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Social-Emotional Learning

Grow It! Garden Sensory Play - Two Ways!

Join our email list for more free activities!

Grow It! Garden Sensory Play - Two Ways!

In our neighborhood, the snow has melted and the sun is shining, so we have spring-themed sensory and pretend play on the brain! For this activity, we combined our Learning Resources New Sprouts Grow It! gardening set with two simple sensory bin set-ups: one made up of dry sensory materials and relatively easy to clean up, the other wet, messier, and requiring a bit more prep work. Depending on the amount of time you have and the sensory experience you want to provide, both are great ways to engage your toddler in some seasonal learning fun!

What You'll Need to Get Started

Materials we used for both activity set-ups:

Additional materials we used for the dry sensory set-up:

  • Black and/or brown beans (to represent dirt or plant seeds)
  • Green and brown shredded paper (to represent grass)

Additional materials we used for the wet sensory set-up:

  • Water
  • Cocoa Oobleck (to represent mud)
  • Vegetable scrub brush
  • Measuring cup/spoon

The New Sprouts Grow It! gardening set includes three small pots, mix-and-match flowers and vegetables to ‘plant’ inside, a small shovel, and a watering can -- all bright, colorful, and easy to clean!

Setting up our dry sensory bin was very easy -- we simply poured black and brown beans into our bin and added some shredded paper for grass-like textures before introducing our Grow It! set to the mix.

For the wet sensory bin activity, we added the New Sprouts Grow It! set to a larger storage tupperware tub and then placed two smaller bins inside to help contain the mess. Even still, we recommend keeping wet wipes nearby and/or throwing down a towel around the play area to make clean-up even easier. We set ours up in the bathroom, so we could transition right to bath time immediately after our messy sensory play! 

Inside the two smaller tubs, we included (1) water and (2) cocoa ‘mud’ oobleck. To make the cocoa oobleck, simply use a rubber spatula or your hands to mix cornstarch (about 1.5 cups), water (about 1 cup), and cocoa powder (for mud-like color, about 3 tablespoons) together until you reach the desired consistency. 

Both sensory activity set-ups gave our toddler the opportunity to independently role play gardening -- just like she saw her parents do in her backyard last year when she wasn’t nearly as independently mobile! 

There are so many learning benefits to simple, playful set-ups like these sensory bins. Tactile, open-ended imaginary and sensory play helps to foster fine motor development and confidence with posting, scooping, and pouring skills. We also worked on our social skills by sharing and taking turns with each of the gardening tools and toys

Further, while pretending to plant and water each flower or vegetable, we tried out new garden-themed vocabulary -- ‘petals,’ ‘stem,’ ‘soil,’ ‘dig,’ ‘scoop,’ and ‘pour,’ etc. -- which presented valuable, contextualized opportunities for her overall language development. There were also ample opportunities to practice color recognition by identifying the hue of each pot, veggie, flower and sensory bin material. 

In the dry sensory bin, we made early math skills fun by counting the ‘dirt’ beans or seeds, as well as the petals and leaves on each plant. The wet sensory bin fillers allowed our budding gardener to practice pouring water from the set’s toy watering can and mimic rinsing and scrubbing off mud-streaked root vegetables from a springy, rain-soaked garden. Real gardening is rarely a tidy activity, after all!

All in all, the New Sprouts Grow It! set is a win in our book. We can’t wait to bring it outside this summer and let her explore it in the real mud kitchen! No matter how we present it to our child, we know it will build her curiosity and confidence and prepare her to assist in our backyard garden. 

Looking to adapt or extend your garden-themed play and learning even further? 

  • Explore and discuss what real plants need to grow (water, sunlight, soil, etc.).
  • Get out the paper and crayons and plot out your own future or imaginary garden. What vegetables or herbs would your child want to grow? Where would they plant them?
  • Compare the pretend garden pieces in the Grow It! set with examples from fiction and non-fiction picture books. Diverse, inclusive and engaging titles we enjoyed reading this week to complement our imaginary play and reinforce our learning included:
    • Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn (picture book)
    • If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson (picture book)
    • Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs (picture book)
    • My Garden by Kevin Henkes (picture book)
    • Mrs. Peanuckle's Vegetable Alphabet and Flower Alphabet (board books)
Grow It! Garden Sensory Play - Two Ways!

Join our email list for more free activities!

Grow It! Garden Sensory Play - Two Ways!

In our neighborhood, the snow has melted and the sun is shining, so we have spring-themed sensory and pretend play on the brain! For this activity, we combined our Learning Resources New Sprouts Grow It! gardening set with two simple sensory bin set-ups: one made up of dry sensory materials and relatively easy to clean up, the other wet, messier, and requiring a bit more prep work. Depending on the amount of time you have and the sensory experience you want to provide, both are great ways to engage your toddler in some seasonal learning fun!

