EASY 4th of July Montessori Activity Ideas for Toddlers
Adding festive 4th of July activities to help young children enter the celebration can be fun. Setting up a few new patriotic activities is a great way for a child to enter into the excitement in a Montessori environment! The Fourth of July is a fun time when people like to gather together and enjoy fun festivities while we celebrate the commemoration of the Declaration of Independence. In addition to your family and friend gatherings and seeing fireworks, consider one of these great ideas for your Fourth of July activities.
Red, White, and Blue Playdough
Hands-on activities like playdough offer a great sensory expereince for toddlers. You can make it festive by using store-bought or trying out my homemade playdough recipe. It is so easy to make, with ingredients you likely have in your pantry already. Put together a playdough kit by including some patriotic star cookie cutters, gemstones, and festive American flag toothpicks. This activity would be great for all patriotic holidays, but especially July 4th!
Patriotic Potion Water
Bring the Fourth of July theme into outdoor play with patriotic potion water. I saw this idea from another creator. Add Tempra paint to a large container of water. Offer bowls, syringes, basters, scoops, cups, and any fun accessories to make this water play more fun! For the 4th of July, I’ll make a container of red, white and blue potion water.
Water Beads
For an older toddler who is out of the “putting things in your mouth” stage, water beads would be an incredible sensory play opportunity. Just soak 1 teaspoon of water beads in a large bowl of water for 4+ hours, or overnight. The longer they sit in the water, the larger they will become. I recommend bringing these outdoors for a fun and patriotic sensory activity that, honestly, children of all ages will enjoy!
4th of July Pom-Pom Transferring
Setting up a pop-pom transfer activity is an easy way to offer an engaging fine motor activity. Toddlers are starting to develop greater fine motor skills, and transferring red, white, and blue pom poms with tongs is a great 4th of July activity. Set up a tray with a dish of pom poms and either another separate bowl or a star ice mold for your toddler to transfer the pom poms into. This activity is great for hand-eye coordination.
Berry Flag “Snacktivity”
One of the best ways to celebrate is with food! There is nothing better than child-led patriotism than a berry flag “snacktivity”. Using a graham cracker as the base of the flag. Make a cream cheese frosting and offer fresh berries for them to add to their flag as the stars and stripes. An older toddler may be able to spread the frosting on the cracker. Most certainly, they will be able to add berries on unless they are anything like my twins, and love berries so much they just eat them right up. Children of all ages would love to prepare this snack, but especially those from 3-6 years old would be capable of doing this task independently.
American Flag Dot Painting
Print off an American flag template and offer some red and blue dot painters for your toddler to make star-spangled art. For an older toddler working and understanding color matching, you could trace specific dots on the flag with different colors for them to match which color dot goes in that circle. For an older toddler, you could offer red, white, and blue paint in paint cups and have them paint their American flag.
You could also offer some white paper and allow them to create their unique art using patriotic colors. Feel free to add some additional art supplies like glitter glue, tissue paper, construction paper, glue sticks, or foam stickers (depending on the age of your toddler). Let your child’s masterpieces be placemats at your Independence Day BBQ! A Fourth of July art project is a wonderful activity to have out the week before the holiday in preparation for all the American Flags they will be seeing.
I added a printed and laminated image of the American Flag as an example of where the colors go. This could be a great addition to the prepared work tray.
Pattern Matching
For an older toddler, we can offer some pattern-matching activities. My 2.5-year-old twin boys were able to begin to understand this work and gained more confidence with more repetition of the activity. Print off my Free PDF template for sequence matching. I laminated mine to make it last longer. Cut out the large strip of 4 images, and then cut out the individual pictures and keep them loose in a small dish or basket. Place all of these onto a tray, and your toddler can match the loose pieces to the pattern strip.
Matching
Print off my Free PDF patriotic matching activity. This sheet has 3 different images to match, connecting them with lines. I laminated mine so we could use a dry-erase marker and repeat the activity many times. Include a small cotton round or sock to use as an eraser. Set up all of the materials on a tray and keep them out on your shelf during the weeks leading up to the 4th of July.
