My kids still sleep with a mound of stuffed animals around them. When I peek in on them before I go to bed I find they both stretched out on their backs dozing peacefully. Tucked under their arms and all around them are monkeys and giraffes and bears and bunnies with well worn ears and noses. An entire zoo right there in their bed.

Animals have been a huge part of their childhood so far. Most little kids seem fascinated by the world of animals.

also read: 20+ Unit Ideas for Kids Who Love Animals

We read endless imagination filled books about zoo animals and we tromp around the zoo in search of animals.

Since this is an interest that seems to follow children through childhood below are zoo animal ideas for every age baby through early elementary school.

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Zoo Animal Learning Activities by Age

Scroll down for zoo animal activities that are perfect for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and school aged kids!

For Babies: Zoo Animal Peekaboo

How to Make a Zoo Peekaboo Game

Materials:

• Laundry Basket / Table Top / Empty Wall
• Animal Picture Pairs (Make your own or order these – note the ones linked are not identical to the ones I used when they were babies. I wish I had saved them but hindsight…the ones linked are instead the ones I made and have used since they were toddlers.)
• Contact Paper
• Tape

How to Make:

Select a surface at your child’s height to place the game. I did mine on the bottom of a flipped over laundry basket, but a short table, shelf, or low wall space would work well.

1. Tape the full animal pictures onto the surface and cover in contact paper.
2. Laminate the closer animal pictures.
3. Tape one end of each closer animal picture on top of the matching pair.

That’s it! So easy, right?

Even better, this activity help develop the following skills:

• Interesting reason to practice standing.
• Fine motor practice as they work on lifting the flaps
• Practice with cognitive and language skills as they recognize, name, and even make the noise of the animal they find.

Extension Ideas:

Make another version with something else that interests your child. Some ideas include;

• Family members
• Household items
• Vehicles

4 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Babies

1. Make a Song Cube like this one with Animal Pictures
2. Read some awesome Zoo Animal Picture Books
3. Sensory Zoo Activity: Exploring Animal Textures
4. How to make a Sock Monkey (Craft for Mama, but what baby wouldn’t love playing with this?)

For Toddlers: Zoo Animal Photo Cards

Toddlers are OBSESSED with learning new words. “What’s that?” or just “That?” was one of the most common phrases in our house at this age. This is the age for books of real images that they can look to and point at all day – and also for photo cards.

More ideas for matching games and other extensions are below but start with just the cards.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper

How to Make:

Use contact paper to cover the photos and make them more durable with all the inevitable drooling, mouthing, bending and general love that toddlers give all things

THEN place these cards in a basket or on a low table for your child to discover. When they do, let them explore. If they look to you or ask what something is, use simple words to talk to them about the cards. “You are looking at a giraffe” or “What do you see?”

This activity help develop the following skills:

• new vocabulary
• finger isolation when they point which helps later fine motor skills
• social skills as they engage you in talking about the pictures

Extension Ideas:

• Tell a story using your photo cards. Put them in a pile face down and flip over one at a time. “Once upon a time there was a lion and he went for a walk and ran into…flip over another card” It doesn’t really matter what your story is about. Keep it simple and just have fun.
• Matching game. Use the close up and far away cards to match. Make it hard and play as a memory card game.
• Match the card to a toy version of the animals. This picture to object matching is an important pre-literacy skill
• Make a book or photo cards of a trip you take to a farm, the store, anywhere that interests them.

8 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Toddlers

1. Learn this Hey Elephant Song (with printable visuals)
2. Sensory Zoo Activity: Exploring Animal Textures
3. Read some awesome Zoo Animal Picture Books
4. Dear Zoo Story Spoons
5. Zoo Animals Small World Play
6. Easy Zebra Slime
7. Animal Charades with Printable
8. Paper Plate Bear Craft

For Preschoolers: Zoo Animal Tracing

Drawing and tracing lines is a pre-literacy skill that works on building the fine motor skills needed to write letters and words. Bonus – kids seem to find dry erase markers fascinating and fun.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper
• Washable Dry Erase Markers
• Wash cloth or paper towel

How to Make:

Simply cover the zoo animal photos with contact paper.

