Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday November 24th – Get Up and Go!: Play for Toddlers (1-3yrs_) Hi everyone and welcome back to another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday! Last week we talked about playing, or really more foundation building, with babies and this week I want to continue our discussion on the Practice of Play with a focus on our toddlers, ages 1-3. Make sure to check out our past Early Literacy Tip videos on our Facebook page or our website, under the Children’s virtual programming tab. Okay, let’s get started! This video is titled “Get Up and Go” because, really, that’s what sums up toddlers the best. They are always on the move, switching between activities, and trying new things. This age is great because now they are working off of the foundational skills you helped with when they were babies, and now they can try out new things on their own. Kids this age have so much energy and love to move around. If we really want to break this down, we can thank rapidly growing gross motor skills for this attitude. When you learn how to do something new, aren’t you excited to keep on doing it and showing other people? This “something new” can be as simple as running full speed for toddlers. Let’s look at some ways to work out that energy out and help continue to develop those skills! Let’s start simple, with things you can do at home. 1. Dancing! Not only is singing songs and grooving along fun and a great way to build vocabulary, dancing is a great way to strengthen core muscles and work on coordination. Follow along to the lyrics to songs like “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Hokey Pokey” or play freeze and pause the music mid-verse to work on stopping mid-motion. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 2. Bubbles and Balloons. Chasing anything that floats, is sure to be a hit. Work on hand-eye coordination, jumping, and focus by trying to keep a balloon off the ground or pop all the bubbles before they hit the ground. 3. Obstacle Courses. This doesn’t have to be as extreme as American Ninja Warrior, all you need is things you can put on the ground, like pillows or tape, and then set some easy rules. The floor is lava! or follow the tape lines, are great games to play that work on controlling the entire body and work on exercising your toddler’s midline when they are trying to balance. If you want to get out of the house, a simple trip to the playground is great! Playground equipment like slides, swings, and wiggly bridges are awesome for building gross motor skills and using all that energy. Children’s Museums are perfect places for families with young kiddos. Around here, the Peoria Playhouse and the Normal Children’s Discovery Museum are great places to visit. Keep an eye on their social media to know when they’ll be open soon. Even if your child can sit still for a period of time, they’re still going to have busy hands. Here are some ideas for toys and activities that will keep them busy while helping out with fine motor skills, and early learning. 1. Toys that help with real-world skills, like toys with snaps, buttons, or zippers. These are fun and will help them work on these skills that they’ll need soon when they’re in a school setting or anywhere else. 2. Matching, Fitting, and Put-Together Toys. We expose babies to new colors and shapes with these kinds of toys, and then we can help our toddlers learn their names and how they fit together as they grow a little older! Teaching the rainbow, or what shapes make up things, and the alphabet are easier when there are manipulatives involved that kids can play with while they learn. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 3 3. Sensory Bins. Sensory bins are easy to make and great for so many reasons. Everyone has sensory needs and exposing young children to lots of different textures, sounds, and visually stimulating sensory items is great for their cognitive development. Add cups and funnels to a bin filled with rice or beans and work on scooping and pouring skills. Hide small toys in the bin and play an exploring game. Check out the link in the description for more reasons how sensory bins are awesome and some ideas for how to make your own. If you want to get really messy and create something unique, try making a spaghetti noodle or jello sensory bin! For more fine motor activities to enjoy, refer back to our “Fine Motor Skills for Future Writers” video. All the five practices are intertwined and like I said in our first Play video, a lot of learning for kids is through play! Remember how we talked about Play through two lenses, imitation and imagination? As toddlers grow, they will still learn a lot through imitation, but we can also start to see their imagination develop too! You might notice that when a toddler is playing pretend with Little People, animal toys, or dollhouse people, that they might repeat phrases that they’ve heard adults say. They might say, “It’s time for bed. Let’s go night-night.” They’re learning from what they’ve seen and heard, but they will also start to mix and match phrases and concepts. Their imagination is budding and you can help it grow by asking questions about what they are doing. It’s easy to want to step in and narrate exactly what our child is doing, but remember to take a second and let them express themselves. Remember our Wait 5 Seconds rule when asking a question? Now’s the time to start using that rule and encouraging kids to express their own thoughts and feelings. Older toddlers will also start to develop their social skills. Playing with siblings, cousins, or other children around their age will help them learn about how to get along Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 4 with others. Children this age might be shy or hesitant to play with others and that’s alright. Encourage side-by-side play where children play independently near each other. Children will instinctively watch each other and will slowly become more comfortable with each other overtime. This is also an age where sharing and turn taking might become a little bit difficult. While these can be hard concepts to teach, they are great opportunities to talk through feelings and how to use manners with others. Communication with kids is just as important as communication with adults. Listen and help your child share their feelings about a situation and help them learn new ways to respond, if their response is inappropriate. Just like with babies, parent and toddler groups, playdates, and library storytimes are great places to work on these new social skills. Okay that’s just a quick look at Play with toddlers, our 1-3 year olds. If you want to discover more activities for this age group, check out the links in the description. I also want to recommend the book Playful Parenting by Dr. Lawrence J. Cohen. This book covers how play is a child’s first language, how a child learns, and includes tips on using play as a learning experience all throughout your child’s life. A couple libraries in our system have a copy, so stop by Tremont Library to reserve a copy for yourself today! Thank you all once again for joining me for another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday. Next week we’ll wrap up our discussion on the practice of Play with a talk about how Play is a preschooler’s “work”. See you all next week! Book Recommendations: Playful Parenting by Dr. Lawrence J. Cohen Sources: https://peoriaplayhouse.org/ https://www.childrensdiscoverymuseum.net/ Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 5 https://yourkidstable.com/ultimate-list-of-sensory-bin-ideas/ https://handsonaswegrow.com/50-toddler-activities/
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