This week is all about recognizing our body! Pair this activity with your favorite body part songs like Head Shoulders Kneed and Toes, and books that talk about body parts.
The lessons shared here are part (or inspired) from the One Year Old Curriculum called My First School
The activities are meant to be simple and reduce the amount of set up and materials but still provide lots of learning opportunities.
Areas of Development for this week:
- Eye-hand coordination
- Fine Motor Skills
- Language Development
Activities for This Week
Supplies for this activity: Water, a plastic bin or bathtub
How to Play:
Kicking might seem natural to us because we do it without putting much thought into it, but it is a developmental skill we have been working on. We played with a soccer ball the first week and this week we are doing it more loosely with water.
Children can find water play both calming or invigorating depending on the activity being presented. Vigorous splashing and kicking and running around in the water can be an excellent outlet for pent up energy. A great way for kids to have fun and let off steam! This activity taps into language and motor skills. Babies are born naturally loving water so when you both need to de-stress this week make a mini-pool with your large bin and practice some kicking.
Place your baby in the water and when they kick repeat the word “kick, kick kick” . If you have done any type of swim lessons then they might already be familiar with this word.
Try this week to get them to “kick when you tell them to – to practice following directions and practice having them repeat the word “kick”
See more: water activities to do with your toddler
Objective: Practice fine motor skills
Supplies for this activity: Playdough or homemade playdough in red, blue, yellow and (optional) green.
How to Play: Have you tried introducing playdough play? Did you know that this is not just fun but a material used to work on fine motor skills at preschools and homeschools? It promotes eye-hand coordination, it worked with the senses and my favorite: it works on pre-writing skills!
When your tabby plays with playdough, his pincer grip (the squeezing of pointer finger and thumb to grasp an object) improves. An improved pincer grip enhances your child’s pre-writing skills. Work on that ponders grasp to work on the muscles that later on will be used to learn to hold a pencil.
No matter if you choose to make your own playdough, or take out the store-bought playdough get ready for some pre-writing skills to be practiced.
Take out some playdough, some plastic cookie cutters (optional) and play.
Use natural ingredientas and learn how to make the softest homemade playdough? Playdough Recipe >>
Objective: Identify body parts using art materials
Supplies for this activity: Whipped cream, food coloring, paintbrush, doll
How to Play:
Make puffy paint by mixing whipped cream and food coloring and use a doll (that can get messy) and a paintbrush and use the puffy paint to paint different parts of the body.
You can do this activity in the bathtub and allow your toddler to paint themselves. Identify each body part as they paint it and encourage them to paint different body parts.
Use a mirror to show them where their nose is and paint it!
Learn how to make edible-safe puffy paint >
Objective: Eye-hand coordination, recognizing body parts
Materials: Mirror, dry-erase marker
Sit your child in front of a mirror and give them a dry erase marker. Allow them to draw on their reflection and name the body parts they are (and you are) drawing.
When done, clean mirror with water and a towel. Your toddler can help out with the clean up part too!