What You'll Need to Get Started

Materials we used for both activity set-ups:

Additional materials we used for the dry sensory set-up:

  • Black and/or brown beans (to represent dirt or plant seeds)
  • Green and brown shredded paper (to represent grass)

Additional materials we used for the wet sensory set-up:

  • Water
  • Cocoa Oobleck (to represent mud)
  • Vegetable scrub brush
  • Measuring cup/spoon

The New Sprouts Grow It! gardening set includes three small pots, mix-and-match flowers and vegetables to ‘plant’ inside, a small shovel, and a watering can -- all bright, colorful, and easy to clean!

Setting up our dry sensory bin was very easy -- we simply poured black and brown beans into our bin and added some shredded paper for grass-like textures before introducing our Grow It! set to the mix.

For the wet sensory bin activity, we added the New Sprouts Grow It! set to a larger storage tupperware tub and then placed two smaller bins inside to help contain the mess. Even still, we recommend keeping wet wipes nearby and/or throwing down a towel around the play area to make clean-up even easier. We set ours up in the bathroom, so we could transition right to bath time immediately after our messy sensory play! 

Inside the two smaller tubs, we included (1) water and (2) cocoa ‘mud’ oobleck. To make the cocoa oobleck, simply use a rubber spatula or your hands to mix cornstarch (about 1.5 cups), water (about 1 cup), and cocoa powder (for mud-like color, about 3 tablespoons) together until you reach the desired consistency. 

Both sensory activity set-ups gave our toddler the opportunity to independently role play gardening -- just like she saw her parents do in her backyard last year when she wasn’t nearly as independently mobile! 

There are so many learning benefits to simple, playful set-ups like these sensory bins. Tactile, open-ended imaginary and sensory play helps to foster fine motor development and confidence with posting, scooping, and pouring skills. We also worked on our social skills by sharing and taking turns with each of the gardening tools and toys

Further, while pretending to plant and water each flower or vegetable, we tried out new garden-themed vocabulary -- ‘petals,’ ‘stem,’ ‘soil,’ ‘dig,’ ‘scoop,’ and ‘pour,’ etc. -- which presented valuable, contextualized opportunities for her overall language development. There were also ample opportunities to practice color recognition by identifying the hue of each pot, veggie, flower and sensory bin material. 

In the dry sensory bin, we made early math skills fun by counting the ‘dirt’ beans or seeds, as well as the petals and leaves on each plant. The wet sensory bin fillers allowed our budding gardener to practice pouring water from the set’s toy watering can and mimic rinsing and scrubbing off mud-streaked root vegetables from a springy, rain-soaked garden. Real gardening is rarely a tidy activity, after all!

All in all, the New Sprouts Grow It! set is a win in our book. We can’t wait to bring it outside this summer and let her explore it in the real mud kitchen! No matter how we present it to our child, we know it will build her curiosity and confidence and prepare her to assist in our backyard garden. 

Looking to adapt or extend your garden-themed play and learning even further? 

  • Explore and discuss what real plants need to grow (water, sunlight, soil, etc.).
  • Get out the paper and crayons and plot out your own future or imaginary garden. What vegetables or herbs would your child want to grow? Where would they plant them?
  • Compare the pretend garden pieces in the Grow It! set with examples from fiction and non-fiction picture books. Diverse, inclusive and engaging titles we enjoyed reading this week to complement our imaginary play and reinforce our learning included:
    • Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn (picture book)
    • If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson (picture book)
    • Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs (picture book)
    • My Garden by Kevin Henkes (picture book)
    • Mrs. Peanuckle's Vegetable Alphabet and Flower Alphabet (board books)
 READ MORE

Little Faces, Big Feelings!

Let’s face it, even though toddlers may be little, they sure have a lot of big feelings. You’ve been there, right? One minute your child is on top of the world having a kitchen dance party and smiling from ear to ear, and the next minute they’re on the floor crying because you put the wrong stuffed animal on their bed. These feelings are real, and not only are they hard for us parents to deal with, but they’re also hard for our little ones to understand.

Now, these meltdowns aren’t completely avoidable during those early years, but by beginning to teach your child about emotions early on, you can take the right steps to help them deal with all of these big feelings a little bit better.

Want to know one of the best ways you can start working on emotions with your child? Through pretend play! Play is the best way for children to learn, so it’s no surprise that it’s a great way for your child to learn to identify and deal with their big emotions.

