11+ Awesome Toddler Learning Journal Ideas You Need to Try
Today’s post is all about creating toddler learning journal activities!
With a little prep ahead of time and a few affordable materials, you’ll be able to teach your toddler tons of fun skills while exploring their artistic side.
Plus, by creating these activities within a journal, you’ll be able to keep all the completed activities in one place as an adorable keepsake.
Whether you do one or two activities a week or tons of activities every day, you’ll love looking back a year from now to see everything your toddler has learned from these low-prep, engaging activities!
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The Best Toddler Learning Journal Activities
When you are ready to try out toddler learning journal activities, you’ll want to consider what your child likes, if you want to follow a theme or do seasonal activities, or if you’d like to focus in on repeated exposure to one topic (letters, numbers, colors, etc.).
Before you actually get started with some awesome toddler learning journal activities, let’s quickly talk about what materials you need to set things up.
Feel free to scroll ahead to the activities if you’ve already got your materials!
The Journal 📒
I started by purchasing this journal from Target, but I was quickly disappointed to learn that this journal’s pages weren’t very thick.
I don’t recommend that Target journal because markers, paint daubers, etc. easily bleed through the pages.
My favorite choice for your toddler learning journal is this one!
I love it because the pages are thick, and there’s plenty of pages inside to last you quite a long time.
The Materials
💬Comment below: What other materials do you recommend?
A to Z Toddler Learning Journal Activity
This is an example of how you could create a toddler learning journal that’s completely focused on one main skill!
In this case, dusteerose.xo has chosen to only do letters throughout the whole journal, keeping them in order as they go from A to Z.
Some activities in this example are:
- Color in the letter A
- Match the uppercase and lowercase letter As
- Art skills
Materials used:
- Markers, crayons, and Sharpie.
- Dot stickers
- Construction paper
- Bingo daubers
Related: 10 Unique Kindergarten at Home Activities for Engaging Learning Time
Valentine’s Themed Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Looking for a cute, seasonal activity to keep your toddler busy for Valentine’s Day?
Simply by following ohheyletsplay‘s cute example, you’ll have a fun way for your kiddo to practice improving those fine motor skills.
Materials used:
- Black dot stickers
- Sharpies; markers
Related: Best Valentine’s Day Books for Kids
Shape Match Toddler Learning Journal Activity
A fun shape match activity is a must for your toddler learning journal, especially if you’re like me and you’re trying this out with a younger toddler!
To create this, leslieezavalaa uses construction paper to cut out shapes, then traces them into the journal.
Your toddler will complete the activity by matching the correct shape cutout to the shape on the page.
The best part about this activity was Leslie’s idea to paper clip the shapes to the page and having your toddler match them over and over, rather than just gluing them down once!
I love this idea and I will definitelyyy be stealing it!
Materials used:
- Construction paper
- Sharpie/ marker
- Paper clip
Color Your Name Toddler Learning Journal Activity
For older toddlers (or whenever you’re ready to give it a try), adding in a name activity with some practice coloring inside the lines is a great option!
In desireenicolep‘s example, she even stays with a Valentine’s theme and uses hearts inside the coloring activity.
Materials:
- Colored pencils/ markers/ crayons
- Sharpie
Social-Emotional Learning Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Want your toddler to have a healthy way to identify and explain their feelings?
Give this “dot your feelings” activity a try!
Simply draw emojis to represent various emotions on dot stickers, then draw matching emojis on the page for them to match like valarie_fountain does.
Materials:
- Dot stickers
- Sharpie
Related: 9 Important SEL Activities for Middle School Students: Social Emotional Learning for Teens
Tracing Toddler Learning Journal Activity
This tracing activity is a great way for your toddler to practice both their colors and their tracing skills.
In _0gabby0_‘s example, she has prepped the tracing page by creating a full-page rainbow for her toddler to practice tracing over, with each color matching the colors of the rainbow.
Sorting Colors Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Another great idea from _0gabby0_!
Not only does she have a great, unique idea to let your toddler match colors using items you already have in your house, she also totally blew my mind with how she set up her toddler learning journal! (More on that at the end!)
To set up this color sorting activity, cut out large squares of construction paper, then glue them on the paper.
