My Bub Hub
Forums, blogs and more
games to play with babies and toddlers
home > info directory > games to play with babies and toddlers
bub hub supporters
|
As a new parent, it can be very difficult to know what to do with your baby - what 'games' are appropriate at what age, what activities will help stimulate and develop your baby at an age appropriate rate.
We've asked Playgroup Australia to assist us with a list of low cost activities for each stage of your baby's development.
Activities for Infants Quick links:
under 3 months
Music fun
Put on a CD and help your baby clap hands, clap feet, bicycle his legs. Show your baby how you clap hands, wriggle fingers, twirl, and bob up
and down.
Foot Tapping
Lie your baby safely on their back. Tap the bottom of your baby's feet gently in time to a song that you are singing for example Twinkle,
Twinkle Little Star.
Looking in the Mirror
Hold your baby in front of a mirror so they can explore what they look like.
Mobile
Hang colourful, and black and white things, things that move, and things that make noise over your baby's cot. Tie securely and don't use
anything smaller than would fit in a film canister.
Looking fun
Babies learn by watching. Take your baby outside and hold them where they can see things moving - streamers, trees, washing on the line.
Aeroplanes
Let your baby follow things with their eyes - move your face, a rattle, or a coloured toy in front of them. Play aeroplanes with your hands - fly
through the air and land on your baby's tummy!
back to top
Singing
Sing and help your baby do action songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Incy Wincy Spider, Put a Spot Over Here, Round and Round the Garden
etc.
Exploring and touching
Give your baby safe objects from around the house to explore the shapes and textures - plastic things from the kitchen, pots and pans,
sponges, paper, empty tins with lids, velvet, fur, lace, towelling, cardboard, fine sandpaper etc.
Make a book
Make a 'feely book' by gluing textured objects onto squares of cardboard - punch two holes in the side of each square and make them into a
book by securing with string or shower curtain rings - easy to take out with you!
Listening fun
Use rice, pasta or a bell to fill a plastic container - make sure the container is well sealed. Shake to your baby's side or behind baby and see
if they can find it.
Looking and Movement
Lay your baby down on a rug. Hold a toy to your baby's side and fly it over their head and land on the other side so your baby can follow the
toy with their eyes.
back to top
Shakers for baby to hold
Fill and tightly seal small (no smaller than a film canister), light-weight containers with rice for your baby to hold and shake.
Milk Carton Blocks
Use milk cartons to make blocks for your baby. Draw or stick pictures of objects such as animals on the sides. Talk to your baby about
the pictures as they play with the blocks.
Where's Teddy?
Hide a toy in one room of the house and carry your baby from room to room saying 'Where's teddy' and telling them what rooms you
are looking in.
Roll the ball
Roll a soft, brightly coloured ball to your baby and teach them how to stop it and push it back to you.
Using feet
Hang rattles or similar noise-making toys where your baby can kick them, or put socks with securely attached bells ob your baby's
feet so they make noise when they move their feet.
Noise and Movement
Fill empty plastic bottles that will roll with small / colourful / noisy things eg. bells, scrunched coloured paper, small stones.
Secure lids tightly.
back to top
Music from the kitchen
Make fun instruments from up-turned pots and pans with wooden spoons, or two saucepan lids for cymbals. Use your instruments to
explore different concepts such as loud and soft, fast and slow.
Water fun
A great summer activity! Fill a low, wide container with a few centimetres of water and place it on the ground. Float small objects such
as flowers or corks in the water and let your baby reach and splash. Always supervise children when playing with water.
Toys overboard!
Using elastic, tie small soft toys to the top of your baby's high-chair. Show them how you drop the toys and pull them back up again.
Reading fun
Sit your baby on your lap and read stories with simple action words and pictures. Stories with repetitive phrases are fun, like 'Run, run,
as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread man!�.
Hide and Seek
Show your baby a toy, then hide it under a towel or small blanket and help them find it.
Outside fun
Take your baby into the back yard or to the park. Let your baby feel different surfaces, let them sit and crawl on the grass, feel
stones and leaves with supervision - some objects can look like a tasty treat!
back to top
Action songs
Repeat action songs with your baby often so they can learn words and actions. Make up songs about the things you or your baby are doing
throughout your day - 'I am walking, You are bouncing'.
Sand Play
If you don't have a sand-pit at home, create one out of an old tyre filled with sand. Your baby can explore the feeling of sand between their
fingers and toes, and experience the different temperatures and textures of wet and dry sand. Give your baby small containers such as
butter containers with holes pierced in the bottom to make a sieve, or cut open milk bottles to dig the sand with.
What's that smell?
Put some cotton wool in small containers the size of film canisters, and drop a small amount of different smelly substances into each container.
You could use: perfume, mint leaves, vanilla essence, spices such as cloves, cinnamon or ginger, or vinegar. Attach the lids securely and poke
a small hole in the lid so they can be smelled. Sit your child on your lap and let them smell each one, while talking about how they use their
nose to smell, and simple terms to describe the smell.
Stacking and nesting
Use plastic cups from the kitchen or different sized boxes to make towers, or nest them inside each other.
Scribbling
Provide your child with paper and crayons for some scribbling fun. You may have some masterpieces that can be framed for your walls!
back to top
Body Parts
It is fun to learn body parts through songs. Sing about, point to and use different body parts in songs like: Heads and Shoulders, If You're Happy
and You Know It.
Scrapbook
Make a scrapbook of objects, and pictures of objects and people that you child knows. You can stick these into a book or slip them
into a photo album.
Dress-ups
Encourage your child to play dress-ups by providing a full-length mirror and an assortment of old clothes such as hats, scarves, and
shoes.
