I am lucky that my gang loves to be read to. Usually I sit down with a book and they all flock to me. We read the story then go back and look at the book again, talk a bit, then I move on to something related to the book. I continue as long as someone is interacting with me letting the little ones wander off at will. I repeat this 2-3 times throughout the playtime and each time lasts 5-10 minutes. I use fingerpuppets, feltboard, songs mostly as the extended activities. Often I end with something like a feltboard game that I can leave out for those left to continue with.

Same as you - anything I want them all to do is done when trapped at the table - older ones will sit and younger ones are in high chairs. I don't let those in high chairs do crafts from there though as I belive they should be using the chairs to identify with eating. Only those from about 16-18 months - depends on child and able to sit at the regular toddler table that do crafts. I will set up the younger ones occasionally and stand behind them to introduce them to scribbling. Mostly we do this when the little ones are doing morning nap. By the time they are giving this up they are ready to join us anyways.