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CURRICULUM AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT   * 2 HOURS * LEVEL 2

The Importance of Play for Infants and Toddlers

Ideas for Play Activities

Page 10
Dramatic Play Activities

Pretend activities are crucial times for adults to interact with infants and toddlers and encourage their development in all of the domains, including language, mathematical, scientific, social-emotional, physical, and self-help development. When an infant first pats a toy dog or holds a toy telephone to his ear, he is pretending. Pretend play is one of the ways that young children begin to make sense of the world. You can support infants and toddlers in this important learning by providing a variety of materials such as dress-up clothes and toy household furnishings.

You also can encourage or prompt children to think about new ideas and topics through pretend play. For example, after reading a book about a rabbit family, you might add one or two toy stuffed rabbits to the pretend play area and ask toddlers, “Do you want to tuck the baby rabbit into bed?” With infants, you can use dolls, puppets, and simple props to act out familiar activities such as feeding a baby or saying “hi” to a friend. 

For toddlers, you can provide a wide variety of props and dress-up clothes. Dedicate a pretend play area where children are free to enact their own dramas. Encourage children to develop their own pretend play ideas whenever possible. Limit groups in the pretend play area to two or three children at a time to encourage the greatest sharing of ideas.

Infant and Toddler Activities

Dolls
  • Social Awareness: Small Group, 16 to 36 months
  • Goals: To increase social awareness; to increase language and communication skills; to increase sensory motor skills
  • Materials: Multi-ethnic dolls
  • Procedure: Encourage exploration of the dolls. Help toddlers gently feel the dolls’ hair, eyes, and clothing, and to move body parts. Name body parts and clothing for toddlers. Encourage them to play with dolls in different ways. Toddlers may want to carry, cuddle, bottle-feed, sing to, or rock the doll baby. When they are ready, introduce new ways of playing with the doll. Encourage two children to play together and talk about what each is doing and why. Encourage them to think about what the doll baby might want or need. See if toddlers can imitate skills that are more difficult: pretending to feed with a spoon, sprinkling powder or rubbing lotion on body parts, and combing the doll’s hair. Help toddlers use their imagination with the doll. Take the doll for a walk in a wagon or stroller. Wash the baby in a small tub, using soap and a washcloth, and then dry the doll with a towel. Help children develop adaptive skills by practicing undressing and dressing, not only themselves, but also a doll.
  • Assessment: The toddler will demonstrate at least three different types of caregiving activities using the doll. 
  • Integration: Teach children caregiving skills. They are often more willing to practice adaptive skills in play.

Puppets
  • Language Development: Individual, 16 to 36 months
  • Goals: To increase language and communication skills; to increase creative development
  • Materials: Duck or bunny puppets (or other animal puppets)
  • Procedure: With the puppet on your hand, talk to the toddler and encourage the toddler to talk with the duck or bunny: “I’m a duck. I say ‘quack, quack.’ ” Encourage the toddler to imitate sounds, words, or actions. Then let the toddler experiment with putting the puppet on his hand. Use the puppet to have a “conversation” with the toddler. Give the toddler time to respond.
  • Assessment: The toddler will respond to overtures by the puppet and will socially interact with the puppet.
  • Integration: Talking with puppets encourages peer interaction as well as fostering language development. Simple puppets that use whole-hand movements are best at this age.

Cleaning House
  • Social Awareness: Small Group, 16 to 36 months
  • Goals: To increase social awareness; to increase language and communication skills; to increase sensory motor skills
  • Materials: Toy vacuum cleaner, broom, dust cloth, sponge, dustpan
  • Procedure: Let toddlers “vacuum” the floor or rug. Encourage them to work together with the broom and dustpan. Talk about cleaning and how everyone is helping to get the room clean. Make vacuum sounds. Use different actions (such as several pushes and pulls, a long push, a twist around a corner) and encourage children to imitate. Make a path with tape or paper for children to follow around a room. Demonstrate how different cleaning tools work and help children use the materials.
  • Assessment: The toddler will use the house cleaning materials appropriately.
  • Integration: Children often enjoy imitating the work of adults. Because you do not really care how effectively the children are cleaning, you can concentrate on the process. Talk about the health and safety aspect of cleaning.
Feed the Face
  • Language Development: Individual, 16 to 36 months
  • Goals: To increase language and communication skills; to increase sensory motor skills
  • Materials: Shoe box, paper, markers, tape or glue, tops from baby food jars or small blocks
  • Procedure: Cover a sturdy shoe box with paper and draw a clown face on the front. (Be sure it is not a scary one.)
  • Decorate the face. Then cut openings for the mouth, eyes, and nose. (Laminating the face or putting clear contact paper over it increases its durability.) If toddlers are younger or have difficulty, increase the size of the holes in the face. Some toddlers may not be ready to put items in but may enjoy removing the lids from the shoebox. Demonstrate how the jar lids or blocks fit into the clown’s mouth, eyes, and nose and encourage toddlers to try. Then ask them to put a lid in the facial part that you name. Ask them to point to their corresponding facial part. Talk about how hungry the clown is today and count the number of lids the clown “eats.” Have children decide what the clown’s favorite foods are.
  • Assessment: The toddler will put the tops in the designated openings.
  • Integration: This is a fun way to practice eye-hand coordination with the opportunity for a lot of language input.