2 - 4 Years STEM

Magnetic Space Sudoku - Can you solve these out-of-this-world logic puzzles? Take your early math skills to outer space and beyond with the 72 Sudoku puzzles found in the Magnetic Space Sudoku set from Learning Resources. This fun take on the classic puzzle game brings sudoku to life with the help of wacky alien friends and a fun space setting. Choose from two types of puzzles—solve traditional number-based Sudoku challenges, or work on your visual logic skills in puzzles that replace the number with our colorful aliens! 

Oodles of Aliens Sorting Saucer - Grab the Tri-Grip Tongs, pop the dice, and help these aliens sort out their spaceship in a sorting game of cosmic proportions! Kids learn preschool sorting, fine motor skills, and more with every trip aboard the Oodles of Aliens Sorting Saucer from Learning Resources. This fun sorting saucer reveals color-coded trays and the aliens that inhabit them. Spread the aliens out on the table, pop the dice, and use the Tri-Grip Tongs to grab and sort them into place! In addition to sorting, this game builds three additional preschool skills at once—strengthen your counting, color recognition, and fine motor skills every time you play!

Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.

If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!

Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.

This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:

Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here. 

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.

Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.

Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.

Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

The more varied your child’s play experiences are, the better off they’ll be! Enter, water, the most common substance found on Earth. Essential to all forms of life, it’s also an essential component of your toddler and preschooler’s playtime. Lifting, pouring, carrying, and splashing water build gross motor skills, while scooping and squeezing build fine motor skills. Water play also supports hand-eye coordination and balance, and, when done with friends, encourages cooperation, sharing, and turn taking. Water play with toys can build vocabulary, measurement, early science skills, and so more. Plus, water play activities can be adjusted to be either calming or energizing. Are you in? Make a splash, with one of our favorite wet n’ wild activities today:

1.       Fill ‘Er Up! Set various plastic containers in a large plastic bin or tray. Include smaller cups, larger pitchers, and everything in between. Fill a few of the containers with water (food coloring makes water play extra fun) and watch as your child transfers water from one container to another. Turkey basters, eye droppers, wooden spoons, and swizzle sticks make for a fun challenge.

2.       Sort It Out! Fill a large plastic bin with water and add a set of colorful items – math counters, letter tiles, pom poms, etc. Provide a scooper, spoon,  tongs, and bowls and see if your little one can find and sort the items into the bowls by color.

3.       Soup’s Up! Walk the backyard with your child, looking for items to add to their “soup”. Choose leaves, rocks, flower petals, dirt… then drop the ingredients into a large plastic bowl and stir! See if your kiddo can scoop their soup into smaller plastic bowls.

4.       Sink or Float? Fill your bin with water and collect a variety of items from around the house or the backyard. Ask your child to hypothesize, or make a guess, about which items will sink and which will float, then test their theories! Things to try: rocks, sheets of paper, paperclips, toy cars, plastic blocks…

5.       Coffee Shop! Fill your bin with water and provide plastic cups, saucers, spoons, and scoopers. Place your order and watch as your child fills the cup with pebble or dirt “grounds”, stirs them, and pours you a cuppa.

6.       Go Fish! Fill your tub with floating foam fish and see if your fisherman can “catch” them with a small net or spoon.

7.       Car Wash! Muck up your kiddo’s trike or play car, then fill a bucket with sudsy water, large sponges, and rags, and watch as they spiff up their rides!

8.       Bowl O Bubbles! Pour a bit of dish washing liquid into your bin, add water and a few drops of food coloring (different colors, please!), and let your little one loose with differently sized bubble wands.

9.       Sponge Toss! Assign each child a sponge color, then drop them into a bowl of water and show them how to squeeze them dry. Practice dropping and squeezing, then add another (large) bin or bowl full of water and see if your child can toss their sponge in.

10.   Color Lab! Use food coloring to color one cup each of red, yellow, and blue water. Show your colorful kiddo how to mix red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, green and blue to make light blue, green and red to make yellow. Then let them experiment, pouring and mixing their own custom colors.

Fun for all ages, there’s no end to the ways kids can play with water. So set up your bins and scoopers today and go get wet!

Your three-year-old will always be your baby, but they’re learning and growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s so much you can do to help nurture their natural development! While children develop at their rate and mastering things a bit earlier or later than others is common, below is a list of social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical milestones many kids achieve by the time they turn four (and, hence, the things they’re working on when they’re three).

Social-Emotional Skills

Your little love bug is starting to become less self-centered and more aware of the people around them, showing affection, concern, empathy, and a range of other emotions. As their sense of self and self-confidence grows, they may be becoming more independent. By the time they turn four, they may also be able to:

• Mimic you, other family members, and friends
• Take turns when playing games or using toys
• Make eye contact when communicating
• Play on their own for 10+ minutes
• Begin to separate more easily from parents or caregivers
• Recognize and name different feelings, such as happiness, silliness, sadness, and fear

Language Skills

Being able to communicate verbally with your child is an exciting milestone! With a vocabulary hovering between 250-500 words and blossoming grammatical skills, you (and those around you) should be able to understand about 75% of what your three-year-old is telling you. By the time they turn four, your child may also be able to:

• Follow instructions with two or three steps, such as “Please get your shoes and meet me at the front door.”
• Name several colors and basic shapes, including circles, squares, and rectangles.
• Recognize several letters
• Use pronouns (such as it, me, my, you, your, she, he, and we), the past tense, and plural words
• Speak in full sentences of 4-6 words and carry on a conversation using 2-3 sentences at a time
• Tell stories (they may be silly!)

Cognitive Skills

It’s tough to say who feels prouder when a child masters a new skill – the child or the parent! Three-year-old minds are working overtime, observing, practicing, and conquering all kinds of amazing feats. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds can:

• Engage in imaginative pretend play
• Complete a 3-to-4 piece puzzle
• Build a tower of 6 blocks or more
• Draw a line and circle and begin to draw people (they will probably look more like tadpoles)
• Count to three and begin to recognize quantities, such as one cookie, two cookies, or three cookies
• Sort and match items that are the same or different and compare items by size or color

Physical Skills

If only we could bottle the energy of a three-year-old – it seems they’re always ready to hit the park or playground, race to the corner, or jump off a step. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds are also able to:

• Pedal a tricycle
• Kick, throw, and catch a ball
• Hop on one foot
• Balance on one foot for 5+ seconds
• Hold a pencil using a tripod (3 fingers) or quadrupod (4 fingers) grip

As we said above, children develop at their own pace, mastering some skills quickly and requiring more practice with others. The more practice they get – and the more support they feel from you – the more confident they will feel as they learn and grow. If you’d like to track your child’s milestones by age, consider downloading the CDC’s mobile milestone app!

Play your way to school-ready toddler skills with these fun, quick activities! This set's hands-on activities help kids learn and retain lessons in counting, color recognition, and early letter skills through fun, active play. Plus, the built-in carrying case lets you take the learning on the go! Learn more about Skill Builders! Toddler Skills.