Tell Me What It Says

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– Developing language

The current brain research says: that young children develop a clear bias for words with first-syllable accents For example, the rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is good to say with your infant. Say the rhyme and put an accent on the first word of each line.

Baa Baa black sheep
Have you any wool
Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full

Some other rhymes that work well with accenting the first word in each line are: "London Bridge," "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Babies pay closer attention to accented words.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: As you say the accented words, raise your voice to a higher level using a parentese voice.

For developing the idea: Holding the baby in your lap, each time you say the accented word, clap the baby’s hands together.

For moving forward: Sing familiar songs with your baby and pick out certain words to accent. When you sing the accented word, do a movement activity at the same time. For example, jump, walk very slowly and sing the word slowly, march, and twirl slowly.

=========================================

Activity: Tell Me What It Says

You will need a picture of a baby, a clock, a bird, a drum, and some water.

Point to one of the pictures and say to your your baby “Tell me what the baby says.”

Then answer the question – “Ma ma, ma, ma” or “Da da da da.”

Repeat the same question asking about each picture and giving the answer.

Tell me what the clock says
Tick, tock, tick, tock
Tell me what the birdie says
Tweet. Tweet, tweet, tweet
Tell me what the drum says
Boom, boom, boom, boom
Tell me what the water says
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:

For building confidence: Make the sounds with the baby and encourage him to copy you. Praise all of his efforts.

For developing the idea: Look at books and magazines with the baby and find things that make sounds.

For moving forward: Show your baby different mouth sounds. Clicking, moving your tongue back and forth on your lips, the raspberry, and any others that you can think of. Babies love to look at faces and will try to copy you.

Sound Awareness and Creative Thinking

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.

Learning Objective- Awareness of Sound

This game is like a scavenger hunt. Talk about all the different kinds of sounds you can listen to and try to find examples of these sounds.

Crunchy, funny, terrible, scary, scratchy, buzzing, humming, a sound that starts and stops, and metal sounds.

Here are some ideas to start with.
Carrot for crunching
Scary sound with your voice
A buzzing toy
Two metal spoons
Slide whistle

Pick up one of the objects and make the sound. When you make the sound, give the descriptive word.
“Oh, that is a loud sound.”

Take a walk outside and see what sounds you can identify.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence - “Can you make your voice sound happy?”

For developing the idea - “You make wonderful happy sounds. Can a bird make a happy sound? Can a dog make a happy sound?" Continue asking about different animals and different sounds.

For moving forward - “I’m going to make a sound. See if you can tell what it is. (make a sound of a cat. Now you make a sound and I’ll see if I can tell what it is.” There’s a good chance that the child will copy your sound. That’s normal and should be expected.

Learning Objective – Creative thinking
A favorite song with toddlers is “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” They love to make the animal sounds.

Talk about other kinds of places Old MacDonald could go. The children will tell you things based on their families.

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. Etc.

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.

Things to do to take 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?”

For moving forward - “Let’s sing Old MacDonald had a car and make up sounds of the car.”

An excellent book to read for this activity is Old MacDonald in the City by Suzanne Williams.

Recommended Items:
Watch Me Crawl Tunnel (GOBABY)
Giant Plush Stacking Ring (TALLRING)
The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays and Chants (RHYMES)

Develope Your Toddler's Vocabulary

These games will help to grow the brains of 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.

Learning Objective – Developing vocabulary
Sit the children on the floor gathered around you. If they understand sitting in a circle, that would be ideal.

Ask the children if they can tell you what is in their house…tables, chairs, lamps, TV, etc.

Sing this song to the tune of "London Bridge" and leave out the last word for the child to fill in.

Tell us please, what’s in your house
In your house
In your house
Tell us please, what’s in your house
Tell us …..(Lakeesha)
(Lakeesha names something in her house)
Continue the song giving the children an opportunity to tell about their houses.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence -  Can you name some of the things at your house?

For developing the idea - What do you like to do in your house at the table?

For moving forward - What does your mother do at the table? What does your grandpa do at the table?

Learning Objective – Growing motor skills
Cut out large apple shapes from colored paper. Laminate them and place them on the floor. If this presents a problem, you can cut out the apple shapes and tape them in different parts of the room.

Ask the children to hop from one apple to another as they sing to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Hopping, hopping for my health
For my health
For my health
Hopping, hopping for my health
I am healthy.

