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Okay, I am no master in the cognitive-development activities for toddlers spectrum, but I do share TONS of toddler activities and wanted to do my best to put a post together highlighting an educational factor of some of our favorite toddler activities!
So, here we are. We’re playing with fruits and vegetables today.
This post is sponsored by Fred Meyer and QFC, however, all opinions and phrases used are mine alone.
Why cognitive Development Activities for Toddlers with Fruit and Veggies?
I’ll answer this in two parts. First, why am I focusing on cognitive-development activities today? Well to be completely honest, I wanted to give a name to what these activities for toddlers really were. So often we see the blanketed “toddler activities” term used and sometimes it’s just nice to know how these activities are supporting our toddlers!
Now, that is not to say each activity we put together for our toddlers needs to be “educational” in some sense. If you took a glance at my daily life with my three-year-old twins, you’d quickly realize I do not center everything they do around what is educational or not. But I do try to fit in bits where I can that make sense.
The activities that I am sharing with you today are ones we have been doing for months now and I knew they were “educational” in some sort, so I did a little digging to give these activities the correct title. Which, I hope I did!
Then part two of why cognitive-development activities for toddlers; why with fruits and veggies?
The answer is pretty straight-forward. I center all that I do with my toddlers around ease. So, activities with what we have on hand already is a BIG must for me. I stock up on fresh fruits and veggies from my local Fred Meyer store every week & my toddlers need to eat, so why not add in a simple learning activity in there that also gives you time to get your morning started, make dinner, or make something of the constant snack asking.
The constant snack asking is actually where these ideas spawned from. I am sure if you’re on my page you are no stranger to the endless trips to the kitchen with a toddler asking for something to eat. One afternoon I decided to put together some random fruits and veggies I had bought earlier in the week at Fred Meyer on a plate, put out their colored bowls, and asked them to sort the food. They ended up having a lot of fun with it and snacked as they went. Now we are here.
I decided to ask my friends over at Fred Meyer and QFC if they would like to partner up for this activities post because they are my go-to for fresh & quality produce and pretty much everything else. I head to my local store at least once each week to grab what I need for the twins and me, and I love that their fruits and veggies really LAST. Even more so now that I only have my twins half of the week. I want to make sure my food budget doesn’t go to waste and Fred Meyer never disappoints.
Not to mention they also have an amazing own brand, Simple Truth. Their organic Simple Truth fruits and veggies are some of the best that I have found. They also have these new salad kits that I am in LOVE with. The Simple Truth Organic™ Lemon Parmesan with Lemon Vinaigrette Chopped Salad Kit is seriously to die for. But don’t use it for these activities. Enjoy it while your tots explore new fruits and veggies!
Cognitive Development Activities for Toddlers Ideas with Food
Let’s dive into these food activities for toddlers. I have five creative ideas to help your toddlers explore new foods while they enjoy their favorites as well. I can’t wait for you to try them out!
Color Sorting
Easy peasy. I bet you have some colored bowls in your house. Or colored paper. Either way, pour some fruits/veggies into a bowl and encourage your tots to sort them by color! This could also work for size. My toddlers are learning “big” and “small” currently and I’ll have a big bowl and a little bowl and then encourage them to separate the fruits and veggies into the appropriate bowl!
Counting one color
This works great with a bowl of multiple colors. I just cut up a piece of colored paper and quickly drew some circles (or I guess ovals) to visually represent how many pieces of fruit to put on each paper. For this idea I went with one singular color for my tots to decipher.
Counting & Color Matching
This idea is similar to the one above, but instead they’re matching up the colors of the fruits and veggies along with the number of pieces. This one was a bit tricky for them but we’ve been working on it!
Matching shapes
This idea is probably the easiest for you to put together. Choose a fruit or veggie you have on hand and cut them into different shapes. I figured strawberries served as a great representation of size difference based on how you cut the berry.
Identifying Textures
And our last food activity idea- fruit salad sorting. This one really encourages them to feel and try the fruits and veggies so that they can figure out the differences. Now, I don’t suggest making it too complex. Soft and crunchy sorting seemed to go over well with my three-year-olds!
Which of these cognitive development toddler activities do you think you’ll try out first?
Honestly, you could do an assortment of them in one setting! Or set one up and finish up dinner, responding to emails, or another simple task.
I’d love to see what you put together! Tag me on Instagram @twinsandcoffeepnw!
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