my blank template
If you’ve already read through everything and just want a printable version of the activities to print out click here or just want the Bible Lesson click here
This includes all the letter and color activities in alphabetical order as well as a separate page with the Bible story and Activities page for the Bible lesson!
For a simple list of the activities marked with their developmental area focus click here!
I call it the Developmental Focus Cheat Sheet 😁 that way if you realize you need something quick that is STEM, you can find one with a quick glance! Or if you realize you still need a gross motor activity, you can take a quick peek and TADA! You can quickly see all activities that focus on gross motor!
For purchased weeks, the full printable version PDF will be included here (I’m working on getting these finished – hopefully all 40 weeks will be done before the end of September!)
I hope you enjoyed this free week!
If you loved it and want more, visit my Etsy store (click here) or my Teachers Pay Teachers shop (click here) to see purchase options for more weeks! Weeks are available alone, in discounted bundles of 4, or in a very discounted bundle of all 40!
If you know someone who would like this too please share! I’ve really put my heart into this in the hopes it will reach those who will use it and love it – so help me spread the word! 😁
Thank you!
