Executive function
Toddlers practice watching and remembering the location of a moving toy car.
Be Prepared: The car should fit fully inside each cardboard box. If a box (pretend garage) has a flap(s) that closes so nothing in the box is visible, put the box on its side during the activity and pretend the flap is a garage door. If a box has no flap, put the box opening on the floor so the car can be fully hidden when put in the box (garage).
[Invite several toddlers to join you on the floor to play a game. Show the toy car and place the two cardboard boxes next to each other in front of the toddlers.]
Our game has a toy car and two boxes. We will pretend the boxes are garages. A garage is a place where a car can be parked.
Our toy car likes to drive around and then hide! Our car likes to hide in one of the garages. Let’s watch the car drive around and try to remember where the car hides.
What do we use to watch something? (our eyes)
[Point to your eyes when you encourage toddlers to watch.]
Please watch with your eyes to see where the car goes.
[Move the car around on the floor for a few seconds, always in front of the toddlers. Avoid holding the car in your hand where it is not visible. While the toddlers are watching, put the car in or under one of the boxes. Make sure the car is not visible after it is parked.]
The car drove into a garage. The car is hiding!
I am trying to remember which garage the car is in. I did not watch carefully to see where the car went!
[Have fun pretending you did not pay attention to where the car drove. Look first in or under the empty box. Show excitement when you find the car in or under the correct garage!]
The car is going to drive around and then hide again! This time I am going to watch the car closely. I want to remember where the car hides.
[Drive the car on the floor, always in full view of the toddlers. Drive the car under the previously empty garage.]
The car drove into a garage. The car is hiding from us again! This time I watched where the car went. I remember where the car went!
[Look in or under the correct garage. Show excitement when you find the car!]
I watched the car drive around and remembered where it was hiding. I found the car!
Should the car drive around and hide again?
[Repeat if the toddlers appear interested.]
We used our eyes to watch our toy car drive around and then hide. We could not see the car after it drove into the garage. We remembered where the car went because we watched with our eyes.
Executive function
Two toddlers take turns hiding a toy and identifying its location.
Be Prepared: This option is an adaptation of Option 1 and is designed for toddlers who recently participated in Option 1. See the Option 1 description of the two cardboard boxes. Limit participation to two toddlers at a time.
Invite two toddlers to join you on the floor to play a game. Introduce the car and two boxes that are pretend garages. Remind toddlers that the car likes to drive around and then hide. Explain that the two toddlers participating in this game will take turns driving and hiding the car, and telling where the car is hiding. Show toddlers how to hold the car so it can always be seen. You might want to show how putting the car in the palm of our hand can make it difficult to see the car.
Select one of the toddlers to drive the car around the floor and then hide the car in one of the garages. Offer verbal guidance as appropriate. Urge the other toddler to watch where the car goes, including where it hides. After the car is fully hidden in a garage, pause a few moments and then invite the second toddler to say or point to where the car is hiding. Show excitement when the car is shown. Emphasize that watching the car carefully helped the toddler remember where the car was hiding.
Reverse the toddlers’ roles, with the toddler who was the car’s driver in the first round serving as the careful watcher of where the car goes. Again, provide a brief pause after the car is hidden and then invite the watcher to tell or point to where the car is hiding.
If a toddler appears to be guessing which garage to look in or under, positively recognize the toddler’s effort and try another round. This time, offer reminders to keep watching as you quietly narrate the car’s movements.
Both options emphasize how watching helps us remember. Monitor toddlers’ visual tracking of the car in Option 1. Offer fewer and maybe slower movements of the car if it appears toddlers are looking elsewhere part of the time. Also monitor the watcher-toddler’s visual tracking of the car in Option 2. Offer reminders to watch if it seems the toddler is not fully engaged.
Option 2 includes a self-control task for the driver-toddler when you ask the watcher-toddler to identify the car’s hidden location. To help the driver-toddler resist the urge to tell or show the car’s location, you may wish to urge the driver-toddler to sit still while the watcher-toddler tells or points to the car’s location.
Emphasize the importance of watching. Never move the car in Option 1 when toddlers are not watching. Avoid changing the activities into a guessing game. Random guessing does not promote the idea that watching something helps us remember what happened to something. Do not suggest a toddler “make another guess” if he/she does not select the correct garage in Option 2. Instead, encourage the driver-toddler to reveal where the car is parked. Positively recognize toddlers’ efforts.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: toy cars, small boxes (see Options 1 and 2)
Invite several toddlers to play with toy cars and the pretend garages in the block area. Encourage toddlers to drive their cars around the area and to build their own garages for parking or hiding a car. Toddlers who especially enjoyed Option 2 might want to work together to play the Option 2 game again.
Materials Needed: toy cars, small boxes (see Options 1 and 2), Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld
Share with toddlers and preschool-age children the book about how construction trucks go to sleep at the end of the day, just like the toy cars go to sleep in garages. Preschool-age children may enjoy Option 2, especially with three pretend garages available.
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