Old MacDonald Had a Farm

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.
MUSIC
A favorite song with young children is “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”
They love to make the animal sounds.
Read the book Old MacDonald in the City to introduce the idea of different kinds of jobs Old MacDonald could have and the different sounds they would make.
Try singing the song using other ideas.

Old MacDonald had a cold, e,i,e,i,o
And with his cold he had a cough

Think of sounds you have with a cold.
Old MacDonald could also have a yard, a house, a candy store, etc.
Changing the words will develop vocabulary.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Let’s sing Old MacDonald together
For developing the idea: “If Old MacDonald had a candy store, what kind of candy would he have in the store?” Let’s sing about it.
For moving forward: Let’s sing "Old MacDonald Had a Car" and make up car sounds.”

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"Carnival of the Animals": By Camille Saint-Saens
This music tells the story about how the animals are having a carnival, and the guests are arriving. There's the majestic lion, the braying mules, the dancing elephant, and the graceful swan. There are also many other animals.

You probably will need to explain to the children what a carnival is.
I’ve selected two videos that you can show the children and then let them pretend they are the elephants and the swans as they listen to the music.
For your own personal interest, there are many, many videos of this delightful piece of music with poetry by Ogden Nash.
I urge you to expose your children and yourself to this lovely experience.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Show me how you walk like an elephant. Can you swim like a swan?
For developing the idea: What other animals do you think came to the Carnival? Let’s find out
For moving forward: If you had a carnival, who would you invite?

Products from Discount School Supply® that I recommend:
Naptime Classics - 4 CDs (LULLABIES)
Infant Poster Set - Set of 12 (BABYPIC)
Snuggle Me Tot Supporter (SNUGME)

What Shall I Wear?

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.

FOR TODDLERS
Stories Come to Life 
Creating and acting out a story makes it come to life and helps children internalizes the concepts in the story.

Read The Three Little Pigs or another familiar story to the children.
Read the story out loud and as you read, find one word such as huff, and say it in a loud voice.
Ask the children to act out the "loud" word when they hear it (by huffing).
You can also use words that show emotion such as “happy” and “sad.”

Ideas to do to that will take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: “Who do you think has a loud voice in this story?”
For developing the idea: “Can you pretend you are one of the pigs? Can you pretend that you are the wolf?”
For moving forward: Could you tell me this story? What would come first in the story?”

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What Shall I Wear You will need a raincoat, heavy wool hat, bathing suit, and a lightweight jacket or dress.
Talk with the children about the kind of clothes you need for different kinds of weather and seasons.
Look at the articles of clothing and discuss when you would wear them. 

Say the following rhyme:

What shall I wear on a rainy day, rainy day, rainy day?
What shall I wear on a rainy day?
This is what I’ll wear.
(on the last line, choose a child to go to the clothing and hold up the correct item.
Continue with a new rhyme.
What shall I wear on a sunny day?
What shall I wear on a snowy day?
Download my song "Whatever the Weather" at Early Childhood News or at my website.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: What do you wear when it is cold outside?
For developing the idea: Clothes protect us from changes in the weather. What did you wear to school today? Why did you pick these clothes?
For moving forward: Let’s make up a story about a hot summer day at the swimming pool. What clothes shall we talk about?

Two Nice Fathers and Roll Olympics

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.

FOR INFANTS
Two Nice Fathers

Say this finger play with your little one as you do the actions.

Two nice fathers met in the lane
(hold thumbs up)
Bowed most politely and bowed again.
(bend thumbs toward each other)
How do you do, how do you do
And how do you do again
(move thumbs as if they were talking to one another)
Repeat this verse while holding babies thumbs as you say the words.
Continue on with the finger play. You say it first and then move the babies fingers to repeat it.
Index finger - two nice mothers met in the lane....etc
Middle finger - two nice teachers....etc
Ring finger - two nice children....etc
Little fingers - two little babies....etc
On the "babies" it's fun to talk "baby talk." Try to make the sounds that the baby makes.

Ideas that you can to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Let’s say the poem again as we move our fingers.

For developing the idea: I’ll say the words and you move your fingers. (depending on the age of your baby, you may need to help him with moving the fingers.)

For moving forward: Let’s pretend our fingers are kitties. What would they say to one another?

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Roll OlympicsHelping your baby roll over from tummy to back will develop the chest and arm muscles. Brain research says that using these muscles repeatedly gives babies’ the strength and elasticity for rolling over.

Here is a fun game to play while encouraging your baby to roll over.

Put your baby on her tummy on a soft and flat surface. Carpeted floors and the middle of beds are good for this game.

Hold up a teddy bear in front of your baby’s face and do antics with the bear. You might say the following poem as you make the teddy bear move around:

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn a round. (turn teddy bear around)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground. (make teddy fall down)

When you are sure that your baby is watching the teddy, move it to the side so that your baby’s eyes and hopefully her body will follow.

Repeat the poem, moving the teddy bear each time.

Ideas to do to that will take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: As you play the game, if your baby doesn’t roll over the first few times, move her physically to help her understand.

For developing the idea: Lay on the floor on your back. Put the baby on your tummy facing you. Rock from side to side and say the “teddy bear” poem.

For moving forward: Each time you baby is successful in rolling over, give her lots of praise and clap your hands.