Products from Learning Resources to Help Your Little One Identify Their Feelings:

Big Feelings Pineapple 

Just like your child, this pineapple feels a lot of feelings! The Big Feelings Pineapple comes with 26 facial pieces to create various facial expressions, making it a perfect way to work on social-emotional learning. Tips for using the Big Feelings Pineapple:

  • Talk about the face you are creating while you are creating it, “My pineapple feels happy. It has a smile on its face, and its eyebrows are raised up high!”
  • Discuss the different items your child chooses, “Oh, I see you have heart eyes. Your pineapple feels loving.  I feel loving when I’m with you!”
  • Match the facial expressions that you place on the pineapple to the feelings chart that it comes with, or take it a step further and see if your child can identify their own feelings on the pineapple feelings chart.

Learn-a-Lot Avocados

These Learn-a-Lot Avocados are the sweetest! They come with four avocados that are the perfect size for little hands. With these avocado’s your child can develop fine motor, color matching, and social-emotional skills all at once. Each avocado has a spinning pit that features two unique emotions. Tips for using the Learn-a-Lot Avocados:

  • Talk about opposite emotions, “This avocado feels sad.  I feel sad when I make a mess. This avocado feels happy. I feel happy when my mess is all cleaned up!”
  • Make a face (angry, happy, sad, etc.), and see if your child can find the avocado’s expression that matches yours!
  • Make it into a game! Hide the avocado halves around the room, and see if your child can find them, “can you find the avocado who’s mad?”

Looking for additional ways to support your child’s social-emotional learning?  Try these tips!

  • “Name it to tame it!” This phrase was coined by author and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Siegel, and it means exactly what it says. Label the emotions your child is feeling while they’re feeling them. By naming their feelings, your child will begin to associate the emotion’s label with the feeling they are experiencing. They will eventually start to identify and label these emotions themselves. So next time your child is crying because they ate their last fruit snack, try saying something like, “I see that you’re crying because your last fruit snack is gone. It makes me think you are feeling sad.”
  • Let your child see and hear you talk about your own emotions! Talk about both the happy and sad feelings you experience. And know that it’s ok to let our children see us upset sometimes; by allowing them to see this, we are letting them know that it’s normal to experience these different feelings.
  • Read books together and label the different emotions that the characters feel throughout the story. Simply start by identifying what you see within the story, “Peppa looks so happy to put her rain boots on. She is excited to jump outside in puddles!”

Social-emotional learning starts early. By applying these strategies within the play and daily activities, you can support your little one’s understanding of the big feelings they experience each and every day!

Little Faces, Big Feelings!

Let’s face it, even though toddlers may be little, they sure have a lot of big feelings. You’ve been there, right? One minute your child is on top of the world having a kitchen dance party and smiling from ear to ear, and the next minute they’re on the floor crying because you put the wrong stuffed animal on their bed. These feelings are real, and not only are they hard for us parents to deal with, but they’re also hard for our little ones to understand.

Now, these meltdowns aren’t completely avoidable during those early years, but by beginning to teach your child about emotions early on, you can take the right steps to help them deal with all of these big feelings a little bit better.

Want to know one of the best ways you can start working on emotions with your child? Through pretend play! Play is the best way for children to learn, so it’s no surprise that it’s a great way for your child to learn to identify and deal with their big emotions.

Products from Learning Resources to Help Your Little One Identify Their Feelings:

Big Feelings Pineapple 

Just like your child, this pineapple feels a lot of feelings! The Big Feelings Pineapple comes with 26 facial pieces to create various facial expressions, making it a perfect way to work on social-emotional learning. Tips for using the Big Feelings Pineapple:

  • Talk about the face you are creating while you are creating it, “My pineapple feels happy. It has a smile on its face, and its eyebrows are raised up high!”
  • Discuss the different items your child chooses, “Oh, I see you have heart eyes. Your pineapple feels loving.  I feel loving when I’m with you!”
  • Match the facial expressions that you place on the pineapple to the feelings chart that it comes with, or take it a step further and see if your child can identify their own feelings on the pineapple feelings chart.

Learn-a-Lot Avocados

These Learn-a-Lot Avocados are the sweetest! They come with four avocados that are the perfect size for little hands. With these avocado’s your child can develop fine motor, color matching, and social-emotional skills all at once. Each avocado has a spinning pit that features two unique emotions. Tips for using the Learn-a-Lot Avocados:

  • Talk about opposite emotions, “This avocado feels sad.  I feel sad when I make a mess. This avocado feels happy. I feel happy when my mess is all cleaned up!”
  • Make a face (angry, happy, sad, etc.), and see if your child can find the avocado’s expression that matches yours!
  • Make it into a game! Hide the avocado halves around the room, and see if your child can find them, “can you find the avocado who’s mad?”