Put the cards with the dry erase markers and wash cloth on a low table.

When your child is interested, invite them to use the dry erase marker to trace the animal.

Note: depending on the age of your preschooler “tracing” may look less like tracing and more like coloring on the animal. Go with it. 

Demonstrate tracing the edges of an animal of your own and then show them how to erase the marker with their wash cloth.

This activity help develop the following skills:

• Fine Motor grip
• Hand-eye coordination

Extension Ideas:

• Add more details to the animal picture. Can they draw some food for the animal? What does the animal play with?
• Play hide and seek with the animal cards. Hide the full photos around the room and give your preschoolers the zoomed in photos as clues / visual reminders of what to look for.

12 More Zoo Animal Ideas for Preschoolers

1. Host a Safari Themed Playdate
2. Animal Fashion Show
3. Bears Picture Books + Big and Small Animals Sort
4. Learn about Polar Bears with this awesome booklist
5. Zoo Animals Theme with Sensory Play and Printables
6. Zoo Animal Counting Mats
7. Zoo Animal Books for Children and even more Zoo Animal Picture Books
8. Zoo Centers and Activities
9. Edible Zoo Animals Sensory Bin
10. Zoo Themed Counting Clip Cards 1-10
11. Dear Zoo Story Stones

Note: Many of the toddler and school age activities above and below may also work well for your child!

For K & First Grade: Writing with Zoo Animal Cards

I love finding ways to make writing more meaningful for my kids and we did this as part of their animal study.

They each had an animal that they love and wanted to learn more about. We took cameras to the Zoo. They took pictures and I took pictures of their favorite animals. We also talked about some of the things we observed their favorite animals doing.

Back at home I set this up as a writing invitation using our photo cards and also included a photo they had taken at the zoo of their favorite animal.

Materials:

• Zoo Animal Printable Photo Cards (use your photos or get these)
• Contact Paper
• Paper
• Pencils and coloring tools

How to Make:

Laminate the cards and place on the table with the other materials.

THEN after your child has had some time to look at the cards and talk about them, as them to write about one or more of the animals.

Depending on your goals this activity will vary.

Kindergarteners might just draw a picture of the animal and work on using their best handwriting to label it with the animal’s name.

For slightly older elementary schoolers: If you are working on non-fiction, have them write a fact about the animal. If you’re working on just writing, have them write a story about the animal.

For my first graders doing an animal study, I asked them to write something they had learned and a question they still had. We used this question to go forward with their study.

This activity help develop the following skills:

• Communicating using words and pictures.
• Understanding the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
• Adding details, capitalization and punctuation to their writing.

Extension Ideas:

• Work on story telling. Give each child a card – or you take half and your child takes half – and go around the circle adding to a story using your photo as a prompt.
• Draw or build a habitat for your chosen animal. Where do they live? What do they eat? What do they need to survive?

8 More Zoo Animal Activities for School Aged Kids

1. Join Suzi’s FREE Wild Animal Passport Club for Kids
2. Make Chocolate Strawberry Zebras for Snack
3. Elephant Craft with Newspaper
4. Going to the Zoo Interactive Book for Emergent Readers
5. Jungle Animals Playset from Toilet Paper Rolls
6. Complete the Animals Kids Craft Activity
7. A-Z Animal Hunt
8. Zoo Scavenger Hunt
9. Zookeeper Training Unit Pack

Note: Many of the preschool activities above may also work for your child!

Get Zoo Animals Photo Cards

Z is for…

Looking for more ideas? Here are some more Z ideas from the A-Z Play at Home series.

• • Zoom Car Play Box from Teach Me Mommy
  • Dear Zoo Story Stones from The Gingerbread House
  • Zoo Animal Picture Books from My Storytime Corner

We’re nearing the end of a fantastic month of alphabet fun with the 31 Days of ABC! All this month activities, crafts, books, apps, and more, all dedicated to teaching young children the alphabet have been shared.

Find more great resources in our series from past years: 31 Days of ABCs 2013, 2014, and 2016!

Don’t forget to follow our 31 Days of ABCs Pinterest board for even more great ABC ideas!

