Gross Motor:
Play Tunnels
Learning walker
Spacial awareness:
http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2016/06/moving-color-targets-game-for-toddlers.html
Hand Eye Coordination:
1. Cardboard building blocks play for infants and toddlers
2. Threading with Cardboard tubes made from toilet / kitchen rolls or we could use pool noodle pieces too!
3. Fancy straws and felt circle threading
4. Play dough base with straws and pasta stacking. You can also use coloured pasta shells to make it more interesting and include sorting by colours activity.
5. Instead of straws and pasta, we could also use noodle and cheerios.
6. Jumbo tweezers, ice cube trays and some giant pom pom do the trick :)
7. Ball Posting activity
8. Colour ball sorting / posting
9. Muffin tray sorting
10. https://theimaginationtree.com/4-diy-baby-and-toddler-toys-for-motor/
For this one I punctured some holes into the sides and lid of the container and made sure there were corresponding holes at the same levels on each side. Thread ribbons through the holes, coming in one side and out the exact same place on the opposite side so that they could be easily pulled back and forth.
Knot the ends securely so that they can not come out. In the lid add a few more although these can only be pulled upwards until the lid is taken off and they are adjusted again. Some of these ribbons make a lovely noise when pulled due to their stiffer material, so that added a lovely surprise element to play!
11. Posting activity
Make it advance by varying the sizes of the slots and the things to be posted. Could be done with lids of different sizes!
Cause and effect toys / Activities:
Pop-up Toys / Jack in a box
2. Jack in the box
3. Wooden Ramp racer with cars
3. Object Permanence Box (Montessori)
Other activities:
Stacking Cups/Rings/Blocks
Bead Mazes/ Activity cubes (You can decide what to choose based on your play space area at home)
Transferring items from one container to other / muffin trays
Dropping pom poms through toilet role tubes
A pounding bench ( more appropriate after 8 months)
Sensory:
Sensory Ball sets ( like bumpy, soft, hard, crinkly)
A musical set ( like xylophone, rattles, bells, egg shakers, tambourine, drums) Reflecting Mirrors
A rolling Tube / Bottle Sensory Wooden Blocks
Sensory bottles (With liquid, glitters, buttons etc)
Sticky ball with masking tape (inside out)
Musical Egg Shakers with Easter eggs and cereals / grains and taping them after filling
Make magnetic pom poms by attaching adhesive magnets using glue guns to the bottom of pom poms and let the child stick them on the fridge one by one.
Spider web treasure basket filled with toys and webbed with threads.
Cognitive:
Knob / Peg puzzles
Treasure Baskets ( You can make one with simple things available at home or buy them but no choking/small parts)
Color paddles/Rainbow petals/Rainbow colored wooden toys
Any pretend play sets
Flash cards with pictures
Puzzles with a twist
Fine Motor:
O Ball is what this is called, is a favourite toy for infants as it has a lot of holes and hence a great gripping toy. Filling O Ball with different textured fabric and making the child pull them all out is a great fine motor activity for infants.
You could also fill a plastic Baby wipes box instead of O Ball.
Simple sorting game with big button (use either plastic or wooden) and you could use this for sorting by colours or shapes. Fun activity!
Craft sticks and Painters tape stuck to high chair. Once the sticks are taped down, let your toddler get to work peeling the tape off the tray and lifting the sticks. This activity is great for building fine motor skills and lots of fun for them too! You can also ask them to pick a certain color stick to emphasize colors or tape this sticks down in various shapes, letters or numbers for additional learning.
Other Activities:
Tummy time, rhyme time, story time and massage all are all very important in their daily routine.
You can makeover a small baby play area with any toys lying around in home that are appropriate for their age. They can include a treasure basket, sensory items, mirrors and items mentioned above with a small soft mat/rug lying on the floor.
Coming to treasure baskets you can create as many as you wish with different sensory materials to stimulate their senses. (You can make themed baskets like different textured balls, fabric materials, wooden items, steel etc..,)
Emptying things from a Jar/basket and putting them back. Dropping pom poms/ posting items into a container/box. Sorting activities Exploring painting with edible finger paints Playing with sensory bags Listening to funny noises Using scoops to empty/fill glasses.
