Social interaction skills
Toddlers look at and talk about pictures of peers engaged in activities in their room.
Pictures of activities in your room (see Be Prepared)
Be Prepared: Gather pictures of current toddlers engaged in activities in your room or use pictures assembled for the Block 10, Option 3 (Social-Emotional) activity. Become familiar with the first verse and tune of “The More We Get Together.” Limiting the gathering to 3–4 toddlers will help each toddler look closely at pictures you share.
[Invite 3–4 toddlers to join you in singing a song and looking at pictures of our friends doing things in our room.
Open the session by singing the first verse of “The More We Get Together.” Repeat the song and encourage toddlers to sing with you.]
Our song says we feel happy being together in our room. Our song says our friends are your friends. Who are our friends?
Our friends are everyone in our room!
We do lots of things with friends in our room. Let’s look at some pictures of friends doing things in our room.
[Display each picture, one at a time, and encourage toddlers to help you tell what we see happening. Focus the description on what toddlers can see in the picture; not on what they can recall from past experience. Identify toddlers in the picture by name. A toddler in your gathering may wish to hold a picture (after its discussion) so he/she can see it better. Show and discuss as many pictures as time and toddler interest permit.]
We sang a song about friends being together. We looked at pictures of friends in our room doing different things. We had fun talking about the pictures.
Pay close attention to each toddler’s visual and verbal engagement in the activity. Gently offer a question or comment aimed at a toddler who may benefit from a nudge to contribute.
Note several aspects of the activity’s approach to being inclusive. One is a greater discussion focus on the pictured activity than on toddlers in the activity. Some toddlers may not be represented in pictures shared in the gathering and/or know the names of toddlers shown in a picture. Also, the suggested emphasis in the picture discussion is what can be seen in a picture, and not what can be recalled about the pictured activity. A discussion based mostly on recall runs the risk of excluding from the conversation toddlers with no knowledge of what happened.
This activity extends Block 10 (Social-Emotional) options that feature discussion of activities children like to do (Option 2) and recall of an activity by toddlers who were involved in a pictured activity (Option 3). The current activity emphasizes what we see in a picture (not what we recall) with toddlers who were not necessarily part of the pictured activity.
Extra support
Enrichment
Social interaction skills
Toddlers identify their own name and say the names of peers.
Invite 3–4 toddlers to join you to listen for our names and do a fun action with our hands. Encourage toddlers to sit with you in a circle and listen carefully for their name. Explain that you will suggest something for each toddler to do after you say his/her name. Demonstrate with your own name or the name of another adult in your room. Example: “If your name is Miss Donna, tap your knees.” Then invite all toddlers in the gathering to say your name (or the other adult’s name) and tap their knees. Below are suggested actions for toddlers in the gathering:
If your name is (child’s name), clap your hands.
If your name is (child’s name), pull your ears.
If your name is (child’s name), tap your head.
If your name is (child’s name), touch the sky.
Immediately after a toddler engages in the suggested action, invite all toddlers in the gathering to say the toddler’s name and do the action. The activity is meant to be lighthearted and fun.
Toddlers will enjoy hearing their name in a song and responding with an action. Inviting all toddlers to say again a toddler’s name and do the requested action should help some toddlers manage the self-regulation task of waiting for their turn. Some toddlers may not do the requested action or will do a different action. Positively recognize different approaches to participation. An upbeat invitation, with a big smile and eye contact, can help a toddler feel valued and part of a group.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: Option 1 pictures laminated
Provide the Option 1 pictures in a basket on a low table or posted at toddler level on a wall or room partition. You may wish to use the book of pictures assembled for Block 10, Option 3 (Social- Emotional) if a book was created. Invite toddlers, 1–2 at a time, to tell what is happening in a picture and point to the part of your room where the activity occurred. Unlike the approach used in Block 10, Option 3, encourage toddlers to describe pictured activities in which they were not necessarily participants. Consider expanding the discussion by accompanying the toddler(s) to the activity area and encouraging the toddler(s) to tell what is currently happening and/or whether there are materials in the area that are also in the picture. Take the picture with you. This activity promotes both language and cognitive skills.
Materials Needed: none
The Option 2 activity can be adapted for a gathering of children of different ages. Omit the provision of all children in the gathering repeating the action done by the named child. Use age-appropriate actions for each child, such as the following:
Older infants: wave bye-bye
Toddlers: turn around
Preschool-age and older: walk backward several steps
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