Quick & Easy Hedgehog Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Teach little kids all about hedgehogs with these quick & easy hedgehog activities for toddlers & preschoolers. You’re definitely not going to want to miss them!

We started our Winter in the Woods preschool theme this week and had a great time learning about hedgehogs with these awesome Hedgehog Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers. I’m willing to bet that your little kids will love these quick & easy sensory activities just as much as mine did!

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A huge thanks to Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time) for providing us with their Experience Preschool curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. It’s been such a huge blessing to us! As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own.

Keep in mind that all preschoolers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best mama judgement when planning activities for your little kids.

This month we were thrilled to receive one of the Little Goose Toddler Teacher Guidebooks too!

And because baby girl is almost 18 months old, she’s been getting in on a lot of the fun as well with the Little Goose Teacher Guide, which is a supplement that adapts the preschool hedgehog activities to her level.

The Little Goose Toddler Teacher Guidebook uses the supplies and materials in your Experience Preschool Curriculum Kit to simplify activities, games, and art projects for toddlers.

We used the toddler supplement with the little guy when he was her age too. Some of our favorite activities were the Montessori-style tray play ideas.

Each month, the Little Goose Teacher Guide features 20 different Montessori-inspired tray play ideas that focus on the same topics as our preschool curriculum.

Today I thought it’d be fun to explore the difference between one of the preschool Investigation Stations and the corresponding toddler Tray Play Idea.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals and sleep mostly during the day. They are protected by their spiny coat and can curl up into a ball. Hedgehogs have poor eyesight so rely on their sense of smell and hearing to hunt for food.

Here’s a look at the little guy’s activity. As you can see, it’s a sensory activity featuring playdough. You know, because what little kid doesn’t love playdough?

Here’s the thing, though. His activity involved toothpicks and wiggle eyes, both of which are materials that baby girl isn’t quite ready for yet.

Prickly Hedgehogs Investigation Station

Fine Motor 5.1, Health & Safety 6.3

Set Up

Set out playdough, toothpicks, sticks and wiggle eyes.
Invite children to mold the dough and use the materials to create different sizes and shapes of hedgehogs.

Big Questions

Would you like to have prickly quills like a hedgehog?
How many quills do you think a hedgehog has?
What would a baby hedgehog look like?
How can you safely put the pokey items in the playdough?

You can also see that the focus of his activity is on fine motor skills and health & safety. We talked about a hedgehog’s quills and how to safely handle pokey items.

Pokey Hedgehog Tray Play

Patterns & Sorting 18.2

What you’ll need

Playdough
Bowl
Colored Craft Sticks

Here’s how to do it

Make three balls of different colored playdough.
Set out a bowl of sticks in the same colors as the playdough.
Invite the child to explore sticking the colored craft sticks into the matching balls of dough.

When we look at baby girl’s activity, we see that we’ve traded out the toothpicks for craft sticks and instead of discussing quills, we’re learning about colors with a sorting activity.

Both little kids definitely had a blast with these fun hedgehog activities! And as a homeschool mama, I love that I can easily teach a multi-age group. All of the hard work is already done for me. It’s wonderful!

Not only is this preschool curriculum amazing as is, but the addition of the Little Goose teacher guide means crafts & activities that work for both little kids!

Don’t forget to check back if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to with our Winter in the Woods theme from Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time). And if you missed this year’s preschool homeschool space post, you can check it out here.

Looking for more insight & inspiration? Here are the top 10 most popular posts from The Keeper of the Memories. You’re definitely not going to want to miss these!

As an Experience Early Learning Blog Ambassador, I receive the Experience Early Learning Preschool curriculum in exchange for my honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own. Keep in mind that all preschoolers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best mama judgement when planning activities for your little kids. #preschool #homeschool #mgtblogger

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