Gross motor development, Fine motor development
Toddlers practice walking, bending, and carrying a small item as part of open-ended play with animal figures in a sensory table.
Be Prepared: This activity is for toddlers who are new to walking. Place in the sensory table shredded paper and containers to serve as pretend animal homes. Arrange animal figures on the floor, about 3–4 toddler steps from the sensory table.
Invite several toddlers who are new to walking skills to play at the sensory table with the paper and containers. Kneel next to the sensory table. Toddlers may enjoy filling a container with the shredded paper. Promote back-and-forth interactions with each toddler.
Draw attention to the animal figures on the floor. Encourage toddlers to walk to the collection of animal figures, bend at the waist to pick up a toy animal, and carry it to the sensory table. Encourage toddlers to repeat this task so each has another gross motor practice opportunity. Encourage toddlers to show and/or tell you about animal figures they carry to the sensory table. Say the name of each animal. Example: “Latisha, you put a cow in the paper.”
Point to a container and ask if it could be a home for the animal or a food dish. Follow a toddler’s lead as you interact. Describe toddlers’ actions with the play materials, including uses of their hands and fingers to hold and manipulate materials. Example: “Sam, your fingers are working hard to make a bed for your toy lamb.”
Balance and coordination are required for walking, bending, carrying, and standing while working with small items at the sensory table. Experienced walkers take these skills for granted, but toddlers who are new to walking benefit from practice opportunities that can strengthen balance, coordination, and confidence. Standing while moving hands and arms is more challenging than standing still. The activity option combines gross and fine motor skills practice as toddlers hold and manipulate small items while standing and moving.
Extra support
Enrichment
Gross motor development
A toddler practices walking with, and putting items in, a push cart.
Be Prepared: This activity is for a toddler who is new to walking. Use a toddler-size cart or other wheeled toy that can be pushed from behind. The activity description assumes a cart is used. Add weight to the cart to prevent it from slipping away from a toddler. One gallon of water in a sealed jug is about the right size and weight for a toddler-size cart. You may wish to fashion a weighted bag for the bottom of the cart using sand or other material.
[Identify a toddler who will benefit from support in walking. Invite the toddler to join you in looking at a cart. Point to the cart’s handle bar when you describe it. Align the cart in front of the toddler so he/she does not need to step backwards or turn around.]
This is a cart you may push in our room. We put our hands here to push the cart. This is called a handle. The cart will move when you walk.
We use a cart to carry something. We put things in this part of the cart to carry.
[Point to the cart’s basket. Then put a doll or similar toy in the cart.]
The baby doll is in the cart. You can push the cart now. Then you can find something else to carry in the cart.
[Guide the toddler to push the cart in an open area where he/she can move the cart without barriers.
Walk next to the toddler if you anticipate support is needed. Describe the toddler’s actions. Example: “You are pushing the cart.”
After a brief period, ask the toddler to stop pushing the cart so he/she can put something different in the cart.]
I am taking the doll out of the cart.
Now our cart is empty. What would you like to put in the cart?
[Wait for the toddler’s response. After the desired item has been determined, encourage the toddler to push the empty cart to the location of the item. Recognize the toddler’s action of putting the item in the cart. Example: “You picked up a toy bear and put it in the cart.”
Encourage the toddler to push the cart to a destination of his/her choice. If the toddler seems confident, remain seated and offer supportive comments. Examples: “You are giving the bear a ride!” “You are pushing the cart all by yourself.”]
[Describe the toddler’s experience with the cart. Emphasize his/her actions, including pushing the cart and putting an item in the cart.]
Using a push toy helps a toddler develop strength and balance that support walking skills. Holding onto a cart may enable a toddler to walk farther than he/she could unsupported. Perception skills are strengthened as a toddler walks from place to place in the room or outdoors.
Pay attention to a toddler’s maneuvering of the cart. He/she may need help in understanding how to adjust the direction of the cart to avoid bumping another child or barrier.
Once a toddler figures out how to manage a cart, he/she will enjoy independently adding items to a cart and pushing it around a play area. You may see the beginning of early pretend play.
Extra support
Enrichment
Gross motor development
Toddlers practice running as part of guided pretend play.
Be Prepared: This activity is designed to provide support for running and practice for toddlers who can run independently. Running skills generally develop between 18–24 months of age. Invite a toddler who has not been observed running to carry objects in a pushcart (Option 2) or participate in an achievable gross motor task of interest.