31 Days of ABC

Teaching the ABCs – October 1

A – October 2

B – October 3

C – October 4

D – October 5

E – October 6

F – October 7

G – October 8

H – October 9

I – October 10

J – October 11

K – October 12

L – October 13

M – October 14

N – October 15

O – October 16

P – October 17

Q – October 18

R – October 19

S – October 20

T – October 21

U – October 22

V – October 23

W – October 24

X – October 25

Y – October 26

Z – October 27

123’s – October 28

Prewriting – October 29

Books, Songs, & Apps – October 30

Printables – October 31

Two bodies. Carefully building. Quiet conversation.

Concentration on their faces that are being lit up by the light table.

We gave our kids a light table when they turned 2 and four years later is it one of the few things they still consistently enjoy.

My kids bicker like normal siblings, but when you click on the light table with some engaging materials it is like magic.

Below are some of our favorite ways to play with the light table. The ways I first introduced it’s possibilities to them when they were toddlers.

Hopefully you can also discover the same magic.

affiliate links are included below

Why a Light Table?

We don’t buy a lot of toys.

Right now in particular we live in a 900 sq foot apartment so if it’s coming home with us then it needs to be awesome.

When we moved from our house in Mississippi we downsized A LOT but one of the things that made yet another move was our light table. Why?

There are two things I look for with toys. 

1. Will this last?Not just will it withstand play and moving, but is it something they will play with for more than a week. I want toys that will grow with them for at least a while.A light table captures the attention and interest of babies, but it also delights my first graders. It never fails to be a hit with any age when we have kids over for a play date.
2. Is it open ended?Does it have multiple ways we can use it? Does it encourage curiosity and problem solving?The answer to all of these for the light table is absolutely.As you’ll see below the light table, even for the under 3 crowd, can be used for art, exploration, and building.

A light table is a compelling surface that makes you look at ordinary things in a different way. It is engaging, thought provoking, and inspires creativity.

Does everyone need one? No.

Would everyone benefit? Yes.

Where do you get a Light Table?

I realize they aren’t bounding off the shelves at every toy store, so this is a fair question.

We built our own. My husband likes to build things and we have definitely reaped the benefits.

If you’re not feeling like spending hours in a tool shed is your idea of fun, then there are other options.

Amazon

There are a variety of light tables on Amazon that can appear on your doorstep in a few days. I think for home, I like this one the best.

Constructive Playthings

This is a great source for kids play furniture and materials. They also have several sizes of light table, as well as this Light Box if you’re concerned about space.

Discount School Supply

I ordered materials from DSS all the time when I worked at a child care center. It is great for bulk art materials, but they also have a huge collection of light tables and materials.

Our Favorite Light Table Activity Ideas

We had light tables in our infant and toddler classrooms at the centers I worked at before kids. Between those experiences and the ones with my own kids, I have tried a variety of light table activities with young kids.

These are the best.

Light Table + Sensory Bags

Sensory bags are always good squishy fun, but they are the absolute best on a light table. Read More.

Light Table + Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles can be found in pretty much every infant and toddler play space across the country, but have you ever used them on a light table?  Read more. 

Magna-tiles + Light

Two of our favorite things. They are both awesome, but together is how we love them the most. Read more. 

Coloring on Light

Nothing reinvigorates a box of crayons and piece of paper like a light table. Read more. 

Painting on Light

Mastered coloring? Ready for more? Painting on a light table is messy, but a completely different painting experience for kids. Read more. 

more a-z play at home ideas

Lego City from Teach Me Mommy

How to Set Up a Lego Ring Toss from The Gingerbread House

Little Excavator Inspired Big & Little Story Time from My Storytime Corner

Complete A-Z Series

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One extremely hot day I decided to test the theory of “the sun is so hot…” No I did not try to fry an egg, but I did put some colored ice cubes out on the sidewalk and WOW did they melt fast.

For a little extra fun, I threw some food coloring into the water before we froze it. The result was this colorful, melting toddler friendly experiment.

affiliate links are included below.

