Activities at this age help introduce the idea that words are made up of different parts, sounds and letters.
Activities by Age for 24 to 35 Months
ON THIS PAGE
- Beginning Writing
- Letter Knowledge
- Oral Language
- Phonological Awareness
Bead Fun
In this activity, your child will develop her fine motor skills by stringing beads.
Color Squeeze
This activity helps develop and control the fine finger muscles to grip and control a pencil or crayon.
Cutting Straws
This activity lets your child safely practice using scissors (under adult supervision) to cut along lines you’ve made on straws.
Paint Time
This activity allows your child to practice painting while having fun.
Pillow Tracing
This activity helps your child develop fine motor skills while learning the shapes of different letters.
Scissor Time
This activity will give your child practice using scissors. Be sure to supervise all cutting activities closely.
Singing and Stringing
This fun activity starts with singing a familiar finger play song and adds a stringing activity that will get your child’s fingers moving in lots of ways.
Snappy Caps
This activity lets your child explore markers and develop fine motor skills.
Tell Me About It
In this activity, you will help your child build an awareness of language patterns, syllables and alliteration.
Write ‘Em Up!
This activity lets your child practice writing and drawing on a vertical surface, which will help reinforce the best hand position for writing.
Cup-O-Letters
Introduce letter names with this simple hide-and-seek game.
Fishin’ for Letters
This is a fun game to play that will help expose your child to the letter shapes, learn the letter names and hear the letter sounds.
Hall of Shapes
Help your child begin to notice the different shapes, lines and circles that appear in books and printed materials.
Is It a Shape or a Letter?
This activity will help your child recognize and distinguish between geometric shapes and letters.
Musical Eggs
In this musical activity, children will use musical plastic eggs to sing about letter names.
My Favorite Toy — The Box!
This is a great activity that you can use any time your child shows more interest in the box a toy came in than the toy itself.
Shopping for Letters
The next time you’re out running errands, plan for some extra time to be able to stop and look at the giant letters mounted on the front of the buildings.
Sing and Wash
Make hand washing more fun by singing the Alphabet Song together!
Stamp Your Letters
Let your child have fun exploring letters by using rubber alphabet letter stamps and an ink pad.
Stomp the Letter
This activity builds awareness of letters by having the child identify a letter on the floor and stomping on it.
The Letters on the Bus
In this activity, your child will sing the song The Letters on the Bus while holding an index card with one letter of her name.
Food Hunt
The grocery store is a great place to develop vocabulary and practice oral language skills.
Growing in the Garden
This activity involves including your child in yard work or planting outside the house while introducing new words.
Hello, Hello, Who’s Calling?
This activity will encourage your child to describe what he sees, express his thoughts and ideas and have fun talking on the phone with you.
I Remember When
In this activity, you’ll reminisce with your little one about a favorite experience from the recent past.
Let’s Go For a Drive
This simple activity will encourage your child to tell you about an amazing adventure she is about to take you on!
Minding Manners
Encourage your child to use polite words to show kindness and a respectful awareness, which will help your child learn how to get along with others.
Stretch That Thought
In this activity, you’ll build on your child’s ability to speak in short phrases by stretching those phrases into longer thoughts.
Teddy Bear Birthday Party
In this activity, your child will practice communicating using two- and three-word phrases.
What’s in the Bag?
This game lets your child practice simple oral language skills.
You’ve Got a Job to Do
This fun activity will give your child that special feeling of having a job to do while building vocabulary and oral language skills.
Animal Sound Basket
This activity will give your child fun practice in listening to and identifying animal sounds.
Cabinet of Curiosity
In this game, you'll combine a two-year-old’s love of games and natural curiosity to create a sneaky game that develops attention to language.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
This game will help your toddler develop his budding listening and sound discrimination skills.
Fill in the Blanks
In this fun activity, your child will hear a rhyming chant over and over and eventually be able to fill in the blanks when you leave out one of the words.
I See My Mouth Move
This activity will allow your little one to see how her mouth moves as she names objects you have gathered for her.
Round and Round You Go
In this activity, you will help your child build an awareness of language patterns, syllables and alliteration.
Song Cards
In this activity, you’ll create song cards and invite your child to choose a card to sing or say.
Stomp and Say
Use the names of favorite people, pets or things to introduce the idea that the words we say are made up of different parts.
Teach Me the Fun Way
In this activity, you’ll use rhyming books to help expose your little one to important phonological awareness skills in a fun and natural way.
Turtle Talk and Cheetah Chat
This fun game encourages your child to separate the syllables within a word and then blend them together again.