In this activity, toddlers pretend they are little bunnies or mice as part of a story you help them enact. Choose one of the two story options offered in the plan below or create a simple story of your own.
Invite several toddlers who have begun running to join you for a game outdoors or in an indoor space intended for gross motor play. Ask the toddlers to help you place the blanket or mat on the floor or ground. Explain that our blanket is the home of little bunnies (or mice).
The activity has three distinct parts:
Part One: Sit on the blanket with the toddlers. Tell a brief, simple story in your own words that the toddlers can easily understand. Use your voice to create interest in the actions.
Story Option 1: Little Bunnies
Peter and other bunny friends leave their home to find tasty carrots in a garden. The rabbits enter the garden and find delicious carrots. The bunnies begin eating carrots. All of a sudden they hear the gardener shouting! The gardener shouts at the bunnies, “Do not eat my carrots! Go away rabbits.” The bunnies all run back to their home. The bunnies stop. (This is a modification of the story of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.)
Story Option 2: Little Mice
Little mice lived in a red barn. At night the mice quietly crept out of their home to find tasty treats. They looked all around and found bits of food. The mice heard a “meow” sound! The little mice see a big cat! They ran away from the cat, back to the safety of their home. Once inside their home, the mice stop.
Part Two: Invite the toddlers to go with you to find tasty treats. Leave the blanket. Describe this part of the story again. Example: “Here we go out into the field to look for food. We are little mice looking and looking. We are little mice eating some food.”
Part Three: Announce we must run back to the blanket and stop. Example: “Oh dear, there is a big cat. The cat wants to chase us. Let’s run to our home on the blanket.” Run with the toddlers. Announce the stop. “Now we are home. We stop running.” Emphasize the word stop.
Run with the toddlers. Avoid creating competition, such as telling which child got home first. Repeat the activity if time and toddler interest permit.
Give a clear signal the running game is finished. Engage toddlers in a calming-down activity by suggesting the little bunnies (or mice) rest on the blanket. In a quiet voice, encourage toddlers to relax their arms and legs, take several slow, deep breaths, and close eyes briefly. You also may wish to help toddlers look at books while sitting on the blanket. See Optional Reading possibilities.
Children at this age enjoy simple games of pretend guided by a familiar adult. Games with a little drama that incorporate running are fun and can satisfy toddler’s need to extend gross motor skills.
Your role is to tell a brief story and facilitate safe movements while adhering to the structure of the activity: (1) we sit on the blanket and listen to a story, (2) we leave our house (blanket) and pretend to go looking for tasty treats, (3) we run back to our house, and (4) we stop.
Remember you are one of the little bunnies (or mice). Avoid becoming (or allowing another child to become) the farmer or big cat that chases the toddlers. It takes time and unpressured practice for toddlers to develop steady, balanced running.
There may be a few falls as toddlers run. Offer support for a toddler who falls. Stay close as the toddler gets up. Acknowledge the fall with kind and simple words, such as “You fell down.” Encourage the toddler to try again. Avoid dramatic reactions to toddlers’ falls.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: small balls, blocks, push toys, markers and large paper, items to manipulate in the sensory table, When the Elephant Walks by Keiko Kasza, Let’s Play by Gyo Fujikawa, Where is Peter Rabbit? by Beatrix Potter
Throughout the week foster gross motor skills and emphasize words associated with actions, such as stand, walk, run, push, and carry. Provide several small balls or blocks that you encourage toddlers to walk to and then bend to pick them up. Encourage toddlers to carry the items to a destination you name. Encourage use of push toys to transfer blocks and other play materials to the building area. Demonstrate placing blocks into the cart and moving them to a building site. Encourage practice in standing by offering an activity, such as making marks on paper or cardboard boxes or manipulating items in the sensory table. Place a basket of books on the floor next to a comfortable sitting area.
Materials Needed: push toys, grocery cartons, paper bags, cones, Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth, I Went Walking by Sue Williams, Autumn Walk by Ann Burg
Enhance the dramatic play area with grocery store cartons, boxes, and several paper bags. Toddlers and preschool-age children can use the pushcart and practice walking while carrying objects from a pretend store.
Outdoors, arrange colored cones in an open area. Lead preschool-age children on a walking or running course. Some of the children may enjoy a game of Walk and Stop. Designate a circle for children to walk around. Create a tune for singing the following action words:
Walk and walk and walk and walk.
Walk and walk and walk and stop!
Share the suggested books with toddlers and preschool-age children in one-to-one or small gatherings.
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