 Colorful Ice Cube Melting Exploration

Set Up:

1. Fill your ice cube trays with water and then add a dash of color to each cube space. I used food coloring but liquid watercolors also work well and are a little more washable.

2. Freeze the ice cubes. I prepared mine the night before to make sure they were completely frozen.

3. Have a clean up plan! Towels on hand is a good start.

4. Put the ice cubes in a plastic container to transport outside right before you head outside.

5. You may want to strip your little one down to their diaper if you don’t want them to get clothing too messy. Our twins usually did activities like this in their washable Bumgenius diapers.

Activity:

Science for little ones is mostly about exploring and observing with your senses. Encourage your little ones to explore the ice cubes. My little guys were intrigued by the color and coldness of the cubes while they worked at picking them up.

read also: Apple vs. Ball STEM Experiment

While they explore, you can:

*Ask questions such as “What’s happening?” or “What do you see?” or “How does that feel?”

*Watch how they explore. What interests them? What do they seem to be trying to figure out?

*Describe what they are doing with descriptive words like to help build vocabulary; wet, cool, melting, liquid, green

Clean Up:

*Have towels or access to a sink ready before you start.

*When your child is done playing, dry them off to move them inside.

*The food coloring will temporarily dye their skin, but it will wash off with soap.

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I can feel the cold seeping in through our old home’s walls as I watch my twins toddle laps across the wood floors. It is below zero again outside and as much as I love going on adventures with my babies, we will not be going anywhere today.

With the thermostat turned up another couple degrees to ward off the cold, I wonder what are we going to do in here all day? 

One of our favorite activities is painting. My kids love the sensory squishiness of paint and I love that they are developing their curiosity. Despite that, I sometimes avoid pulling out the paints. Especially with babies it is just so messy.

However, today we have nowhere to go. The cold has given us the gift of endless time to make a mess and clean it up. There is a problem though. As I watch them trying to worm their little bodies onto the couch I know they are not going to sit still for long.

Babies need to move. They are entrenched in the task of learning how to coordinate their bodies to crawl and walk. This is a task they take quite seriously and hours of our day are focused on climbing, crawling, walking with push toys, and cruising along furniture.

Also Read: 10 Gross Motor Activities for Infants + Toddlers

They want to move, they love to paint, so let’s combine the two!

post has been updated. originally shared May 2014.

4 Ways to Promote Infant Gross Motor Development Through Art

1. Large Floor Paint

Target skill: Crawling

When our infants started crawling, I covered our ENTIRE dining room floor in paper. I put a few plates with paint on them spread out around the paper. I sat them down on the paper (away from the paint to motivate some initial movement) and sat back.

Immediately they crawled for the paint and soon there were little paint tracks all over the paper. The immense size of the paper allowed them to really explore and move around.

Big Art might seem intimidating and a bath was certainly needed to de-paint them, but it is so worth it.

Materials You Will Need:

Huge Roll of Paper

Tape (to secure paper to the floor and pieces to each other)

Plates or Cookie Sheets (to hold paint)

Tempera Paint (non-toxic & washable)

Set Up + Activity: 

Cover a HUGE portion of floor with paper. You will need to tape several pieces together – some overlap is good. Tape all of the paper down to secure for crawling babies.

Spread out some plates with paint .

I usually put our kids in diapers for this kind of activity and make sure I’m wearing clothes that can get paint on them. Tempera Paint is washable but this just makes me less tense.

Crawl and paint!

Clean Up Plan:

I did my best to keep my kids on the paper but of course we got some marks on the floor. This is best done on washable floors.

When they are done painting, they will be covered in paint. Put your kids directly into the bath to wash off the paint. Tempera Paint washes off pretty easily except for the Magenta. For some reason that is the one color that seems to linger a little longer on their skin for us. When they are clean, put them somewhere safe and contained. Options: cribs with some toys, high chairs with a snack, room within your sight but behind a gate.

Then move paint trays to the sink. Hang the painted paper up high or throw away. We saved a portion and tossed the rest (remember the process was the point! Some of ours was really pretty though so I framed a big piece.) Then use a sponge or Clorox wipes to wipe up any paint that strayed off the paper.