Looking for additional ways to support your child’s social-emotional learning?  Try these tips!

  • “Name it to tame it!” This phrase was coined by author and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Siegel, and it means exactly what it says. Label the emotions your child is feeling while they’re feeling them. By naming their feelings, your child will begin to associate the emotion’s label with the feeling they are experiencing. They will eventually start to identify and label these emotions themselves. So next time your child is crying because they ate their last fruit snack, try saying something like, “I see that you’re crying because your last fruit snack is gone. It makes me think you are feeling sad.”
  • Let your child see and hear you talk about your own emotions! Talk about both the happy and sad feelings you experience. And know that it’s ok to let our children see us upset sometimes; by allowing them to see this, we are letting them know that it’s normal to experience these different feelings.
  • Read books together and label the different emotions that the characters feel throughout the story. Simply start by identifying what you see within the story, “Peppa looks so happy to put her rain boots on. She is excited to jump outside in puddles!”

Social-emotional learning starts early. By applying these strategies within the play and daily activities, you can support your little one’s understanding of the big feelings they experience each and every day!

 READ MORE

Naming & Exploring Big Feelings

Anyone else already feeling lots of big feelings in 2021? 

We all know a young child’s brain is developing quickly in their earliest years. Part of that development includes building important foundational skills like understanding and expressing their own emotions, managing their responses to those emotions, and recognizing and developing empathy for others' feelings.

If you are like our family, you’re looking for any way to support your toddler’s social-emotional learning this year. Maybe you’re motivated because they’ll start preschool in the fall, and you want them to be resilient during challenging moments when you’re not present to support them. Perhaps you want them to be able to have the skills necessary to foster strong relationships and friendships -- something they might not have had a lot of practice with during the pandemic. Or maybe they're merely two, and you’re all just baffled by the tantrums and nuanced big emotions they are exhibiting. 

Below are some fun, engaging activities you can do with your child to help them build the language necessary to name and differentiate between their own big feelings and those of others, thus laying the groundwork for self-regulating and responding purposefully to those emotions when they arise. 

Materials we used:

We began our play by exploring and revisiting books that included descriptions of various emotions or highlighted diverse people/characters expressing various emotions in illustrations and photographs. Then, we named each facial expression we came across. Here are some titles we enjoyed:

  • Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions by Abrams Appleseed (board book)
  • Baby Happy, Baby Sad, and Mad, Mad, MAD by Leslie Patricelli (board books)
  • In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek (picture book)
  • The Feelings Books by Todd Parr (picture book)

Next, to deepen connections and demonstrate understanding, we practiced making and identifying our own angry, sad, silly, happy, nervous, and surprised faces in front of the All About Me 2-in-1 Mirrors. 

One side of each mirror shows a normal reflection, while the other is a ‘fun’ mirror that warps reflections for additional silliness. These mirrors are a wonderful resource for our youngest learners, as they are super-durable, easy to hold, and small enough to tuck in multiple play areas or pack up for play on-the-go.

Once we had built some confidence around a wide variety of basic emotions, we dove into another great social-emotional learning tool for exploring more nuanced facial expressions and related emotions: the new Big Feelings Pineapple!

This bright, two-sided pineapple toy comes with 26 different pieces for building various emotional faces ranging from silly to serious, including frustrated eyebrows, excited grins, and anxious eyes. A small poster included in the set illustrates various feeling prompts, including some opposite emotions like calm vs. anxious and happy vs. sad. (Bonus: Fine motor skills are acutely honed when lining up and placing each piece inside the pineapple’s holes!)

In addition to letting your child build their own imaginative faces, consider prompting their play and learning with questions like:

  • What emotion is this pineapple feeling? How do you know?
  • This pineapple looks nervous. What does your face look like when you are nervous about something?
  • This pineapple looks sad or disappointed. What does/do my mouth/eyebrows look like when I make a disappointed face?
  • This pineapple looks angry! What is the opposite of angry? Let’s build that face on the other side of the pineapple and compare how they look.
  • This pineapple’s face is showing me that it is feeling frustrated about something. When you are feeling frustrated, what do you do/need to help you calm down? 

In addition to practicing different faces and naming different emotions, we also used the All-About-Me mirrors to observe ourselves practicing some calming ‘belly breaths.’ This mindfulness technique can help your child slow down, reduce their heart rate, and bring awareness to their body when they feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or upset. When practicing belly breathing, have your child place their hands on their stomach and take a deep breath in through their nose, imagining their belly-filling up like a balloon, and then release the breath slowly through their mouth, like they’re blowing a huge bubble. Belly breaths are a great coping skill to practice when they feel calm, so they have that tool in their tool-chest for those difficult, big-feelings moments. 