Continue with other movements such as jumping, marching, turning, and running.

Follow with a conversation about exercise and health.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Tell the children “hopping makes up feel good and is a lot of fun”.

For developing the idea – Ask “where are places that you like to hop”?

For moving forward - Can you hop like different animals? A rabbit, a frog, or a bird?

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.

Music for Learning

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.


Learning Objective - Using different parts of the body
Sit on the floor with the children and ask them to follow the actions. Sing to the tune of "London Bridge."
Now it's time to touch our nose, touch our nose, touch our nose
Now it's time to touch our nose
Here it is! (touch your nose)

Now it's time to blink our eyes – here they are
Now it's time to touch our toes
Now it's time to shake our feet
Now it's time to stand up tall – I am tall
Now it's time to sit back down – I can sit

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Say, “I can touch my nose. Where is your nose?” Continue on with different parts of the body.
For developing the idea – Say, “can you touch my nose?” Name different body parts and let the child touch them on your body.
For moving forward - Ask the children to do the actions in the song with a stuffed animal.
Learning Objective - Using music for transitions
Children need time for finishing one activity and to get ready for the next one.
Music is a wonderful way to help children recognize that it’s time to finish what they are doing. Remember that their time line is different from yours. They are focusing on their project and time is not on their mind.
You can play music using the same song each time or you can sing something.
For example, you can sing to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down.”

Now it’s time to have a snack, have a snack, have a snack,
Now it’s time to have a snack,
Please pass the juice.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Compliment the children on what a good job they are doing.
For developing the idea – Ask the children how they change activities at home.
Going from sleeping to getting up and getting dressed.
Stop playing to get ready for dinner.
Getting ready to play outside.
For moving forward – Say, “let’s make up another song about changing activities.”

Recommended Products
Hand Tom Tom (TOM)
Wooden Sorting and Matching Ducks (CLRDUCK)
Gingerbread Sort and Snap (GINGERB)

Toddler Brain Development

These games will help to grow the brains of 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.
Learning Objective - Learning to communicate verbally
You will need a rhythm stick and some smiley face stickers.
Decorate a brightly colored rhythm stick with smiley face stickers.
Seat the children in a circle and pass the stick around one child at a time. The child who is holding the stick taps it on the floor and says "My name is -----, and I like -----. Then she passes it on to the next child.

The children really enjoy this game and also discover that they have similar likes. This games is also excellent for eye-hand coordination.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step.
For building confidence - “I like the way you hit the stick and told what you like.”
For developing the idea - “Can you tell me other things that you like?”
For moving forward: - “Lets draw some pictures of things that you like.”

Learning Objective - Developing fine motor skills
Say this finger play with your children.
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)

Continue on with the finger play.
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

When you say "babies" it's fun to talk "baby talk."

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step.
For building confidence –“ Let’s say the poem again as we move our fingers.”
For developing the idea - “You be one father and I’ll be the other as we move our thumbs.”
For moving forward – “What other family members could you make up to go with this poem?”

Infant Brain Development

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

Learning Objective - Identifying Body Parts
Sit in front of a mirror with your baby in your lap.
Say, “Who is that baby?”
Wave your baby’s hand and say, “Hi, baby.”
Say, “Where’s the baby’s foot?”
Wave your baby’s foot and say, “Hi, foot.”
Continue asking questions and moving different parts of your baby’s body.
Shake heads, wave bye-bye, clap hands, etc.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Repeat the actions with a complimentary remark. For example, you can say, “What a nice foot.”
For developing the idea – Add new actions with each body part. Move the body part up and down or back and forth.
For moving forward – Ask the person in the mirror questions about additional body parts, For example, “Where are your fingernails?”

Learning Objective - Developing fine motor skills
Show the children how to take the thumb of one hand and put it into the fist of the other hand.
Practice this activity several times.
Take your thumb and put it into the fist of the other hand.
Say the following rhyme with great drama.
Jack in the box
You sit so still
Can you come out?
Yes, I will. – pull thumb out of fist

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – “Can you show me your thumb? Can you make a fist?”
For developing the idea – “Can you put your thumb of one hand in the fist of your other hand?” (help the child if they cannot do it themselves)
For moving forward - “You did a good shop with that poem. Let’s try to make our bodies be a jack-in-the-box.