2. Box Painting

Target Skill: Pulling to a Stand

Pulling to a stand often quickly follows crawling. This is the time when your infant is suddenly popping up along the couch and lower tables.

I was slightly concerned that paint covered babies would be crawling around the floor that, unlike the previous activity was not covered in paper, but this was not the case. I spread out our old large IKEA curtain and put a paper covered box in the middle. A large diaper box would work great. I put the paint on a tray on the floor and encouraged them to paint the top.

They were very engaged in this activity and we ended up with a well painted box and they got lots of practice reaching down to get the paint and standing back up.

Materials You Will Need:

Huge Roll of Paper

Big Box

Paper, Old Curtain, or Tarp to cover floor

Tape (to secure paper to the box and pieces to each other)

Plates or Cookie Sheets (to hold paint)

Tempera Paint (non-toxic & washable)

Set Up + Activity: 

Cover a big box with paper.

Place it on top of a large floor cover.

Spread out some plates with paint around the box.

I usually put our kids in diapers for this kind of activity and make sure I’m wearing clothes that can get paint on them. Tempera Paint is washable but this just makes me less tense.

Stand and paint. Having the paint on the floor encourage them to stand up and bend back down a lot. If they are just sitting on the floor encourage them to paint the top of the box by patting the top or drawing a shape or lines and saying something like “Look how the yellow and green mix together when I do this!”

Clean Up Plan:

I did my best to keep my kids on the paper but of course we got some marks on the floor. This is best done on washable floors.

When they are done painting, they will be covered in paint. Put your kids directly into the bath to wash off the paint. Tempera Paint washes off pretty easily except for the Magenta. For some reason that is the one color that seems to linger a little longer on their skin for us. When they are clean, put them somewhere safe and contained. Options: cribs with some toys, high chairs with a snack, room within your sight but behind a gate.

Then move paint trays to the sink. Put the box up high or throw away. Your tarp can get wiped off, put up high until later, or if you use an old curtain it can go straight in the laundry. Then use a sponge or Clorox wipes to wipe up any paint that strayed off the paper.

3. Wall Art

Target Skill: Standing

Wall Art is good for almost walkers through younger toddlers.

Attach a large piece of paper to the wall and offer either coloring or painting materials. We have done this in a wide variety of settings and with different materials. It is an easy one to set up and seemed highly motivating to our infants.

If you are painting, covering the floor beneath the paper is a good idea unless you are painting outside.

When we did coloring for the first time, around the time our babies were 15m, I emphasized that the colors “stay by the paper.” They were free to wander off and return, but the markers needed to stay by the paper. When they started to totter off with a marker in hand, I would kindly remind them “the markers need to stay by the paper” and took the marker and placed it back in the basket. I did have to say this a few hundred times the first couple of days, but it set a good precedent.

We now have a similar rule for all art materials staying in our art space, chalk staying at the chalk table, etc. Paint, with infants, on the other hand is more of a one time event.

When they want to be done we get all cleaned up and then we are done for the day or the morning. If that’s frustrating you can kindly say “you seem upset that we are done. It sounds like you liked painting a lot and we should do it again soon!”

Materials You Will Need:

Huge Roll of Paper

Tape (to secure paper to the wall and floor)

Plates or Cookie Sheets (to hold paint)

Tempera Paint (non-toxic & washable) or other art materials

Set Up + Activity: 

Cover a HUGE portion of wall with paper at your child’s eye level. If painting, I also recommend taping some paper to the floor or covering it with something else. Tape all of the paper down to secure for crawling babies.

Spread out some plates with paint .

I usually put our kids in diapers for this kind of activity and make sure I’m wearing clothes that can get paint on them. Tempera Paint is washable but this just makes me less tense.

Stand, walk, and paint.

Clean Up Plan:

I did my best to keep my kids on the paper but of course we got some marks on the floor. This is best done on washable floors.

When they are done painting, they will be covered in paint. Put your kids directly into the bath to wash off the paint. Tempera Paint washes off pretty easily except for the Magenta. For some reason that is the one color that seems to linger a little longer on their skin for us. When they are clean, put them somewhere safe and contained. Options: cribs with some toys, high chairs with a snack, room within your sight but behind a gate.

