Infant and Toddler Activities

Sensory Boards

The picture above is a few examples of sensory boards that I created. Now sensory boards are a great learning tool for children but you must be supervising at all times. The materials used can be harmful to a child if they try to swallow it. I glued different textured materials onto plastic cutting boards but there is still a chance of a child removing it and trying to eat it, so please keep an eye! This activity is a great way to expand a child's sensory skills to differentiated the various textures. This activity will also help further develop children's fine motor skills as they will be using their hands and fingers to explore the boards. Demonstrate to the child the movements of feeling the materials, after that it's up to them to explore!

Bubble Wrap Walk and Crawl

The picture above is an example of an activity I call Bubble Wrap Walk and Crawl. This activity is a great learning experience for children who are walking or crawling. The bubble wrap adds a sensory element while the children continue to develop their gross motor skills. The addition of coloured construction paper adds a visual component. The children will explore this activity in a variety of ways, there is no "right" way for them to play. As they step, crawl or press the bubble wrap they will also be utilizing their auditory and tactile skills. There are so many learning points in this simple activity! **If your child is not walking on their own, try using a mobile walker to encourage your child to strength the muscles their legs. Demonstrate to the child either walking or crawling, poking, touching etc. after that it's up to them to explore!

Sticky Wall

This activity consists of Clear Con-Tact Adhesive Liner that can be found at Walmart or Canadian Tire. The paper is sticky which allows children the ability to stick and remove objects from it. In the picture above I provided the children foam animals that I found from the dollar store and I stuck the paper to the wall. Depending on your child, whether they are able to stand on their own or are still learning, you can place the paper any height on the wall to accommodate, or even on the floor! There are so many learning opportunities in this one activity! For example, fine motor skills as your child reaches towards and animal, sticking and unsticking it. Gross motor skills as they practise standing or when they walk along the wall to play. They will also further develop their tactile skills because the wall is sticky so your child will get a kick out of exploring it! Demonstrate to the child how to stick and unstick the animals, after that it's up to them to explore!

Ball Drop

The picture above is hard to see but it consists of a large cardboard wine holder and a basket pilled with ping pong balls. The purpose of this activity is to encourage several skills such as walking or crawling, fine motor grasping and releasing. I used a cardboard wine holder because it was deep enough for the children to continue to drop things inside, you can use almost anything large enough that your child can drop items inside. Depending on your child you will place the basket filled with ping pong balls or other toy's a distance apart. You then may demonstrate the activity by picking up a ping pong ball and either walking or crawling towards the wine holder and dropping it inside. Continue to go back to the basket and back to the wine holder to release the ball. Once you have done it a few times your child will likely understand the concept and begin to explore and play in their own way!

Edible Paint

The picture above is "edible paint", made with vanilla pudding mix and food colouring. This is a great alternative for young children who would be more likely to try and eat the paint rather then use it to create art! This allows parents to feel more at ease when providing finger painting because if the child eats it, it's pudding! I used vanilla pudding because 1. its white so it will take food colouring much easier and 2. because it will smell and taste great so adding another element to this activity. This activity will enhance your child's fine motor skills as well as their sensory skills. Touching, smelling and tasting will expand their tactile skills (senses) as well. You want to prepare the vanilla pudding according to the directions on the package. After the pudding has cooled divide it into several bowls and begin adding 4-6 drops of food colouring of your choice. Using a spoon stir the food colouring into the pudding until it has blended together, you may need to continue adding more food colouring if you haven't reached your desired colour. Tape paper, plastic wrap or foil paper onto the table so when your child is painting the paper won't move. Pudding paint is a safe and easy activity that any child would enjoy!

Water Table

There are so many different activities that can be done using a water table. The picture above is an example of a sink and float activity. The purpose of this activity is to start introducing concepts of heavy and light in a play-based way. As you can see from the picture I placed several different items that relate to this concept. The rubber animals demonstrate the float aspect of this activity. The rocks, which you may not be able to see, are at the bottom of the bin, which relates to the sink of this activity. Adding soap to the water adds another element of smell and just makes it more fun! Another activity that can be done in a water table is called scoop and transfer. This activity consists of measuring cups, bowls and funnels. Here the child would fill a measuring cup with water and then walk over to a funnel with a bowl underneath to demonstrate the scooping and transferring of liquids. Another great activity would be to provide the child with toy animals and wash cloths, this activity would be demonstrated as washing the animals with the cloths. The purpose of this activity is to explain the importance of hygiene and to start encouraging your child to take responsibility of taking care of their body. All of these activities would further develop fine motor, cognitive (skills your brain uses to think, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention etc.) and sensory skills.

