In this tot school we will be exploring circle shapes.
Most toddlers recognize shapes early on so you may get a lot of enthusiasm with these activities. They are simple and fun, and many of them will require just a plain sheet of paper and some creativity.
Where possible we have tried to include items that you may just have laying around the house. Also, make sure you grab the free circle themed printable.
Circle Materials Used
Here is a summary of everything we have used in the tot trays in this post. But remember, you are only limited by your imagination when putting these together. Often you can pull together a worthwhile activity based on what you already have around the house.
- Play-doh
- Crayons
- Circle Stickers
- Christmas Bells
- Cotton Balls
- Assorted pom-poms
- Buttons
- Pencils
- Squishy Balls
- Free Circle Printable – click here to access
If you don’t have the time to put together your own tot school activities yourself you can get high quality activity boxes sent to you each month.
For toddlers we recommend the following:
Check out the full list of STEM subscription boxes here.
6 Circle Tot School Ideas
1. Circle Themed Sensory Bin
Start by using a deeper tray so your toddler can really immerse their elbows in there.
Tip out a full bed of round cotton balls and then place various round objects on top.
Try to mix up the size and textures of the objects inside. We included a mix of hard and soft items, and alos wanted to include something familiar. We couldn’t find my boy’s bouncey ball so the squishy inside of his dinosaur had to do.
Materials used in this sensory bin:
- Cotton balls
- Buttons
- Pom-poms
- Christmas Ornaments
- Christmas Bells
- Squishy Ball
2. Circle Coloring
This is a quick and easy activity that you can repeat over and over again with almost no preparation.
Click here to download your free printable circle sheet.
Then using crayons or colored markers your toddler can practice coloring in the circle shapes.
Materials used:
- Circle printout
- Crayons
3. Circle Stickers
Little kids love playing with stickers!
The repetition of sticks in these colorful circle stickers on a blank sheet of paper is a great way to build that familiarity with the shape through repetition.
Materials used:
- Blank paper
- Circle stickers
4. Drawing Circles
If you do not have a printer available at home you can re-create the circle coloring activity while learning how to draw the circle shape.
A leftover toilet roll, or round jar, is a easy thing to trace around to create a nice circle shape.
Or you can just go free hand depending on your toddlers level fo control.
Materials used:
- Plain paper
- Toilet roll
- Mason jar
5. Play-doh Circles
This activity has a good mix of precision, and general play, while making a colorful work of art.
Again, print out the circle template and then use it to guide the placement of the play-doh to make circles.
We went for the border plus a colorful inner circle.
Materials used:
- Play-doh
- Free printable circle template
6. Gluing Googly Eyes
Last of all we had some leftover googly eyes which are also circular. So we spent some time practicing our gluing skills.
You could liven this one up a bit by drawing on some faces. But we just had a happy time gluing on the blank paper again.
Materials used:
- Plain paper
- Googly eyes
For More Tot Schools
Also check out the following posts for more tot school themes are activities that you can do with your toddler:
Final Word
You will be amazed how many round things you already have laying around the house when you start looking for them.
But even if you don’t, these activities are quick and easy to setup.
