What if I told you that all you need is a box of Fruit Loops and you’d have endless learning opportunities???? I laugh because Boston calls Fruit Loops counting Cheerios. 😂 We’ve used them for learning with him since he was about 18 months old. Nope, they are not the healthiest of choices, but they do make learning oh so sweet! (Pun intended)
There are so many activities you can do with one box of cereal. I always start out with simple activities and then scaffold the activity to meet the needs of my toddlers as they are learning and growing. When you are scaffolding for your toddler, you will start with the easiest activity and work your way to more challenging aspects of the activity.
When teaching your toddler a new concept, it is best to follow an ~I do, we do, you do~ approach. What does that mean? Very simple. When you introduce a new concept, start by you doing the activity several times while your toddler watches. Then “we do” do the activity together with your toddler, slowly giving him/her more independence with the activity. Finally, have your toddler complete the activity on his/her own. At this point, your toddler should be very close to mastery of the task.
I’ve created several activity boards for you to use so you don’t have to recreate your own. Each folder comes with directions on how to use each board, but feel free to make up your own games too. Once you print off the boards, stick them inside of a page protector so that they last a little longer and you don’t have to waste your printer’s ink. Here are a few of my ideas.
I have linked a file of FREE printables to make your toddlers learning even more fun and colorful!
1. Color Sort
- Have your toddler sort each of the fruit loop colors on to its perspective dot naming the color as he/she sorts.
- To add in additional learning, have your toddler count how many there are of each color before eating them up.
- You could also add in which has more, which has less.
2. 1-1 Number Correspondence and Number Recognition
- Have your toddler count the fruit loops making she he/she touches them as he/she counts.
- This activity takes a lot of stamina. You could do just a few rows at a time to start. Make it work for your toddler.
3. More and Less
- Place 2 piles of Fruit Loops in front of your toddler and show him/her which is more. Do this several times, then have him/her show you which is more. After he/she has mastered that, have him/her create two piles and tell you which is more.
- Make sure not to introduce the word less until your toddler has mastered the meaning of the word more.
4. Patterns
- Start with a BCBCBC patten. Example: red, blue, red, blue, red, blue.
- When your toddler is ready work on more complex patterns like BBCBBCBBC. Example: red, red, blue, red, red, blue
When working with your toddler, most importantly keep learning fun. My goal is always to have fun with my kids and hopefully teach them something a long the way. It they are into learning one day and the next they’d rather not, thats ok. We want to produce life long learning and a joy of learning. So keep it fun and enjoy the ride.
FREE FRUIT LOOP ACTIVITY PRINTABLES
