The Tube

Here’s a simple activity that our toddlers love. We’ve found some long cardboard tubes. They are a little longer than wrapping paper tubes, but twice as wide. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures. We had one teacher sitting holding one end of the tube and the other end was slanted down to the floor. It looked like a ramp. Then the toddlers rolled balls down the tube and chased them across the room.

One toddler wanted to see what would happen if we held the tube straight forward with someone at each end. One person to put the ball in and the other to catch it. We found out that it the ball still would role down the tube. Next, he wanted to see what would happen if he held the tube closer to his face. He’d laugh whenever someone dropped a ball in the tube. One little girl experimented with putting a dish at the bottom of the slanted tube. The balls would role down, but the toddlers couldn’t see them. A couple of them weren’t sure where the balls were going so we asked them to peak inside the dish. They laughed when they discovered that the balls stayed in the dish.

The new teacher has several of these tubes and she’d like to add them to the gross motor room. She wants to mount them to the wall at different angles so that the children can experiment with the balls moving in different angles and directions. She also wants to try tennis balls with the tubes so that Crawling Baby can use them. The small ones that we are using now can be a choking hazard for him. He spent some time in the toddler room today and he was very interested in the tubes and balls, but didn’t understand the rules of our game. At one point, he wanted to drag the tube away. I wanted to see how he’d use the tube, but the other teacher brought it back to the group to continue the game.
I have a feeling that the children will do lots of experimenting with these tubes and that we can use them for a variety of activities.

Baby Ball Games

I spent most of the day with Baby L. He still has his ear infections and I think his teeth were bothering him. He had a rough day. When I first got there we played for a little bit with some toys and a big blue ball. He likes pushing it even though that’s the only thing he can do because it’s so big. He likes to scratch at it too. He wanted to sit on my lap for a while and eventually fell asleep after trying to sit with him on the couch and in the rocking chair a couple of times. I had to hold him during his nap which was only a half an hour. While he napped, the other teacher got out some shaving cream for Baby O. After only 30 seconds, there was a huge mess and she already wanted to move on. The teacher got out some plastic foods which all the babies enjoyed.

Crawling Baby was there today and ever since I’ve started volunteering I notice that when he’s brought in, the family members just leave him in his car seat and leave. Maybe they’re in a hurry, but I figured they can at least take him out and get him settled. I think one time; his mom took him out of the seat. Usually, it’s a guy that drops him off. It’s either his dad or uncle because I’ve heard that sometimes his uncle will bring him or pick him up so I’m not sure. It’s not a big deal. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Anyway, I took him out of his seat right away and brought him over to the shelves which he quickly cleaned off. He also was interested in the plastic foods. His favorite is usually the corn on the cob which we often leave out for him, but today his favorite was a slice of cheese. He kept chewing on it all day. Of course, Baby L was playing with the foods too and Crawling Baby kept taking them from him. There were lemons, bananas, hamburgers, peaches, ice cream, a slice of pizza, eggs, hash browns, steak, toast etc. Baby l’s favorite things were the eggs, hash browns, toast and an ice cream Sunday. We joked that he was going to be a breakfast person. The thing is he’s starting to eat solid food, but is not enjoying it at all. He just cries most of the time when we try to feed him. He even won’t accept his bottle most of the time. He’s a picky eater anyway, but since he’s been sick, it’s been worse.

Baby L was fussy today so I tried something new. I sat on the blue ball and bounced which he liked. I also sat him on the ball and bounced him while holding on to him. He thought this was fun. To get him to sleep this afternoon, I started by bouncing on the ball and then when he stopped fussing, I rolled back and forth on the ball which made it like rocking. I’m not sure why the rocking chair didn’t work for him this time. Maybe it was because the chair was noisy, but the ball seemed to work better. I also held him for his afternoon nap.

Crawling Baby and I played games with the ball too. He didn’t like bouncing on the ball so I tried rolling him over it. I held on to him and pulled him across the ball towards me. Sometimes, I’d pick him up in the air and other times, I just let him role across the ball. He laughed at this and I used this to distract him when he’d start to bother the other babies. We also played a version of peak-a-boo with the ball. I’d hide behind the ball and role it to the left or right so he’d see my face. He thought this was funny and if I didn’t move the ball soon enough, he’d start tapping on it. Baby O and I would push the ball back and forth and sometimes I’d push it across the room so she’d have to chase it. Baby C also got her turn on the ball bouncing on it with me holding on to her and bouncing while sitting on my lap.

Baby C and Baby L were both playing with the foods and when one would pick one food, the other would try to get the same food. It started with the bananas. I asked Baby L if he wanted a banana. He took it and I looked over and Baby C had picked up a banana too. Next, Baby L had two pieces of bread and then Baby C wanted the third piece of bread that was left. When Baby C went back to chewing on the banana, Baby L dropped his pieces of bread and grabbed the other banana. Baby C still can’t sit up fully on her own. When she sits in the squishy seat, she often falls back and ends up on her back. Today, she wanted to get closer to the foods because after her snack, another teacher put her in another part of the room. Baby C started rolling over. She moved quite a bit, but would get frustrated because she didn’t have much control about where she could move. I praised her for rolling over. I could tell she wanted to crawl, but when she was on her stomach, she couldn’t use her arms to pull herself forward so she went back to rolling instead. Even though she fussed, I let her keep rolling and eventually she got close to the foods so I helped her sit up and brought her seat over to the area. Baby L was sitting on his own for most of the day without a squishy seat. He fell over a few times and we helped him back up, but he’s pretty good at sitting on his own now. It was a busy day for the babies and me.

Fall Sensory Grab Bag

For last year’s fall theme, I made a sensory grab bag. I put in two plastic apples, one pomegranate, one larger pumpkin, two little pumpkins, a couple of gourds, corn, and to add some natural materials, I used some acorns, pinecones and leaves. I stapled the top of the bag shut, but left an opening big enough for a hand. I wanted the kids to reach inside, feel the object and guess what it was before showing the rest of the class. For the most part, it didn’t work out that way. Most of the kids didn’t want to reach their hand in the bag at first. Then when they decided it was okay, they were rushing to pull all the objects out. After all the objects were out, we talked about fall and how things change color. We talked about the color and size differences between the apples and pumpkins. Most of the kids hadn’t seen a pomegranate so we talked about that, but I should’ve brought one in for them to taste. We did a taste test for three different colored apples. The kids learned that some apples are sweet and some are sour. They enjoyed looking at the new objects and tasting apples. Below, I have a picture of some of the things I put in the bag. I found all these things at the Dollar Tree. You can also find these fruits at Walmart and a lot of other department stores.

Team Work and Musical Chairs

A few months ago, I took an online class about games for toddlers and preschoolers.
One thing that they’ve suggested that I haven’t had a chance to try is a different
version of musical chairs. They pointed out that toddlers and preschoolers do better
with games that are based on cooperation instead of competition. I thought this version
of musical chairs could be a good activity to do within the first few weeks of having
a new class to practice team work.


What you do is run the game like musical chairs using a chair or a mat for each kid.
When the music stops, you take one chair or mat away and let all the kids continue
to play.
By the end, you should have one left and all the kids have to find a way to be touching the chair somehow.

That way, no one feels bad about losing or geting bored
because they have to sit out while waiting for the game to end. When I was a kid, I hated musical chairs for both of those reasons. Now that I’m a teacher, I have to hear someone bragging to the rest of the class about how they are the winner and the rest of them are losers for ten minutes. It happens no matter how many times we tell them it’s just a game, no one in the class is a loser, we can always play again another time etc. This version solves most if not all of those problems. If anyone tries this, let me know how it goes.