Then move paint trays to the sink. Hang the painted paper up high or throw away. We saved a portion and tossed the rest. Then use a sponge or Clorox wipes to wipe up any paint that strayed off the paper.

4. Feet Painting

Target Skill: Walking

We have done feet painting two ways with mobile children. The first was still before they were independently walking. This meant that they were holding on to an adults hand. It took a bit of a twister act for me to accomplish this with our twins, so I recommend a helping adult if you are attempting this with multiples, if possible.

Once they were stable walkers, we repeated it again.

Similar to the crawling activity, I spaced out the trays of paint to motivate them to move around more. I also prompted them with questions like, “can you stomp to the blue paint?” or “how does it feel when you walk on the paper?”

Materials You Will Need:

Huge Roll of Paper

Tape (to secure paper to the floor and pieces to each other)

Plates or Cookie Sheets (to hold paint)

Tempera Paint (non-toxic & washable)

Set Up + Activity: 

Cover a big portion of floor with paper. You will need to tape several pieces together – some overlap is good or just make one really long trail to walk along. Tape all of the paper down to secure for walking babies.

Put a tray of paint on two ends of the paper.

I usually put our kids in diapers for this kind of activity and make sure I’m wearing clothes that can get paint on them. Tempera Paint is washable but this just makes me less tense.

Dip feet in the paint and then walk to make tracks.

Clean Up Plan:

I did my best to keep my kids on the paper but of course we got some marks on the floor. This is best done on washable floors or outside (obviously on a less cold day)

When they are done painting, they will be covered in paint. Again you will want to put them directly into the tub or have a huge amount of water and washcloths on hand. When they are clean, put them somewhere safe and contained. Options: cribs with some toys, high chairs with a snack, room within your sight but behind a gate.

Then move paint trays to the sink. Hang the painted paper up high or throw away. Then use a sponge or Clorox wipes to wipe up any paint that strayed off the paper.

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Our twins love the water. They have loved the water since they were infants. They took swim lessons, but we also liked to play with them in the pool to practice swimming and just have fun.

Here are some fun and easy ways to play with toddlers and preschoolers in the water.

affiliate links may be included below.

5 Pool Games for Pre-Swimmers

1. Ball Throw & Swim

This is pretty straightforward. Bring some waterproof balls that float to the pool. Have your child throw them and then swim after them. For kids that aren’t super motivated to practice kicking in the water, having something to chase after can be helpful.

2. Kick Slow, Kick Fast

Usually we play this while they hold on to the side, but you could also do it while you are holding on to your toddler. We say we are going to practice kicking and then we ask if they want to start by going fast or slow. Then we kick fast together saying kick kick kick kick quickly. Then someone calls out stop. And then we say kick…kick…kick…slowly.

3. Water Peekaboo

We make a game of putting our faces under the water. Hold your child in front of you, bob your head under the water and say “peekaboo” when you pop up. Encourage them to do the same.

4. Gather the Floaties

Bring a bucket and a few floating toys. Maybe a family of ducks or two little boats. Pour them into the water and let them float away a little. Similar to the “Ball Throw & Swim,” you are swimming to the items with your little one, grabbing the object, but this time instead of throwing it you are swimming back to put it in the bucket. This game provides good opportunities to practice using arms and legs in the water, but also gives you a chance to practice counting as you gather the objects.

5. Sing Songs

When our little bambini took swimming lessons, our instructor sang “The Royal Duke of York” with us in the water. There is also the old favorite “Motor Boat.” We’ve also invented our own song, sung to the tune of the Wheels on the Bus.

The Baby in the Water

The baby in the water goes splash splash splash, splash splash splash, splash splash splash. The baby in the water goes splash, splash, splash, when we play in the pool.

The baby in the water goes kick, kick, kick…. (kicking legs)

The baby in the water goes blub, blub, blub… (blowing bubbles)

The baby in the water falls fast asleep… (floating on back)

Click to Read 26+ More A-Z Toddler Ideas

Babies and Toddlers are active little ones that are in constant search of ways to practice and develop their Gross Motor skills. I don’t think we often think of learning to crawl or balance or walk as curriculum, but for babies and younger toddlers this is what they are learning.