Looking to adapt or extend your social-emotional play and learning even further? 

  • Provide open-ended opportunities for your child to process or express their emotions through art or movement, like drawing, painting, or dance.
  • Using a clear, upcycled water bottle or a Learning Resources Primary Science Sensory Tube, create a ‘calm down jar’ your child can utilize when they need a quiet moment to sit with and work through big feelings. Many inspiration and DIY guides for creating mindfulness or calm down jars can be found online, but they often involve some kind of liquid and glitter or beads that they can quietly watch fall from side to side.
  • Even younger toddlers (1.5+) utilize the equally fun and fine-motor-friendly Learning Resources Learn-A-Lot Avocados to foster recognition of opposite emotions like ‘happy’ vs. ‘sad.’ 
  • For older children (5-10) ready to have more in-depth conversations about their feelings and work through emotional scenarios they might encounter, open the door to dialogue with the Learning Resources Let’s Talk Cubes. These include prompts and questions like “What makes you feel safe and secure?” and “I feel most happy when…”
  • Work together with your child to create a cozy, quiet corner in your home that they feel safe retreating to when they require space to self-soothe, regain emotional or physical control. Process big feelings -- think pillows, a friendly stuffed animal/lovey, helpful books (like Belly Breathe by Leslie Kimmelman, The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, Crankenstein by Samantha Berger, or Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall) or other calm-down tools best suited to support your child. 
Naming & Exploring Big Feelings

Anyone else already feeling lots of big feelings in 2021? 

We all know a young child’s brain is developing quickly in their earliest years. Part of that development includes building important foundational skills like understanding and expressing their own emotions, managing their responses to those emotions, and recognizing and developing empathy for others' feelings.

If you are like our family, you’re looking for any way to support your toddler’s social-emotional learning this year. Maybe you’re motivated because they’ll start preschool in the fall, and you want them to be resilient during challenging moments when you’re not present to support them. Perhaps you want them to be able to have the skills necessary to foster strong relationships and friendships -- something they might not have had a lot of practice with during the pandemic. Or maybe they're merely two, and you’re all just baffled by the tantrums and nuanced big emotions they are exhibiting. 

Below are some fun, engaging activities you can do with your child to help them build the language necessary to name and differentiate between their own big feelings and those of others, thus laying the groundwork for self-regulating and responding purposefully to those emotions when they arise. 

Materials we used:

We began our play by exploring and revisiting books that included descriptions of various emotions or highlighted diverse people/characters expressing various emotions in illustrations and photographs. Then, we named each facial expression we came across. Here are some titles we enjoyed:

  • Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions by Abrams Appleseed (board book)
  • Baby Happy, Baby Sad, and Mad, Mad, MAD by Leslie Patricelli (board books)
  • In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek (picture book)
  • The Feelings Books by Todd Parr (picture book)

Next, to deepen connections and demonstrate understanding, we practiced making and identifying our own angry, sad, silly, happy, nervous, and surprised faces in front of the All About Me 2-in-1 Mirrors. 

One side of each mirror shows a normal reflection, while the other is a ‘fun’ mirror that warps reflections for additional silliness. These mirrors are a wonderful resource for our youngest learners, as they are super-durable, easy to hold, and small enough to tuck in multiple play areas or pack up for play on-the-go.

Once we had built some confidence around a wide variety of basic emotions, we dove into another great social-emotional learning tool for exploring more nuanced facial expressions and related emotions: the new Big Feelings Pineapple!

This bright, two-sided pineapple toy comes with 26 different pieces for building various emotional faces ranging from silly to serious, including frustrated eyebrows, excited grins, and anxious eyes. A small poster included in the set illustrates various feeling prompts, including some opposite emotions like calm vs. anxious and happy vs. sad. (Bonus: Fine motor skills are acutely honed when lining up and placing each piece inside the pineapple’s holes!)

In addition to letting your child build their own imaginative faces, consider prompting their play and learning with questions like:

  • What emotion is this pineapple feeling? How do you know?
  • This pineapple looks nervous. What does your face look like when you are nervous about something?
  • This pineapple looks sad or disappointed. What does/do my mouth/eyebrows look like when I make a disappointed face?
  • This pineapple looks angry! What is the opposite of angry? Let’s build that face on the other side of the pineapple and compare how they look.
  • This pineapple’s face is showing me that it is feeling frustrated about something. When you are feeling frustrated, what do you do/need to help you calm down? 

