Won’t You Be My Neighbor

My toddler LOVES the show “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”- and let’s be honest- with all of its sweet little lessons on kindness, dealing with big emotions, and pretty much every other issue toddlers and preschoolers face- so do I! I seriously have several of the jingles memorized to use with my boys when issues arise (“Stop! Stop! Stop! It’s okay to feel angry, but it’s not, not, not okay to hurt someone!” anyone? Or what about “When you have to go potty, stop and go right away!’ LoL Told you it’s good stuff!) On top of the show being fantastic, the station that produces Daniel Tiger (PBS) has a web resource called PBS Kids Parents which is an amazing place to visit for learning ideas as well as parenting tips on raising young children- it’s absolute gold! So without further adieu, let’s hop on the trolley and visit Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood!

-Counting puzzle: I printed, laminated and cut out this simple number puzzle from Pre-K Autism then gave the pieces to my toddler to put together. It’s a great way to build number recognition because if they don’t recognize the next number, they can use the picture to help them find it. When he’d put the whole thing together, we practiced counting while I pointed to each number.

-Daniel Tiger character puzzles: I printed these Daniel Tiger character puzzles from CBC Parents then laminated them and cut them out. I gave my little 3 characters at a time then had him match the heads to the tummies and shoes- he loved it so much, he kept asking for “more” every time we finished a set!

-D is for Daniel/T is for tiger: I printed these letter practice pages from The Purposeful Mom, then had my little practice making each letter using a do-a-dot marker.

-Daniel Tiger paper bag puppet: Cute…creepy… you decide! LoL My little loved it! He thought it was particularly hilarious when I made it talk (and try to gobble him up…hahaha). To make it, you just cut out shapes for Daniel’s shirt, stripes, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue and ears, then have your little glue them in place on the puppet. I got the inspiration for No Time For Flashcards.

-Trolley craft: Both of my littles made this cute trolley craft- which they loved because we cut out pictures of them to ride along with Daniel Tiger’s friends! It’s a great way to practice gluing skills and following directions too! So you just cut out all the pieces you need to make a trolley, print and cut out some Daniel Tiger characters to ride along as well as a picture of your little sitting in a chair. Then give them oral directions on how to glue the trolley pieces to a piece of paper (I would recommend this one for littles ages 2 and up).

-Daniel Tiger coloring page: I printed this cute Daniel Tiger coloring page then had my little go to town coloring him. We talked about the colors he was using as he worked.

-Heart shaped pizza: Daniel Tiger is always whipping up something yummy in the kitchen with his mom, so we decided to make his rainbow veggie heart shaped pizza after reading “Happy Love Day Daniel Tiger”. There’s also a cute story in the first Daniel Tiger 5 Minute Stories book (highly recommended for any Daniel fan- it has 12 cute stories based on the show with sweet little lessons in each one!) where they make “Banana Swirl” (frozen then blended bananas) and “Veggie Spaghetti” (spaghetti with veggies scooped on top) that would be fun to try! To make the pizza, I bought some pre-made dough then cut it into heart shapes. I chopped up red tomatoes, orange peppers, green spinach and purple onions and had my littles make their own pizzas with the toppings. They came out super scrummy!