Activities for Toddlers

Here’s what we did today.
We built towers with square blocks. They were taller than most of the toddlers, but the best part was knocking them over. In one case, one boy ran the bike right through it.
We chased, kicked, threw and bounced balls. The best part was seeing how far they go across the room. One girl asked to play pass with her friend, but unfortunately she wasn’t interested. Maybe next time. Some of the boys carried them around keeping them from everyone else. Eventually, when they found something else to do, other kids got to play with them.
We bounced on and built towers with large squishy blocks. The toddlers had the most fun bouncing on them. It got a little chaotic when everyone wanted a turn at once. A couple of them started working together to bounce by holding on to each other’s hands instead of mine.

I blew bubbles while the toddlers chased after them. One boy kept asking for a bigger and bigger one. I did the best I could with making them bigger, but there’s only so much you can do with a small wand and a different amount of liquid each time. They thought of a new game when they started stomping around and saying, “pop, pop!”

All the toddlers rode bikes at least once. The toddlers love the three bikes and everyone wants a turn at once. I had to distract them several times by building towers, throwing balls, etc. It usually worked, but some were insistent on having the bikes now. One girl sat with me until she could calm down and eventually she got her turn.

They finger-painted while I watched. It was more about the process because there were few colors and the toddlers didn’t stay at the table long. There were some lines and blobs and when some were done, they folded and crumpled their papers. We unfolded them and set them in the hall to dry. We ended up with eight paintings that looked pretty much the same, but that’s okay. It’s for the experience.

We played outside in the rain. I didn’t enjoy this because it was a little cold and wet, but they loved it. They played in puddles, rode bikes on the path, played in the sand box and simply ran around the playground. They didn’t mind the rain at all and needed the fresh air.

We looked at books. Several of us sat together and just looked at the pictures. Some of the books had special features like textures and a bell, but the children were most interested in the ones with simple words and pictures. Many of the books had pictures of different people and animals. They especially liked the book with pictures of babies. It had baby rabbits, human babies etc. One of the babies even looked like one of the toddlers.

When nap was over, we started the routine all over again. The only things that were left out were playing in the rain and finger-painting. We also used the tunnel. It worked well at first when one person went in at a time, but then got crazy when three kids were inside the tunnel at once. It was too crowded and the one in the middle wanted to get out. We had to put it away after a while, but it's a good activity for learning to take turns. My day ended quietly with all the kids leaving before five.

Towers, Slides and Finger Paintings

Yesterday was my second day volunteering with the toddlers. It was a little confusing at first because they had a few extra people there. There were two high school students who were there to observe. At least that’s what it looked like. Then a community reader came in and she sat in the reading area for a while. Some toddlers stayed with her the whole time reading books and the others chose to play in other parts of the room. They were really into the blocks still. When I arrived, they had the foam blocks scattered all over the floor. One of the toddlers started jumping on them again while grabbing my hands. This didn’t last long because she had found the container of small blocks. She wanted to build tall towers. I started building a tower on my own with the foam blocks. A few seconds after I had the tower three blocks high, a boy had knocked it to the ground. We laughed and I started to build another tower for him to knock over. This went on for a few minutes until he went over to cook in the kitchen area. Meanwhile, another toddler came over and handed me an empty bowl. I asked him what it was. He didn’t answer so I asked if I could eat it. He said yes so I pretended to eat and then asked if he’d like some. Then he took the bowl, pretended to eat and headed off to the kitchen area.

I went over to the small table where the little girl was building tall towers. I told her that her tower was really tall so she started knocking it over and laughing. After the tower was completely destroyed, she started rebuilding it. Another toddler came over and started knocking blocks on the floor. I kept picking them up and putting them on the table for the other girl to use for her towers. I started to label some of the blocks telling her which ones were round, square, white, red, big, small etc. she’d repeat the words as she built. I counted her two towers and then she counted up to four by herself. I think she thought she had four towers instead of two, but that’s okay. Finally, she found a new game. She thought knocking all the blocks off the table was fun. I told her she’d have to pick them up which she did, but it was really fun for her to keep knocking them over. Another girl noticed and she started doing the same thing only this time, she was scattering them across the room. That’s one thing about working with toddlers; you clean up even during play time. If we didn’t, everything would be on the floor all at once. I find it’s easier to pick things up that aren’t being played with. If they take them out again, it’s okay because we can pick something else up that’s not being used. I ask the toddlers to get involved by having them put books back on the shelf or by bringing foods back to the kitchen area. Even if they don’t put the foods back in the baskets, it’s a start to have them bring the things back to the right area.

