Blog: Toddlers

Good morning! It’s the middle of the week again. Here are three invitations for toddlers today.

Art/Fine Motor Invitation: Mark-making with markers

For an interesting change, you might consider using very large paper, or very small paper, or a large piece of cardboard. Markers’s bright colors and ease of use make them a very satisfying material for making marks. This is a time for creative expression and developing fine motor skills.

Fine Motor Invitation: Cups and leaves

This morning, you and your child can gather some edible or non-toxic leaves from your yard (or windowsill garden or refrigerator). Set them on a tray with some empty cups. What will your toddler do with these simple materials? Will they cook? Make drinks? Sort the leaves? Use their fingers to rip the leaves? If you use herbs this is an opportunity to explore smell as well as touch.

Optional extension – cutting the leaves with scissors

Sensory/Outdoor Invitation: Water play with ice

Find a shady place outside for this invitation. You can use a large block of ice or a couple of cups of ice cubes. Put them on a tray with a bowl of water. You could also include some polar bear or penguin figures for a dramatic play extension, or tongs and spoons for moving the ice. Some dump trucks could also provide an interesting transporting option. 

This is an opportunity for children to explore the changing physical properties of ice and water, to use small motor skills, and keep cool.

Good morning! Here are three invitations for toddlers on another warm day in June.

Outdoor/Sensory Invitation: Watering cans and water

It has been several days since it has rained, so it looks like a good day to practice caring for your garden by giving things a drink. Toddlers are often intrigued by how watering cans work, how they can direct the water to one plant or another, and how tipping the can makes the water come out faster until it is all gone. If you do not have a watering can, your child can use a pitcher or other container to help water the plants.

Fine Motor Invitation: Play dough, tubes, leaves

For this fine motor invitation you will need a collection of edible or non-toxic leaves, some play dough and segments of a paper towel tube or other tube. Offer these items to your toddler and see what they do. What can they use the tubes for? How will they use the leaves? What will they construct with these materials? Is there anything else they would like to add?

Art Invitation: Making marks with paint

This morning invite your toddler to explore paint on paper using brushes, or their fingers if they prefer. We recommend using washable, non-toxic paint for this and all toddler paint explorations. You can offer one color, or a pair of primary colors, or one color plus white or black to explore hues. 

This is an opportunity to explore color, creative expression, and use motor skills.

Good morning! We hope you had some lovely moments over the weekend. It looks like it is going to be a warm week, so we have lots of invitations planned that will work inside or outside.

Large Motor/Outdoor Invitation: Toddler walk

This morning, before it gets too warm, we invite you to go on a walk with your toddler. Proceed at their pace, stop when they stop, examine what they examine. What will you both discover about the world in this way? What does your child notice? Where do they want to go?

Art/Outdoor Invitation: Sidewalk chalk

You could take your sidewalk chalk with you and write encouraging messages in front of a neighbor’s house, or use them at home to transform rocks or bricks. Children can find wonderful and interesting things to do with sidewalk chalk. It might be a form of mark making and creative expression, it might be more of a fine motor building experience, or even a large motor exploration.

Sensory Invitation: Washing baby dolls

When the day is warmer, pull out a clean, empty storage bin or even an old baby bathtub, add some water, a washcloth, and invite your child to give one of their baby dolls a bath. Watch how they approach the task. What connections do you see between the way they bathe their baby and your toddler’s bathtime? This simple-seeming care routine is rich in opportunities to connect, use cognitive and motor skills, and solve problems.

Good morning. We want to take a moment to share an opportunity for children and families.  Tomorrow there will be 60-minute special called, “Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism. A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Kids and Families” on Saturday, June 6, at 10 a.m. ET. The target audience for this is slightly older children, but it might be helpful for families of children of all ages.