In addition to practicing different faces and naming different emotions, we also used the All-About-Me mirrors to observe ourselves practicing some calming ‘belly breaths.’ This mindfulness technique can help your child slow down, reduce their heart rate, and bring awareness to their body when they feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or upset. When practicing belly breathing, have your child place their hands on their stomach and take a deep breath in through their nose, imagining their belly-filling up like a balloon, and then release the breath slowly through their mouth, like they’re blowing a huge bubble. Belly breaths are a great coping skill to practice when they feel calm, so they have that tool in their tool-chest for those difficult, big-feelings moments. 

Looking to adapt or extend your social-emotional play and learning even further? 

  • Provide open-ended opportunities for your child to process or express their emotions through art or movement, like drawing, painting, or dance.
  • Using a clear, upcycled water bottle or a Learning Resources Primary Science Sensory Tube, create a ‘calm down jar’ your child can utilize when they need a quiet moment to sit with and work through big feelings. Many inspiration and DIY guides for creating mindfulness or calm down jars can be found online, but they often involve some kind of liquid and glitter or beads that they can quietly watch fall from side to side.
  • Even younger toddlers (1.5+) utilize the equally fun and fine-motor-friendly Learning Resources Learn-A-Lot Avocados to foster recognition of opposite emotions like ‘happy’ vs. ‘sad.’ 
  • For older children (5-10) ready to have more in-depth conversations about their feelings and work through emotional scenarios they might encounter, open the door to dialogue with the Learning Resources Let’s Talk Cubes. These include prompts and questions like “What makes you feel safe and secure?” and “I feel most happy when…”
  • Work together with your child to create a cozy, quiet corner in your home that they feel safe retreating to when they require space to self-soothe, regain emotional or physical control. Process big feelings -- think pillows, a friendly stuffed animal/lovey, helpful books (like Belly Breathe by Leslie Kimmelman, The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, Crankenstein by Samantha Berger, or Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall) or other calm-down tools best suited to support your child. 
 READ MORE

Easter Basket Ideas

Get a head start on Easter season with our egg-citing educational toys! From learning essential skills to building school success, our toys help you build a brilliant basket for all of your kids’ needs. 

Sensory Bin Easter Basket

Sensory bins stimulate the senses through play, and we’ve got everything you need to build your own!

Shop all Sensory Bin Toys

Fine Motor Easter Basket

Sensory toys for toddlers and fine motor skills toys can help prepare your child for school. Even with the advancements of technology, holding and manipulating a pencil will be a cornerstone of their learning experience. Find the perfect fine motor & sensory seeking toys, like our award-winning Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog, to launch them into their educational journey!

Shop all Fine Motor Toys

Coding Easter Basket

Screen-free coding toys can be the gateway for your child into learning the language of the 21st century! Learning Resources covers a wide range of ages; from STEM coding toys for toddlers all the way up to programming kids toys for 8+!

Shop all Coding Toys

ABCs Easter Basket

From "aardvark" to "zephyr," the world of spelling revolves around A-B-C! Set your little spellers on the path to spelling bee success with language arts toys that bring letters and vocabulary to life!

Shop all ABCs Toys

Easter Basket Ideas

Get a head start on Easter season with our egg-citing educational toys! From learning essential skills to building school success, our toys help you build a brilliant basket for all of your kids’ needs. 

Sensory Bin Easter Basket

Sensory bins stimulate the senses through play, and we’ve got everything you need to build your own!

Shop all Sensory Bin Toys

Fine Motor Easter Basket

Sensory toys for toddlers and fine motor skills toys can help prepare your child for school. Even with the advancements of technology, holding and manipulating a pencil will be a cornerstone of their learning experience. Find the perfect fine motor & sensory seeking toys, like our award-winning Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog, to launch them into their educational journey!

Shop all Fine Motor Toys

Coding Easter Basket

Screen-free coding toys can be the gateway for your child into learning the language of the 21st century! Learning Resources covers a wide range of ages; from STEM coding toys for toddlers all the way up to programming kids toys for 8+!

Shop all Coding Toys

ABCs Easter Basket

From "aardvark" to "zephyr," the world of spelling revolves around A-B-C! Set your little spellers on the path to spelling bee success with language arts toys that bring letters and vocabulary to life!

Shop all ABCs Toys

 READ MORE
Sensory Fun with Snap-n-Learn™ Fruit Shapers
We share how we teamed up the new Snap-n-Learn Fruit Shapers with water, water beads, and a few additional fine motor toys and containers.
 READ MORE
3 Simple Skills Kids Can Practice to Encourage Kindness
READ MORE
Opposites with Big Feelings Pineapple

Draw a line to connect the pineapples to their opposite emotions!