This is what they are interested in right now.

When my twins were in this crawling, cruising, starting to walk phase they wanted to be constantly in motion. This can be crazy making, but if you give them some activities to do that target these developing gross motor skills you will have happy and eventually tuckered out (yay nap time!) little ones.

Here are 10 of our favorite ways to move little bodies while you learn, create, and have fun.

affiliate links are included below. thanks for your support!

10 Gross Motor Activities for Infants and Toddlers

1. Big Paper Paint

One of the things I love most about Children’s Museums is the opportunity for large scale art. They have the space and materials to scale an entire wall with art. To have a cooperative mural covering a large table. To have a large weaving experience. To have an easel big enough for several children to create.

Inspired by these experiences, this is one of my favorite activities to do at home with older infants and young toddlers. This is a great activity for babies that encourages crawling or early walking while you paint.

Materials:

• Large Pieces of Paper
• Tape
• Paint
• Plate or Tray for Paint

Set Up:
Cover your floor in paper – the bigger the better.
Clear the general area around the paper.
Pour paint onto a tray or plate.

Activity:
I suggest striping your child down to their diaper and then offer them trays of different colored paint. I placed the trays in a couple different places around the paper to encourage them to crawl.
Allow them to crawl, walk, and paint everywhere on the paper and themselves. This is obviously messy – but the large scale of the painting gives them space to move around and explore their bodies while they paint.

Clean Up:
Remove paint trays to a counter or sink. Wash these later at your convenience.
Gate off the area if possible. This obviously makes it easier to try to clean without worrying about little ones crawling back into the area.
Either way, cleaning off your little ones is the first step. Mine went straight in the bathtub. The wonderful thing about tempera paint is how easily it washes right off.
Once your infants are cleaned off and happily situated with another activity or fast asleep, remove the paper from the floor. Save if so desired. Use a wet washcloth or wet wipe to clean any stray paint marks on the floor. Clorox wipes work well for me.

2. Texture Crawl 

This was inspired by a seriously cool floor at the Children’s Museum in Madison WI.  This is a quick do-it-yourself texture floor perfect for rolling and crawling babies.

Set Up:

Tape a long piece of butcher paper to the floor. Put it in a high traffic play area for your child to explore.

Cut your chosen materials down, if needed, to fit within the butcher paper. Attach your textured materials spaced out along the paper by securing all four corners with tape. Don’t be shy with the tape. The more thorough you are with this step, the better it will hold up. However, make sure you are leaving an adequate amount of the material exposed for exploration.

Activity:

Your infant(s) will likely discover this on their own – little ones tend to be naturally curious and observant of newness. As they explore the area, you can provide them with words to describe the textures they discover such as; scratchy, bumpy, shiny, smooth, etc.

3. Playmat Tunnel

Once my twins started moving, our playmat quickly became a discarded object in the corner until I had this brainstorm one afternoon. This is another fun way to utilize a playmat once your kids are on the move.

Set Up:
Cover two sides with blankets to create a tunnel.

Activity:
I sat on the opposite side to encourage my babies to crawl through. It was a short, non-intimidating tunnel so with only mild encouragement they ventured through. Place other exciting objects on the opposite side of the tunnel to encourage them to crawl back and forth. Play peekaboo around the sides.

Clean Up:
Remove the blankets when you are done with playtime.  This activity should definitely be supervised at all times.

4. DIY Climbing Box

Babies love to crawl over, climb on, and push things. Instead of following them around saying “No” all day, I decided to make something that they could use. The idea to form when I watched my daughter and a diaper wipe box. For most of a day I watched her push it around and sit on it, suddenly…inspiration struck!

To Create:
1. I filled the box to the top with textbooks I will probably never read again and some newspaper both to add weight to the box and support it under my child’s weight.
2. Then I taped it shut.
3. Covered it completely with duct tape. I attempted to make it look cute – not sure I succeeded.