The structured activity of the day was sponge and finger painting. They were using these foam sponge type things. They weren’t exactly sponges, but a thicker foam material. They were washable. There were hearts, numbers, dogs, rhinos, etc. The idea was to have the toddlers stamp with them. We had a few trays of paint with different colors and the toddlers could use any of the stamps or colors that they wanted. We practiced asking each other for stamps or other colors of paint since everything was divided up among three tables. This turned into finger painting after a while and stamping handprints onto the paper. A couple of kids decided to fill their whole paper with different colors. This was another mess to clean up, but it was fun for them. As long as it was fun for the kids, it’s worth the trouble. I saved the teachers some time by cleaning all the paint trays and stamps.

Later, they had a circle time where one of the teachers sang songs with the kids and looked at books. Those who wanted to participate could and those who didn’t were busy on the climber. It has a slide that the kids love sliding, crawling or walking down. Some even like to go up the slide. This is one place where there is constant negotiating. Kids are either in each other’s way or there are too many people on the slide or the stairs at once. I kept telling them, “One at a time on the slide, please.” After hearing this a couple of times, one of the little girls started repeating me when she saw too many people on the slide. For the most part, the toddlers listen.

In the afternoon, we ate lunch and then at 12:30, it was nap time. I was disappointed because I was there until three O’clock and they slept all through the rest of my time there. They usually wake up earlier, but they had a busy morning.

Blocks Aren't Only for Building

I volunteered last Wednesday and it went well. I was supposed to help out in the infant room, but since there were only two babies there, they sent me over to the toddler room. Those kids ranged from sixteen months old to two and a half. They didn’t have any structured play time, but they did a creative activity with shaving cream that the kids loved. They squirted a few blobs of shaving cream on the table and added different colors of paint. The kids loved mixing the colors and making a mess.

We looked at a lot of books. One they enjoyed showed the different parts of a truck. I wish I remembered the title, but it had mostly pictures. It was filled with different textures for the kids to explore. On one page there was a mirror, bumpy textures for the windows, round sand paper shapes for the wheels etc. As we went through the book, I labeled the parts of the truck and the textures. The kids would usually repeat me and took time to feel each texture. They especially enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror. They didn’t notice it at first until I pointed it out, but after that, they’d stop longer on that page.

One of their favorite things to play with were the foam blocks. One boy figured out
He could sit on one and jump up and down. I grabbed his hands and he liked jumping
while holding my hands. A few other toddlers grabbed a block from the pile, came
over and said, “My turn.” A little girl found another use for the blocks. She liked to sit on them and rock back and forth. She said she was rocking the boat. She grabbed my hands and she realized she could rock faster and go farther back. When she’d almost hit the floor, she’d pull herself up. Sometimes she couldn’t pull herself up fast enough so I’d help her out. The boys joined in, but they quickly got back to jumping.

Then they found smaller plastic blocks that you can put
together. A little girl started building a tower and a boy came over and knocked
it down. They both laughed and other toddlers came over to see what they were doing.
The boy and girl built the tower again and started to fight over who should knock
it down. Eventually, one of them knocked it over and they all started laughing again.
Now the problem was who was going to rebuild it. I gave the two toddlers the same
number of blocks and told them to put one block on at a time. They liked doing that
and now they could both build the tower and knock it down. They did this several
times while their friends watched. It was nice to see them actually sharing the blocks
because usually toddlers don’t cooperate like that. Most of the time, they want the
toys all to themselves which I saw a lot throughout the day. It’s normal though.
They are starting to learn to share and take turns. Later on, one of the little girls found a smaller set of plastic blocks. She sat on the floor independently and worked on her building. It was only three or four blocks high, but she brought it over and said, “I made a tower!” I told her it was a great tower and she brought it back to add to it. They seemed to have trouble fitting these blocks together. They have shapes on the top and you have to turn them just right to make them fall into place. It was challenging enough for them, but not too challenging to the point where they’d give up.

They also had fun pushing big trucks around and riding bikes. They kept crashing
their bikes into me. I had to remind them to be gentle with the bikes because that
could hurt. I showed them how to slow down and bump into me gently, but then they
decided to play bumper bikes with each other. I had to stop that because I thought
they’d fall over or hurt each other when they crashed. Finally, they decided that the bikes would be perfect to knock the tower over. The toddlers who were building the towers didn’t like this. They wanted to knock their tower down by themselves. I tried to stop the bike each time before it destroyed the tower. Sometimes it was successful and other times not. I told the boys that their friends didn’t want them to knock their building over, but they thought it was so fun. Eventually it was okay because the other toddlers started laughing at the boy on the bike hitting the tower. These toddlers have discovered that blocks aren’t only for building.