You also have the option of label the colors with their word form at the top of each square (write “red” at the top of the red square, etc.).
To do the activity, gather up (or ask your toddler to go get) a bucket of colorful things from around the house.
Match the things around the house to their correct color. You can play this over and over!
Related: 15 Fantastic Homeschool Activities for Kids and Families: The Best Activities to Make Learning Fun!
Fill the Apple Basket Toddler Learning Journal Activity
This funn4kidz activity only uses a few materials and is very quick to set up!
Whether you want to use this as a kickoff to your school year in August/September, or if you just want to do a fun, easy activity with red, green, and yellow color matching, your toddler will have so much fun doing this activity.
Materials:
- Red, green, and yellow dot stickers
- Crayons, markers, and sharpie
Dot the Rain Drops Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Another banger from dusteerose.xo.
This time, draw clouds at the top and small dots below the clouds.
Your toddler’s job is to use a bingo dauber to put big dots on top of your template to complete the activity.
Easy, cute, and an activity that could work with many themes!
Materials:
- Bingo dauber
- Sharpie/ marker
Related: 5+ Best Homeschool Nature Study Activities to Try Now!
Where is 2? Toddler Learning Journal Activity
While your toddler works on mastering number recognition, a fun way to mix up this skill is putting a lot of numbers on the page and having them find one of the numbers.
For learningencasita‘s version, she writes a large number 2 in the middle of the page.
Then, she fills the rest of the page with a mix of numbers 1-9, with plenty of 2s for the kiddo to find!
Kids identify the numbers by circling them, or coloring/ dotting over them with a paint pen or bingo dauber.
Materials:
- Markers
- Crayons, paint pens, or bingo daubers
Cars on the Road Toddler Learning Journal Activity
A fun, unique idea that simply involves you having some car stickers on hand (or another theme of your choice), and prepping the page by drawing a road on it.
Jennflor_‘s activity is a great fit for younger toddlers because they simply get to pick out stickers and put them on the page.
Encourage them to stay in the lines of the road without just randomly putting the cars anywhere on the page as you go.
Materials:
- Car stickers
- Markers
- Crayons
Related: STEM Toys for 5 Year Olds: Building a Bright Future With STEM
Numbers and Colors Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Another twist on a color matching activity by yaneliramirezg!
First, write the numbers 1-4 at the top. Then, choose four colors with your paint pens.
You’ll need one color for each of the four numbers. and this will be your toddler’s key for the activity.
Scramble the numbers 1-4 and fill the page with these numbers.
When your toddler is ready to give it a try, they’ll just need to use the paint pens to color the numbers to match your key at the top!
Materials:
- Paint pens
- Marker
What Letter Is It Toddler Learning Journal Activity
Simplify letter matching by starting out with just three letters.
Alexa.nicholee set her letter matching activity up as day one of her toddler’s journal activities.
First, draw three large circles with three large letters inside, one for each circle.
Then, label many dot stickers with your three letters, one letter for each dot.
Your toddler will need to match the letter on the dot sticker to the correct letter on the page, then stick the correct dot in the correct circle.
Materials:
- Sharpie or marker
- Dot stickers (3 colors)
Tips and Tricks for Toddler Learning Journals
- As promised, 0gabby0‘s fantastic idea: Use velcro strips and page protectors to create a binder version of the toddler learning journal, which lets you create a DIY version of the viral restaurant-friendly busy boards/ busy books/ busy binders!
- Like the activity ideas but not feeling too artsy right now? Grab a done-for-you toddler activity journal like this one!
That’s everything you need to know about toddler learning journal activities!
Whether your kiddo is juuust on the cusp of toddlerhood or already deep into toddler town, you’ll be amazed at how much fun they’ll have with these simple activities.
You can easily prep a few pages the night before, while they’re eating a snack, or, if you’re one of the lucky ones whose toddler still does this, while they’re taking a nice, long nap.
Before You Go, Comment Below!
I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback on the activities I’ve chosen.
Do you think you’ll give toddler learning journals a try?
Which activity will you try first, or what else do you suggest?
For everything homeschool, we can PlanIt! ❤️