Bed Time Books:
I am not sleepy I am not cute Goodnight Moon If Animals kissed Good night Sleep tight little one Its bedtime for little monkeys Hush little polar bear The GoodNight Train The runaway bunny Hush Little Baby Counting Kisses Kitten’s first full moon Bear snores on Goodnight, good night construction site Kiss Good night Song of Night Sleepy bunny Good Night, Gorilla
Regular books:
The very hungry caterpillar Where’s spot Peepo My big animal book/ any picture illustrated books Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear? Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? The very quiet cricket Board book If you give a mouse a cookie Head,shoulders, knees and toes Ten little fingers and ten little toes Owl Babies How do dinosaurs say Good night? Giraffes can't dance The very busy spider Green Eggs and Ham The rainbow fish The giving tree Where the wild things are May I please have a cookie Chicka chicka boom boom Love you forever Corduroy Five little monkeys jumping on the bed Dear Zoo Guess how much I love you
Touch and feel books
Baby touch and feel Animals Pat the bunny Elmer’s world touch and feel Usborne Touch and feel books (That’s not my series) Bedtime Peekaboo Tails Little penguin Ladybird touch and feel books
Other activities -
1. Play dough - Kids can be be engaged with play dough by letting them make different shapes or roll, knead, cut. Use home made play dough with different food color. 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 tsp oil, and enough water to make the dough. add different food color for different colored dough. It's harmless. u can even store it in the fridge after he finishes playing.
2. While going for a walk, collect stones, leaves of different shapes, flowers, pebbles and try to decorate a sheet of paper with his collection. He can paint the pebbles and make things such as toad stool. depending on the shape of the pebbles. You can make him stick the leaves in the paper, or take leaf print by applying paint on one side of the leaf and taking the print on the paper. While doing this, talk about the shapes (oblong, ovate, linear etc )and pattern of the leaves (simple compound), symmetry etc..
3. Sort beans of different shapes and color. You can do this with his toys (cars and trucks ). Sort based on size, color, or no of wheels etc
4. Give him a bowl full of dhal or rice, a spoon, bowls and plates of different sizes. Kids love to scoop and pour the dhal in the bowl. They can be engaged for atleast half an hour with this activity. This improves his motor skills. But be ready to clear the mess. Best is to spread a mat or newspaper taped to the floor and let him play. Teach him to play within the mat.
5. Let him play with his bath toys in the bathtub. He can learn about float and sink
6. Give him lots of art supplies. Let him paint any junk such as toilet paper rolls, rocks, pebbles, pine cones. You can make him paint the egg shell and decorate a twig to make a flower vase.
7. Stick beans of different colors or rice or nut shells within a picture or a shape to make an art work. This improves his fine motor skills.
8. Draw pictures of balloons with the straight string and let him use the plastic scissors to cut along the string. Similarly draw pictures of flower with a long stem. and let him cut along the straight lines (stem). Once he is comfortable using scissors, draw the stem or balloon string with zig zag lines or curves. This also improves his motor skills.
9. Take his help in cooking. While you make chapati, give him a small ball of dough to make his own chapati.
10. Make a tent with bed sheets and dining table and let him have his cave and play inside with his animals toys. Join him in his adventure.
11. On a dark evening, use the torch light and play I spy. Let him use his light to find the objects. Give clues using colors, shapes. use the words small, large, tall short under above below after before etc.
12. Use blocks of different shapes and form pattern sequence. Ask him to continue the patterns or make his own pattern.
13. Give him a magnet and let him observe which all would be attracted and which wouldn't
14. Give him alphabet shapes or any geometrical shapes to trace around them.
15. Role play as doctor patient, teacher student, buyer seller etc
16. Play tag.
17. Make Block prints with vegetables and paint (with vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, or nut shells). You can use the toy cars' tyres too to make the prints on a sheet of paper.
18. Make your own musical instruments using things that are available at home. Use a plastic bottle and put some beans. Make sure it is properly sealed to avoid choking hazard. Use it as maracas. Use a rectangular steel box and chop sticks to use it as drum, cut out a cardboard in a guitar shape and tie or paste strings or use rubber bands to pretend it to be a guitar.
19. Play hide and seek
20. Let him make his own book by stapling some papers together and sticking pictures from magazines and newspapers. You can make an alphabet book by categorizing the pictures based on the starting alphabets and make him decorate the page with stickers, crayons. you can make him trace the upper and lower case letters in each page.
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