But first!
Read Our Monthly Themes for Play:
for our full list of themes
and to learn why we loveeee monthly themes.
November’s themes:
pumpkins, Thanksgiving-y, etc
Activities + toys:
See a quick tour of our playroom (and how we store our toys) in this reel.
Here’s how we store monthly activity items the rest of the year.
Books:
Here's the three ways we store our toddler’s books.
We have a little bookshelf in our den, where we do a monthly book rotation. See a quick reel here!
And a gentle reminder that we love to ask for books for holiday/birthday gifts. Here’s the five gifts we love to ask from loved ones.
Magnetic activity for our big ol magnetic chalkboard near the kitchen:
set out all our magnatiles
if time/energy, I’d love to grab any of the autumn-y magnet craft kits you see in craft stores and/or Oriental Trading! I’ll definitely be grabbing some on clearance to save for next year.
Art supplies + activities:
Here’s how we store our art supplies + activity books in our home.
If time/energy, I’d love to grab any of the autumn-y magnet craft kits you see in craft stores and/or Oriental Trading! I’ll definitely be grabbing some on clearance to save for next year.
We also love to work on these as apart of our beloved Evening Quiet Family Time ritual.
We only offer our pumpkin-themed art supplies during November, our pumpkin-themed month - so we reuse these things year after year. Here’s how we store monthly art items the rest of the year.
A gentle reminder that we love to ask for these things for holiday/birthday gifts. Here’s the five gifts we love to ask from loved ones.
Play dough activity:
play dough
pumpkin + turkey cookie cutters
some pumpkin-y, autumn-y items we have
autumn-y acorn friends/finger puppets from this shop
rings, peg people, and acorns leftover from a sensory bin from this shop
wooden blocks/stampers from this shop
fall-themed play dough rollers from this shop
when we lost the pregnancy last year in that super rare way, I did a lot of grief shopping in the form of autumn-y toddler things. hence the influx of pricier, seasonal items here. :)
a few mini acrylic pumpkins
a few mini pie pans
I may also get a preassembled play dough kit from my favorite small shop!
Also:
Here’s how we store our art supplies and our play dough tools.
Here’s how we store these monthly play dough items the rest of the year.
Here's a post on our favorite play dough, our favorite tools, and when we use play dough.
Sensory Bins:
KK loves her two sensory tables! For this month’s sensory bin, I added:
corn
our favorite metal condiment cups (KK loves the sound these make!)
some scoops/spoons
See a quick tour of our playroom with KK’s two sensory tables in this reel.
Here’s how we store these monthly sensory bin items the rest of the year.
We have a separate, simple rice bin - like this Busy Toddler post! - that KK LOVES.
If I feel up to it, this month I’ll add to our rice bin:
various fall-themed (or pumpkin-y) trinkets I already had on hand, mainly from this treasure basket I bought when KK was a baby
various bowls I already had (and that pumpkin tray I have?)
scoops/spoons
PS there are also lots of other great garden/bird/flower-themed sensory bin ideas on Pinterest!
Here’s how we store these monthly rice bin items the rest of the year.
Play Kitchen:
Here’s a quick reel on the 13 things we keep in our play kitchen. And then each month we rotate 2-3 “new” food or cooking toys. This rotation works really well for us!
So in November we’ll set out:
this sushi set as a nod to our new Thanksgiving Week Sushi Tradition
some of our tiny fake pumpkins we have, since KK loves to make “soup” with these - we also have some felt pumpkins and squash (vase fillers, I think?) from Target a few years back I could add, too.
eventually I’d love to add some play Thanksgiving food and/or this bbq set as a nod to our annual trip to the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival - food traditions make the best play inspiration!
Also:
Here’s how we store these monthly kitchen toy items the rest of the year.
See a quick tour of our playroom with our play kitchen in this reel.
Here’s a blogpost on our DIY-ish Play Kitchen with a Phone and Mailbox.
Resources + Other Ideas:
Our local library - we love their storytimes, their activities, and their take-home craft kits!
Whew!
Want to see photos? Follow me on Instagram - I’m always sharing peeks into our home and our daily life on my stories. I’m always tweaking our home and our routines and our systems to best meet our current needs in our current season, so my Instagram has the most up-to-date photos.
Loved this post? I highly recommend the “play area” highlight on my Instagram!
Read Our Monthly Themes for Play for our full year of play themes.
I created these monthly play themes as part of my baby prep for Baby #2. See the full list of other things I’m SO happy I did to make Joey’s arrival easier here!
And see my Amazon storefront for more of our favorite things.
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