One of our favorite bedtime books is Goodnight Moon by by Margaret Wise Brown. We love it so much that we did an entire unit of play and learning activities based on the story when the twins and their buddies had just turned two- I thought I’d compile them here in one handy resource for anyone looking for Goodnight Moon activities for toddlers. There are three posts in the series and all are linked below; each post contains lots of activities, so be sure to check them all out!
Goodnight Moon Vocabulary Activity
First up is this super-versatile Goodnight Moon vocabulary activity.
The twins helped me create a few simple materials and we ended up with an activity that we were able to play with in different ways for almost an entire week! There is also a gross-motor component that made it a great choice for active toddlers.
Goodnight Moon Light Box Activities
Next up is a collection of Goodnight Moon light box/light panel activities that we did with our toddler group, including directions for making your own DIY light box and a super simple and beautiful starry night sensory bin. This collection of activities includes sensory, fine motor, and pre-literacy targets.
5 Goodnight Moon Toddler Activities
Finally, here is a post containing five more Goodnight Moon toddler activities including a salt excavation tray for fine motor and vocabulary development, a baked cotton ball balloon popping activity, a pair of mittens matching game, a counting/color matching game, and a pretend play prompt.
Extension Activities
A natural extension of Goodnight Moon is learning about the night sky. We recently explored this concept with a night sky mirror painting activity- click on the photo below to see the post- it was really magical!
My friend Shaunna over at Fantastic Fun and Learning put together an amazing night sky unit with lots of great activities for toddlers and preschoolers, and the post also includes the Discover & Explore themed linky which compiles even more activities for exploring the moon, stars, and night sky from a variety of great kid bloggers. Click on the photo below to see all the activities- you really must check out her night sky reading nook!
What a great ideas! I bet the toddler group loved them too.
We love Goodnight Moon. Those are great learning activities to go along with the book.