My kids were thrilled. It has quickly become a fun heavy-work object to push, as well as a stool. Ours held up brilliantly through 3 years and 4 moves. Our twins used them endlessly for pushing, climbing on, or as part of an obstacle course.

5. Stuffed Friend Slide

Imaginative and social play activity integrated into movement activity with toddlers. All you need is a stuffed animal (or many) and a slide. We used our backyard toddler slide.

Rolling things down the slide is a popular toddler activity. We took it a step forward and took their stuffed friends and babies for a slide. We did this in our backyard, but it could also be done at a playground.

To start, I simply asked my toddlers if they thought Baby and Monkey would like to play on the slide with them. They thought it was a fabulous idea and so we headed outside with our friends in tow.

Once at the slide, depending on your toddler’s climbing skills you may have to hold their stuffed animal while they climb the slide. Once at the top ask if they would rather send the animal down first or have it slide next to them. In our case, some social practice with turn taking also took place as they waited for each other to go down the slide.

Continue for as long as they are interested. We eventually went back in and found some more friends that wanted to slide.

6. Animal Pull

Perfect activity for older infants or younger toddlers who are thrilled with their newly discovered walking abilities. Toddlers love pushing and pulling things. This activity provides them an additional opportunity for pulling something.

Simply tie a ribbon around the neck or middle of an animal. I used a darling collection of animals from an infant floor mat that went out of use when our little guys started moving. Most stuffed animals would work, although ones with four legs balance a little better.

The first time I brought these animals out I modeled “taking an animal for a walk.” My toddlers quickly imitated me and walked their animals back and forth, back and forth across our house. Super simple but my twins played with these endless for other a week.

read also: zoo animal activities for all ages

7. Toddler Yoga

Our toddlers’ first introduction to yoga was them imitating my movements alongside my mat on a typical morning and from there we have slowly built their skills. If you think your child would enjoy moving their body in a different way, feel free to introduce them to yoga independently of any workout you may do.

Here are some tips to start simple yoga with toddlers:

• Prepare a quiet space with mats or blankets to stand on. I cut a $10 yoga mat in half and it was the perfect size for each of my twins to have their own yoga space.
• Invite them to imitate simple poses such as Tree Pose or Downward Dog.
• Having a book to follow may help engage them further. One of our favorites is “Little Yoga: A Toddler’s First Book of Yoga” by Rebecca Whitford and Martina Selway.
• Try to have fun, follow their lead, and not worry to much about them getting it “right.”
• End by teaching them to say Namaste to each other.

8. Up and Down Obstacle Course

Toddlers will working on understanding the concepts of up and down, while they practice the gross motor skill of stepping up and down.

Set Up:
Position your boxes and stools around a room to create a course.

Activity:
Have your toddler line up behind you and demonstrate the course for them with energetic “up!” and “down!” as you go over the obstacles. From there encourage them to do it again and again.

9. Finding Circles

This is a toddler activity that combines shape recognition, flashlight play, and movement.

To Prepare:
Cut out some circles with Construction Paper
Tape them around your classroom or home at varying heights and spaces.
Consider positional words when placing (up, down, under, above, etc)
Gather Flashlights – one for each child

Activity:
Invite your child to go on a Circle Hunt with you. Give each child a flashlight and ask if they can shine their light on a circle. You may have to model this the first couple of times. Use language to describe where they find the circles and/or what color circle. For example, “you found a blue one above your head” or “that circle is next to the light switch” Soon you will have kids animated and running all over crying out “I found a circle!”

10. Toddler Tennis

This is an activity for you to do at the park with your child(ren) which was inspired by some amazing toddler teachers I worked with at UMCDC. To be fair, this only very loosely represents tennis, but it is a great movement and social skills activity.

Bring a couple of large bouncy balls (soccer or other balls work too) with you to a nearby tennis court.
Show your toddler how to bounce or throw the ball over the net. Encourage them to stand on the other side and bounce it back to you. Encourage them further to bounce the ball over the net to a peer if you have other children along.

Our goal was to encourage social interaction, build gross motor skills, and have fun. There were no rules or expectations beyond that. Have fun, move around, and be silly together.

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