Opposites with Big Feelings Pineapple Printable!

Pin it on Pinterest!

 READ MORE

Pretend Play Big Game Grill Out

Celebrate the Big Game with a Pretend Play Grill Out! No matter the weather, young grill masters can sear up a storm inside or outside with our New Sprouts® Grill it! The fun and finger-friendly way to pretend grill, this engaging kettle-style grill is soft, durable, easy to handle, and comes with a full assortment of play food, allowing children ages 2 and up to express their inner BBQ king or queen. Using the tongs to move foods on, around, and off the grill allows them to practice fine motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination.

From veggies to steak, chicken, and burgers, there's plenty of mouth-watering play food to cook and serve. Best of all, there's no mess to clean up and all of the food stores inside the grill for easy put away.

New Sprouts® Grill It!

Don't forget the New Sprouts® Cookout! Grab a plate and enjoy! Realistic looking play food allows your child to have a cookout, indoors or out. All your cookout favorites are included from the hot dogs to the corn on the cob. Durable plastic pieces allow for imaginative play that lasts all day. Perfectly sized for small hands.

New Sprouts® Cookout!
Pretend Play Big Game Grill Out

Celebrate the Big Game with a Pretend Play Grill Out! No matter the weather, young grill masters can sear up a storm inside or outside with our New Sprouts® Grill it! The fun and finger-friendly way to pretend grill, this engaging kettle-style grill is soft, durable, easy to handle, and comes with a full assortment of play food, allowing children ages 2 and up to express their inner BBQ king or queen. Using the tongs to move foods on, around, and off the grill allows them to practice fine motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination.

From veggies to steak, chicken, and burgers, there's plenty of mouth-watering play food to cook and serve. Best of all, there's no mess to clean up and all of the food stores inside the grill for easy put away.

New Sprouts® Grill It!

Don't forget the New Sprouts® Cookout! Grab a plate and enjoy! Realistic looking play food allows your child to have a cookout, indoors or out. All your cookout favorites are included from the hot dogs to the corn on the cob. Durable plastic pieces allow for imaginative play that lasts all day. Perfectly sized for small hands.

New Sprouts® Cookout!
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3 Ways to Fuel Healthy Minds and Bodies in 2021

3 Ways to Fuel Healthy Minds and Bodies in 2021

Both GoGo squeeZ and Learning Resources strive to make it easier for kids and families to be a little healthier and happier. That is why we have teamed up to help your children develop healthy bodies and healthy minds together!

From making nutritious, tasty snacks in squeezable pouches to sharing awesome recipes, healthy lifestyle tips, and fun activities, GoGo squeeZ is dedicated to keeping families on the go…go-going! GoGo squeeZ pouches are the perfect snacks to fuel your kids’ adventures and more!

Play is such an important part of how kids learn. Kids today need more opportunities to build a love of learning so that they are ready to succeed at school and beyond! They need more unstructured time to explore their imaginations as much as they need nutritious foods to fuel their bodies.  Childhood is the time when kids will nourish their imagination, creativity, bodies, and relationships. That’s why it’s so important for kids to get the right nourishment and nutrition while engaging in fun play and imagination-filled activities that build the foundation of who they will become!  

So, what’s an easy way to sneak more of these essentials into your day? Pair a nutritious snack with a learning activity and you’ve hit the parenting jackpot -- healthy bodies AND healthy minds!  Here are a few of our suggestions for playful learning activities that pair perfectly with a GoGo squeeZ snack: 

18 months to 2 years:

  • We suggest adding a side of GoGo squeeZ fruit & veggieZ! Squeezable fruit and veggies come together for a tasty snack pouch that can keep up with your kids no matter how fast they’re Go-Going. Made from 100% real apples, and 10 amazing combinations for fruit and veggies, this lip-smacking combo packs a sweet, yummy punch. Take them everywhere you GoGo and kids will get the veggies they need!
  • With the help of Twisty Droppers, these irresistible eyedroppers put a fun twist on water play and building fine-motor skills. Squeeze the bulb to begin early science exploration, experience cause, and effect and build little hand muscles too! Try out one of our at-home activities to see the learning in action.