Patriotic Sensory Bin
Put together a patriotic sensory bin by dying dried pasta or rice. Add some scoops, objects, funnels, and containers to make the play more interactive and engaging. A sensory bin is a great open-ended activity for toddlers that can be fun at many stages of development.
American Color Bead Stringing
Use chunky wooden beads to put together a bead stringing activitiy. At 2.5 years old, pipe cleaners have made another wonderful option for stringing beads onto. I am using smaller wooden beads with holes in them that fit snugly onto the pipe cleaner. For older toddlers, you could use some smaller beads, but younger toddlers will do better with bigger and chunkier beads. Any way you set up this activitiy will be an excellent way to work on fine motor control.
Bead Pouring
Pouring activities make great practical life activities for toddlers and are simple but so much fun. They help to develop fine motor skills and are very enjoyable. Add some red, blue, and natural wooden beads to a pitcher for a 4th of July transfer work activity. Have a second pitcher to pour the beads into. Set this activity up on a tray to catch any beads that spill out while pouring. If you are worried about glass pitchers, we have loved these stainless steel pitchers for pouring activities!
Stacking Cups
A simple activity, but also a likely hit, will be stacking and unstacking disposable cups. I picked up the mini solo cups that are about 2 ounces from the dollar store. You could do this activity with larger Solo cups. I found these little ones to work perfectly. Show your toddler how to stack them. For an older toddler, you could show them how to build a tower with the cups for a new expereince and an added challenge. Add a small bowl of patriotic beads to the area and allow for free exploration with these materials. My twins spent a long time adding beads to the cups, pouring the beads into other cups, and stacking cups! It was so fun to observe the way they interacted with these simple materials.
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Water Sensory Pool with Patriotic Balls
Independence Day is right in the middle of summer and is a great time of year to cool down outside. Get patriotic by adding some red, white, and blue balls to a small pool or even a larger pool.
Patriotic Balls
Get these red, white, and blue balls for a ball pit or to add to a small pool of water!
Fruit Sensory Bin or Pool
A fun way to celebrate is with some outdoor activities and snacks! Add blueberries, sliced strawberries, and star-shaped watermelon slices to a large bucket or a small kiddie pool. Fruit is a great summer snack for toddlers and can sometimes lead to sticky messes, so adding it to a water bin or pool makes it even better!
Star Sponging Activity
A star sponging activity makes a great 4th of July activity at the lake. Cut a red or blue sponge into the shape of a star. Set up two plastic bowls outside with some patriotic-colored water in one of them. Show your toddler how to soak up water with the sponge and walk it over to the other bowl to transfer it in. This activity provides opportunities for gross motor skills and hand strength by squeezing the water from the sponge. Older children will love this activity as well with a larger sponge that requires both hands to squeeze it out.
Flag Posting
Give your child hands-on experience with the flag through this flag-posting activitiy. You’ll need a foam cube from the craft store and some festive toothpick flags. Your toddler can post paper flags in a foam cube and add or remove them as many times as their heart desires. This makes a simple, engaging, and festive Fourth of July activity.
Independence Day Water Exploration
Water play is so enjoyable for toddlers. Make this year’s Fourth of July celebration more fun with the opportunity for outdoor colored water exploration. Add squeeze bottles, measuring spoons, cups, containers, strainers, and funnels for a fun water exploration opportunity. Color the water with food coloring if you would like. They will see what happens when you mix red and blue together and enjoy all the splashing and playing this activity allows.
Additional Independence Day Ideas
- Go see a fireworks display. Be aware that going to a firework display may be loud and scary to a young child.
- Listen to patriotic songs. Here is a list of some of the best ones for kids!
- The Star-Spangled Banner
- God Bless the USA
- America the Beautiful
- Yankee Doodle
- You’re a Grand Old Flag
- Fifty Nifty United States
- Eat corn on the cob at a gathering! Have your child help to shuck the corn before cooking!
