Be a Machine and Many Faces Activities

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 brain pathways to make new connections.

Activities for Toddlers
Be a MachineTalk about all the different kinds of machines that we see everyday.
Show the children pictures of a vacuum cleaner, toaster, clock, computer, dishwasher, and any others that the children will recognize.

Talk about the machines that you have in your house. The washing machine, the toaster, the vacuum cleaner, a clock, etc.

Look at the pictures and discuss each one individually and as to how they are used and why they are important. Choose two machines that are familiar to the the children and show them how to imitate these machines. For example a clock and a vacuum cleaner.

For a clock, let your hands become the clock’s hands and move them in a circle. For a vacuum cleaner, move around the room in a gliding manner.

When you say the words "Machines go!" the children pretend to be the machines. When you say "machines stop!" the children stop.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Ask the question “Why do you think a clock is important?” and “Why do you think a vacuum cleaner is important?”

For developing the idea - What other machines do you have at your house?

For moving forward - Tell me what the vacuum cleaner does, the toaster does and the dishwasher can do.

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Many Faces
This game helps children to become more observant and sensitive to others.

Look through books and magazines with the children and talk about the different faces that you see. 

Talk about happy faces, silly faces, sad faces, and angry faces.

Play the following game.

When I am happy, I look like this- make a happy face
Can you make a happy face?- (wait for the children to make happy faces)
Continue on with silly, sad and angry faces.

After you have finished practicing all the different faces, choose individual children to make a face and the rest of the group guess which face he is making.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Expressing emotions with the face.

For developing the idea - Becoming aware of different feeling and emotions.

For moving forward - “What are some things that make you happy? What makes you angry? What makes you sad?"

Discover Your Hands!

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
Learning Objective - Discovering your hands
Babies love to stare at interesting faces and toys.

Take several colorful toys and, one at a time, slowly move it back and forth in front of your baby to stimulate his vision.

This is also the time when babies discover their hands. They watch and watch and finally discover that they can make their hands appear and disappear.
Take your baby’s hands and gently clap them in front of his face. As you do this, say the following poem:
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
Clap your hands together.
Put your hands on Mommy’s face. (substitute name of the person doing the rhyme with baby)
Clap your hands together.
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
Clap your hands together
Put your hands on baby’s face (substitute child’s name)
Clap your hands together

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Use encouraging phrases to tell the baby what a good job she is doing.

For developing the idea – Continue playing the game and adding new parts to touch. Hair, eyes, nose and lips are good to start with.

For moving forward - Say “I can clap my hands.” Clap your hands. Now say, “You can clap your hands.” Take the baby’s hands and clap them. Repeat this except the next time, clap the baby’s hands once and encourage her to do it by herself.

Learning Objectives – To strengthen your baby’s back and neck
Lie on your back and put your baby on your tummy.

With your hands firmly around his waist or chest, raise your baby in the air and up to your face.

Say the following and do the actions:
Where’s my baby?
There he is. (lift him up to your face)
Where’s my baby?
There he is. (bring him back down to your tummy)
Where’s my baby?
There he is. (bring him back up to your face)
Where’s my baby?
There he is. (bring him back down to your tummy)
Where’s my baby? Up high, high, high. (bring your baby up high over your face)
Where’s my baby? (bring him back down to your tummy

Keep repeating the high, high, high part.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence - Each time you go high, add a fun sound like “whee” or “yay,”

For developing the idea -  Continue to play games with your baby where you hold him and take him high in the air. With older infants, sit on the floor with your baby sitting in front of you. While holding him firmly around his waist or chest, rock back and forth or side to side. Sing a song as you play this game.

For moving forward - Brain research says that developing strength and balance lays the groundwork for crawling and internal feelings of self-confidence.

Essential Ingredient in Infant Care

The most essential ingredient in infant care is a warm, responsive, and dependable adult caregiver. Try to spend lots of time holding, cuddling, and playing with the infants in your care. You will be richly rewarded with babbles, smiles, and squeals of laughter.

Here are are two games to play that help an infant’s neurons connect to parts of the brain that develop confidence and trust. Recommended for 3-6 month old infants.

NUGGLE NOSE1. Hold your baby in the air and say, “Nose, nose, nuggle nose.”
2 On the word “nuggle,” bring him down and touch your nose to his.
3. Keep repeating this game touching noses on the word “nuggle.”4. After you have played this a few times, say the word “nuggle” more than one time, always touching noses on the word “nuggle.”5. For example, say “nuggle, nuggle, nuggle, nose.”
Gently touching your baby will make him feel secure and safe, enabling him to become confident and, eventually, independent.

GOING UP THE ESCALATOR
1. Hold onto baby’s fingers and gently lift baby’s arms as you say the following rhyme:
Going up the escalator
Up, up, up.
Going down the escalator
Down, down, down.
2. Lift your baby’s legs and say the rhyme.
3. Continue lifting different parts of your baby’s body, saying the rhyme each time.
4. Try ending with lifting him up in the air and down.
5. Always give a kiss on the down part.

Loving attachments help babies develop trust.