Listen With Your Ears / Let's Taste Red

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 help the brain pathways make new connections.

Activities for Toddlers

 

Listen With Your Ears

The following game is a wonderful way to develop listening skills in your children. The idea is to have the children identify sounds without seeing what is making the sound.

Before you begin, choose three or four sounds that the children will be identifying. Let them watch you make the sounds as they listen.

Some suggestions are: Tap your foot on the floor, crunch paper, clap your hands, and ring a bell.

Now play the game. Make the same sounds one at a time behind a door or desk. They should only be able to hear the sound.

After each sound is made, ask the children to identify the sound. When they have identified it, let them copy the sound themselves.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – What sounds can you make with your mouth?
For developing the idea – Let’s walk around the room together and find other sounds that we can hear.
For moving forward – I’ll make a sound with my hands. Tell me what you hear. (You can clap, snap, and pound.

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Let's Taste Red
Color recognition is a skill children begin to develop at a young age.

Color and shape are ways children observe and categorize what they see. These characteristics encourage children to define and organize the diverse world around them.
Understanding color is a tool for learning many skills from math and science to language and reading. For example, when your child learns to understand the similarities and differences between colors and shapes, she is using the same skills she needs to recognize the differences between letters and numerals.
Give the children an opportunity to taste red foods, such as strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, apples, rhubarb, and red peppers.
Talk about each food. Discuss the color, the texture, and the taste (sweet, sour, or something else).

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Tasting all of the red food was fun. Did you have a favorite?

For developing the idea – I like the picture that you made. Tell me about your picture. Do you want to have any of those foods for dinner?

For moving forward - Let’s make a grocery list. What red foods do you want to buy at the super market?

Music Parade!

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 help the brain pathways make new connections.

Music Activities for Infants and Toddlers

Parades
If you have musical instruments in your classroom, a parade is a great activity for the kids.

Marching to music teaches rhythm. Playing the various instruments teaches eye-hand coordination plus listening skills.

Put on your favorite marching music, pass out the triangles, cymbals, drums and shakers and enjoy the parade. Music by Sousa is always a good choice.

One of the most popular toddler music game is a musical parade. A music teacher might bring in several instruments such as triangles, cymbals, drums, and horns and let the toddlers march around while playing the instruments. But, what if you don’t have musical instruments to spare? The solution is to help the kids to make their own!

Here are some ideas for making your own:
Fill containers part way with beans or grains and seal them well. These make great shakers.

Decorate toilet paper tubes, punch one or two holes in the sides, blow on one end and you have a flute. Do the same with a paper towel roll and you have a clarinet.

Buy some jingle bells at the dollar store.

Glue sandpaper on old blocks and rub them together.

Simply clap your hands together or toot with your voice.

The children will enjoy the parade and want to do it again and again.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Let’s march together to this wonderful music.

For developing the idea – As we march around the room, lets play our instruments loudly and then softly. The music will tell us what to do.

For moving forward – If we had an animal parade, what animal would you be?
If we had a favorite person parade, who would you be….grandpa, farmer, baby?
If we had a vegetable parade would you be a carrot or a green bean?

Here are some book suggestions about parades.
"The Great Doughnut Parade" - by Rebecca Bond
"Parade" - by Donald Crews
"Christmas Parade" by Sandra Boynton

Recommended products from Discount School Supply®:
Giant Plush Stacking Ring (TALLRING)
Plush Handykid Tools - 7 pieces (MYTOOLS)
Karen Katz Board Books - set of 4 (KATZLIB)
Maestro Baby Instruments - set of 4  (MAESTRO)
Career Toddler Costumes - set of 6 (PCTCSET)
Popular Children's Songs CDs - set of 4 (TODCDS)

Sorting Colors / Where Are Your Eyes?

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 help the brain pathways make new connections.

Activities for Infants

 

Sorting Colors
Exploring and responding to books about colors.

 

Read the book "A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni to your little ones.

 

Sit on the floor with a child in your lap.

 

Place in front of you several toys and stuffed animals.

 

Start sorting the toys by color. “Let’s find all of the toys that have the color red and put them together.” Continue sorting by changing the color.

 

Start sorting with two colors. After the toys are sorted, pick up a toy with red and say the following poem.

 

Red, Red, let me see

When I find you, how happy I will be.

 

Point to the red and take your baby’s hand and put it on the red color.

 

Next, do the second color that you have chosen.

 

Blue, Blue, let me see

When I find you, how happy I will be.

 

Point to the color blue and take the baby’s hand and put it on the blue color.

Alternate the colors back and forth.

 

After you have played the game several times, you can add a third color.

 

Always use the same toys for the colors that you choose.

 

Here are some suggestions for other books about color.

 

"Blue Hat, Green Hat" – by Sandra Boynton

"What Does Bunny See?: A Book of Colors and Flowers" - by Linda Sue Park

"Bright Baby Colors" – by Roger Priddy

 

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:

For building confidence – Talk about colors everywhere and help the children become more aware of colors. 

 

For developing the idea – Use color words to talk about different objects in the room.

 

For moving forward – Suggest other ways to sort the toys. You can sort by size, toys with wheels, toys that make sounds or different textures.

 

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Where Are Your Eyes?
Say this poem with the children and ask them to point to the different parts of the body as they are mentioned and do the action.

Where Are Your Eyes? – Author unknown
Where are your eyes? Show me your eyes--Pretty eyes can see.
Where are your eyes? Show me your eyes--Shut them quietly.
Where is your nose? Show me your nose--Pretty nose can blow.
Where is your nose? Show me your nose--Wiggle it just so.
Where is your mouth? Show me your mouth--It can open wide.
Where is your mouth? Show me your mouth--How many teeth inside?

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Can you open and close your eyes? What else can you do with your eyes?

 

For developing the idea – Can you say “I like to smell.” and tell me something that you like to smell with your nose.

 

For moving forward – One reason to open your mouth is to yawn. Can you think of another reason? Yes, eating.