Looking for Ideas for Activities

[mizmelzy6]

I work with infants. Youngest is 6months and oldest is 11 months (will be 12 months August 16th).k

I am working on lesson plans for next week and having trouble coming up with ideas. We plan for the developmental domans and then adapt those plans for the children in our class.

Looking for ideas for: Health & Physical Development, Cognitive & General Development, Language & Communication, and Social Emotional.

I like to keep looking for new ideas, and lately feel like I'm running out of them. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Melissa

[Michael]

Welcome to the forum. Here is a previous thread on Activities for Infants: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63356

[ellen211]

Hey! Welcome to this forum. I hope this forum will give you so much information that you can use in your kids.

[Zrlana]

puppets and soft toys, rockers and like foam slides and steps which you can change round and they crawl over, tunnel, maybe try doing painting with one child at a time, treasure baskets, music play, finger songs, big cars, garage, jigsaws etc with no little bits. a shallow water tray with ducks and other suitable toys, foam/material books the jigsaw mat for them to crawl on, pianno mat, mobiles-made by the setting hung from the ceeling, play mirrors and shiny things, material dominoes, dolls, big farm animal toys, big blocks, wooden blocks, tower cups, push a longs, sit and rides, shaving foam or jelly is sometimes put out for them to play in with their hands and feel, etc

areas:
mark making/messy
reading/quiet/song
water/sand
small world-i.e farm/cars
construction i.e bricks
sleeping room
center piece-e.g we put the foam stairs or catapillar tunnel or something out in the middle
eating area

hope this helps

[Cat Herder]

http://www.funshineextras.com/buttercups-supplements/

http://imaginationlearning.net/Documents-Current-Connections/Center2/Penguins/Curriculum/Infants%20Year%20Long%20Lesson%20Plans.pdf

http://www.jumpstart.com/parents/activities/baby-activities

These should get you started.

[MarinaVanessa]

When it comes to infants and toddlers the focus should mostly be about positive relationships (social-emotional). It's easy to over-complicate their "curriculum".

The rest comes naturally along with it like language, cognitive, motor, and perceptual.

You can easily cover all of the domains at the same time with a super simple activity like singing songs that have different hand motions like “Wheels on the Bus” or “Twinkle, Twinkle” and go slowly to allow them to watch your mouth movements or to try to control, time, and coordinate their movements with yours.

Or grab an object and explain it. Grab an apple and talk about how it's red, tastes sweet, is round like a sphere, it smooth and hard etc. (language development) while making eye contact (social-emotional). Babies will watch your mouth and possibly try to mimic you, may reach out to touch the apple or bring it towards their mouth (physical & cognitive ... tasting and feeling the apple and discovering texture, smell etc). I personally find that the simplest activities with infants and even toddlers are the most enjoyable.

[ellen211]

When it comes to infants and toddlers the focus should mostly be about positive relationships (social-emotional). It's easy to over-complicate their "curriculum".

The rest comes naturally along with it like language, cognitive, motor, and perceptual.

You can easily cover all of the domains at the same time with a super simple activity like singing songs that have different hand motions like “Wheels on the Bus” or “Twinkle, Twinkle” and go slowly to allow them to watch your mouth movements or to try to control, time, and coordinate their movements with yours.

Or grab an object and explain it. Grab an apple and talk about how it's red, tastes sweet, is round like a sphere, it smooth and hard etc. (language development) while making eye contact (social-emotional). Babies will watch your mouth and possibly try to mimic you, may reach out to touch the apple or bring it towards their mouth (physical & cognitive ... tasting and feeling the apple and discovering texture, smell etc). I personally find that the simplest activities with infants and even toddlers are the most enjoyable.

Hey! Thanks for giving me this idea. This will help

[Mariposa]

For future readers:

Put things in taped up plastic baggies-leaves, dirt (or crushed oreos-sugary but edible if you're worried about dirt and accedental digestion), ground up cheerios (sand) for supervised play, paint (color themed?) Etc.

Shaker bottles of various items, lids super glued.

Add things to blocks-add a mirror, animals.


Start stacking and knocking ovee and see if they can start imitating and doing more.

Simple things like peek a boo, hide a toy, encouraging crawling or whatever skills they are doing. Smile, read, and talk to them.

Play so big so small.

Hide toys under blankets.

Sing at diaper changes and talk through your actions. Same at food times.