Sensory Bags

Sensory bags are another great activity for infant and toddlers to allow them to further develop fine motor skills with no mess! You can fill the bags with almost anything in your house. The picture above I filled one bag with rice and wooden letters and the other with oil, water, blue sanding sugar and goggly eyes. You can put shaving cream with colour colouring, water with frozen peas, pasta etc. Your child will be able to fill the material through the bag that way it's contained inside. Make sure you tap it well to the ground so that your child doesn't accidentally open it. You can tape these bags to the wall or sliding door to encourage standing if your child is learning to stand or beginning to walk!

Cheerio String

This activity is more suitable for toddlers but you can try it with infants as long as you're supervising the entire time. The purpose of this activity is to further develop fine motor skills. Demonstrate to the child picking up the cheerio, grabbing the pipe-cleaner and stringing it onto it. Like I said this may be too difficult for infants as they have not developed the ability to pick up small objects with their fingers and do not have the hand eye coordination to string the cheerio onto the pipe cleaner.  If you don't have pipe-cleaners you can try using spaghetti. If your child is having a hard time holding the pipe-cleaner or spaghetti and stringing the cheerio try holding the pipe-cleaner or spaghetti for them or use playdough to stick the pipe-cleaner or spaghetti to hold it down. 

Edible Playdough

Making homemade edible playdough is so much fun! You and your child can work together to follow the recipe and get them involved in making it and then play with it! What's great about edible playdough is that if your child try's to eat it (which there's a good chance they will), it's completely safe because it is made with household ingredients. This activity further develops your child's fine motor skills but also their cognitive representation skills (imagination). As they play with the playdough ask them questions like, "What are you making?" to not only have them practicing their language skills but to encourage them to use their imagination and creativity. The recipe is as followed:
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 3-4 drops food colouring
Directions:
In a large bowl mix dry ingredients first. Then in a liquid measuring cup add cold water and food colouring. Slowly begin to add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and start mixing with a spoon. Once it becomes too difficult to mix with the spoon, transfer the mixture onto a surface and begin kneading. Depending on the consistency you may need to add more liquid (if it's too dry and not forming a ball) or more flour (if its too sticky). Now you have non-toxic playdough!

Solo Cup Bowling

This activity is great to help develop fine motor (picking up the ball and assembling the cups) and gross motor skills (throwing). You will probably have to continue assembling the cups for your child after the knock them down, especially if you have an infant. This activity is so much fun and only requires two objects, solo cups and a ball. Set up the activity somewhere with some space, incase your child decides to throw the ball somewhere other than the cups lol. Demonstrate to your child how to pick up the ball and throw it at the cups. If you think your child is able to reassemble the cups them demonstrate to them first and then allow them to stack them/ configure them how they want. Your child may even begin playing with just the cups and forget about the ball and that is completely normal. Children take charge of their play so just go with the flow. If they're busy that's the main goal!


Walk the Tape

The last activity is tape walk. This is more suitable for children who are already walking or learning to walk. Tape some lines onto the floor in a variety of patterns. Demonstrate to your child what to do. Encourage your child to walk the lines without falling over. To make this more difficult you can ask your child to hold something in their hand, walk the line and hand it to you on the other side. This can be more challenging for children because it's difficult for them to process two things at once (walking the line and holding the object). But don't worry if they can't walk on the tape while holding the object like it said it's a lot of them to process but it's a good challenge and will help further develop their hand eye coordination. 

So there you have it, 11 activities for infant and toddlers! I hope that many of you find these activities helpful and engaging. Please if you do try these activities with your children, comment below how it went or DM me on Instagram and share some cute pictures! I always appreciate feedback and I hope that my blog has been interesting thus far.

Deanna

Comments