3 to 4 years:

  • Try the newest line, GoGo squeeZ® Happy tummieZ! 4 Filled with sweet yummy fruit and plant-based prebiotic fiber—all in a portable pouch. Prebiotic fiber nourishes the naturally occurring good bacteria in the gut to help them thrive to remain strong and support overall wellness. 
  • Encourage exploration of fruits and veggies with the Farmer’s Market Sorting Set. This versatile veggie and fruit playset will nourish children's love of early learning! These toys promote color recognition, sorting skills, counting, and vocabulary. Perfect for dramatic play and learning about good nutrition too.

5 years and up:

  • We think your BIG kids deserve our GoGo BIG squeeZ! Available in 6 flavors with 1/2 cup fruit per pouch!  They’ll be sure to wow your taste buds!  These pouches are 33% bigger than existing GoGo squeeZ fruit pouches, perfect for BIGGER appetites and BIGGER adventures! And PS! And for your beginning readers, there are some funny jokes on the bottom of our pouches for them to test out their reading skills too!  
  • What goes great with a snack? A game! Whether your learner needs to brush up on their early reading skills with Sight Words Swat, or they need to plus up their math chops with Sum Swamp, our games are perfect for stealthy learning fun. They won’t even realize they are being “Gameschooled” – we won’t tell if you don’t! 

Learn more about nutritious snacks from GoGosqueeZ.com and more about award-winning toys and activates that empower every child to reach their full potential at LearningResources.com.  

3 Ways to Fuel Healthy Minds and Bodies in 2021
3 Ways to Fuel Healthy Minds and Bodies in 2021

Both GoGo squeeZ and Learning Resources strive to make it easier for kids and families to be a little healthier and happier. That is why we have teamed up to help your children develop healthy bodies and healthy minds together!

From making nutritious, tasty snacks in squeezable pouches to sharing awesome recipes, healthy lifestyle tips, and fun activities, GoGo squeeZ is dedicated to keeping families on the go…go-going! GoGo squeeZ pouches are the perfect snacks to fuel your kids’ adventures and more!

Play is such an important part of how kids learn. Kids today need more opportunities to build a love of learning so that they are ready to succeed at school and beyond! They need more unstructured time to explore their imaginations as much as they need nutritious foods to fuel their bodies.  Childhood is the time when kids will nourish their imagination, creativity, bodies, and relationships. That’s why it’s so important for kids to get the right nourishment and nutrition while engaging in fun play and imagination-filled activities that build the foundation of who they will become!  

So, what’s an easy way to sneak more of these essentials into your day? Pair a nutritious snack with a learning activity and you’ve hit the parenting jackpot -- healthy bodies AND healthy minds!  Here are a few of our suggestions for playful learning activities that pair perfectly with a GoGo squeeZ snack: 

18 months to 2 years:

  • We suggest adding a side of GoGo squeeZ fruit & veggieZ! Squeezable fruit and veggies come together for a tasty snack pouch that can keep up with your kids no matter how fast they’re Go-Going. Made from 100% real apples, and 10 amazing combinations for fruit and veggies, this lip-smacking combo packs a sweet, yummy punch. Take them everywhere you GoGo and kids will get the veggies they need!
  • With the help of Twisty Droppers, these irresistible eyedroppers put a fun twist on water play and building fine-motor skills. Squeeze the bulb to begin early science exploration, experience cause, and effect and build little hand muscles too! Try out one of our at-home activities to see the learning in action.

3 to 4 years:

  • Try the newest line, GoGo squeeZ® Happy tummieZ! 4 Filled with sweet yummy fruit and plant-based prebiotic fiber—all in a portable pouch. Prebiotic fiber nourishes the naturally occurring good bacteria in the gut to help them thrive to remain strong and support overall wellness. 
  • Encourage exploration of fruits and veggies with the Farmer’s Market Sorting Set. This versatile veggie and fruit playset will nourish children's love of early learning! These toys promote color recognition, sorting skills, counting, and vocabulary. Perfect for dramatic play and learning about good nutrition too.

5 years and up:

  • We think your BIG kids deserve our GoGo BIG squeeZ! Available in 6 flavors with 1/2 cup fruit per pouch!  They’ll be sure to wow your taste buds!  These pouches are 33% bigger than existing GoGo squeeZ fruit pouches, perfect for BIGGER appetites and BIGGER adventures! And PS! And for your beginning readers, there are some funny jokes on the bottom of our pouches for them to test out their reading skills too!  
  • What goes great with a snack? A game! Whether your learner needs to brush up on their early reading skills with Sight Words Swat, or they need to plus up their math chops with Sum Swamp, our games are perfect for stealthy learning fun. They won’t even realize they are being “Gameschooled” – we won’t tell if you don’t! 

Learn more about nutritious snacks from GoGosqueeZ.com and more about award-winning toys and activates that empower every child to reach their full potential at LearningResources.com.  

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