Playdough
A simple recipe for playdough:
- 2 cups plain flour
- ½ cup oil
- Food colouring/ Edicol dye
- Water
Add the oil to the flour and mix; mix food colouring or Edicol dye with water and add to mixture until it forms a soft dough.
This recipe is safe if eaten by little mouths!
Give your child things to stick in the dough (paddle-pop sticks, straws etc), things to pound with (like a toy mallet), and things to make impressions with (jar lids, cookie cutters, or bottle caps).
Hiding places
Big places to hide are often popular with toddlers. If you or someone you know has a large cardboard box after having something
delivered, turn it into a cubby house for you toddler to play and hide in. You can even make some slits in the cardboard to allow
for opening windows and doors.
Simon Says
Action games keep toddlers busy while they are learning to move and follow directions. Simon says is a simple game where you use
commands such as 'Simon says, clap your hands' and give time for your toddler to follow. Encourage your child when they follow
correctly.
back to top
Walk and Stop
A great game for practicing listening skills! This can be played inside or outside and encourages children to try different ways of
moving their bodies. Sing (you might have heard this song on Playschool):
'You walk and you walk and you walk and you stop.
You walk and you walk and you walk and you stop.
You walk and you walk and you walk and you stop.
You walk and you walk and you walk and you stop.'
When the children hear 'Stop!' they should freeze until the song starts again. Other movements can be sung in the song too, like skip, hop, run, dance, jump, or wriggle.
Making instruments
- Hooters - cover end of a cardboard cylinder with paper with a hole poked through - children can blow or sing through other end
- Rhythm sticks - cut two 20cm lengths of dowel for hitting together
- Sandpaper blocks - cover two small timber off-cuts with sandpaper and rub together
- Play your instruments along with your child's favourite CD.
Simple Puzzle
Glue a picture from a magazine onto a sheet of cardboard, and cut the picture into a few pieces. Help your child to learn how to put
the pieces back together again to make the picture.
Drawing
Children at this age will appreciate the chance to draw with different materials, such as crayons, pencils, and felt-tip pens. They could
also trace around objects such as round plastic cups, or leaves etc.
back to top
Word games
Make a routine activity fun - maybe in the car or while cleaning - by playing word games with your child. Help them think of rhyming
words, words to describe an object, beginning or ending sounds, or opposites.
Window art
On a gloomy rainy day, use window paints or wet chalk to decorate the windows. Colourful rainbows will brighten up the day, and
will be easy to clean off later!
Potato Prints
Cut some potatoes in half, and then carve some simple shapes into the flat sides (such as a square, triangle, or a star for the more
adventurous�). Put out a wide, flat container with some different coloured paints and some paper, for some wacky potato
masterpieces.
String Magic
Dip a piece of yarn or string into glue and place it on construction paper in an interesting pattern. Let it dry overnight, then your child
can colour inside the spaces between the yarn to make an interesting design.
A Bear Hunt in the Park!
Children love to pretend, and this song will give them an opportunity to move around and explore the park or backyard. This can also
be played sitting down with the actions in brackets.
Bear Hunt
Let's go on a bear hunt. (slap hands together)
I see a wheat field.
Can't go over it. Let's go through it. (brush hands together)
I see a bridge.
Can't go around it. Let's go over it. (slap hands together)
I see a lake.
Can't go over it, can't go under it, let's swim. (arms swimming)
I see a tree.
Can't go over it, can't go under it, let's go up it. (climb with arms)
I don't see any bears, (look around)
Let's go down.
I see a swamp.
Can't go over it, can't go under it, let's go through it. (pull hands up and down slowly)
I see a cave.
Can't go over it, can't go under it, let's go in. (slowly slap knees)
I see two eyes. I see two ears.
I see a nose. I see a mouth.
Yikes! It's a bear!!!
Let's get out of here. (reverse movements very fast)
Alphabet Fun
This is fun, but not always easy! Help your child to make the letters of the alphabet by using their body. This will help them learn the
shapes of the letters, and move their body.
Counting
This activity can help your child to improve counting and fine motor skills. You can use a variety of objects for sorting and counting -
buttons, rocks, or pasta. Pasta can be dyed with food colouring or Edicol dye for colour matching and counting.
Planes
Help your child fold paper planes, and have them decorate the planes brightly. Take the paper planes outside and see how far they
can go.
back to top
Natural Object instruments
Go for a walk in a local park and collect natural objects to make sounds eg. small branches, leaves, seedpods, and stones.
Musical Stories
Act out a musical story like 'There were 10 in the Bed' - place a blanket or rug on the floor and get children to lie in a line. Children
roll off the blanket one by one till they have 'all rolled out'!
Sand Painting
Provide your child with coloured or black paper, and cotton buds or frayed sticks etc for smearing glue onto the paper - then they can
sprinkle sand onto the glue to make interesting patterns.
Branch Weaving
Explore outside for small branches and other objects like leaves, feathers and bark. Children can wind brightly coloured wool around
the branch, and then weave other objects through the wool - even scraps of coloured paper and cloth.
What's the Time Mr Wolf
For this game, you (the wolf) stand with your back to your child, with your child standing a few metres behind you. Your child says
'What's the time Mr Wolf', to which you reply '��.. o'clock', with the time you say being the amount of steps they take towards you.
The child's aim is to get past you before you respond with 'Dinner time!', when you turn and chase your child!
Pretend Play
Kids love to pretend, and can make use of a few simple objects to have a great time. You can inspire hours of fun inside or outside
by providing various sized cardboard boxes, blankets and sheets (great for making cubbies), hoops, or old dress-up clothes etc. If
you're outside, you could use wooden boxes and packing crates, chairs and tables, or a short ladder etc under careful supervision.
back to top
