Activities

Provide infants with an assortment of balls in different sizes, colors and textures. Place the balls on the floor, and encourage the infants to reach for them. Leave the balls out for a couple of weeks before switching to a different type of toy.

Reading a story such as “The Little Red Hen” by Margot Zemach before baking is a great way to introduce the concept of working together.

Place the infants near each other. Give them Tupperware bowls or pots turned upside down with spoons for banging.

Place a variety of lids in front of the children. Encourage the children to bang the lids together. Say, “You're hitting the lids together. Listen to the sounds you are making.

Create sensory bottles that an infant can explore with all five senses. Place lightweight items such as colorful beads, foil squares, pom-poms, bells, feathers and buttons inside separate bottles.

Read A Tree Is Nice by Janice Udry. Provide white construction paper and crayons or chalk. Take a nature walk and point out the differences in trees. Have the children form pairs and make bark rubbings.

Read Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton. Encourage the children to act out the animal roles as the story is read. Repeat the story.

Use a small wastebasket or trash can. Show the children two balls, a basketball and a tennis ball.

Use a recycled rectangular cardboard box, a laundry basket and tennis balls. Cut holes in the box so the balls will fall through, and tape the box to the opening of the basket.

Provide plastic eggs and squares of paper with a different emotion depicted on each. Place a square inside each egg. Have the children “crack” the eggs open and share the emotions. You may have to read out the feeling or use a photo.

Provide baskets of various shapes, colors and sizes. Place items such as textured balls, scarves, water bottle shakers and soft toddler blocks in separate baskets. Model how to pour out and explore the items.

Assist a small group of children with tossing balls of various sizes into a basket, counting off tosses. When finished say, "We have five balls in the basket.

You will need plastic berry baskets and a variety of materials for weaving, such as strips of colored paper, yarn, pipe cleaners and straws. Demonstrate how to weave the materials through the baskets.

Provide two bowls or a two-sided pet bowl filled with a small amount of water. Give the children large basters to transfer water from one bowl to the other. Show them how to squeeze the bulb and watch where the water goes.

Make a bat cave using a large cardboard box.  Drape the cave with fabric or a blanket.  Encourage the children to pretend to be bats and birds, or a spelunkerr (a person who explores and studies caves).

During outdoor time, place a child-safe bath-fizz ball in a bowl of warm water. Talk about how the ball began as a solid but changed to liquid and then to gas when it was submerged.

Use the water table and add dolls, child-safe baby shampoo and washcloths or sponges. Show the children how to bathe the baby. Encourage conversation by asking,“Can you bathe the baby? What do you do with the soap? Tell me how you take a bath.

Using the water table, add dolls, child-safe baby shampoo and washcloths or sponges. Show the children how to bathe the baby.

Add water-safe baby dolls and washcloths to a water table, and assist the children as they bathe the babies. Add a few drops of child-safe soap to make bubbles. Keep a close watch. Change the water between groups of children.

Read Stellaluna by Jane Cannon.  Have pictures and puppets of bats and birds.  Talk about the similarities and differences between bats and birds.  Introduce the word "spelunker," a person who explores and studies caves.