Tag Archives: one year old activities

Cornstarch and Water Sensory Play

This week, I wanted to try a new sensory activity for Try Something New Thursday. I first saw the idea of playing with cornstarch and water at Fun at Home with Kids. I knew this activity would be messy, but I was willing to deal with the mess to have a little fun.

I mixed some cornstarch and water in a glass pan. I didn’t measure what I put in. I started with a little water, and I kept adding until it was just slightly runny. It was a great slimy texture that was somewhat solid and somewhat liquid.

I started by giving Buddy the pan while he was still in his highchair. It was less messy in this setup, but it was hard for Buddy to actually play while strapped into the seat. I decided to embrace the mess, so I grabbed a towel and moved the activity to the kitchen floor.

Buddy was a little timid at first, but he was definitely interested in feeling the mixture. It didn’t take long before he was digging in with both hands.

It was a huge mess, but it was worth it. Buddy had a great time playing with the cornstarch mixture. He loved spattering it around the towel. Eventually he pulled the pan and set it in his lap, so he could get easier access to the good stuff.

Originally, I thought about doing this activity in the bathtub. I decided against it because I knew I needed to clean my kitchen floor and do a load of laundry today anyway. However, I might do it in a tub next time, because Buddy definitely needed a bath after our play time was done. We both had a good time, though, so the mess was worth it.

Little Blue Truck Storytelling Basket

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For today’s Time to Read Tuesday, I made a storytelling basket to go along with the book Little Blue Truck. Buddy really enjoyed the last storytelling basket I made, and since then, he’s chosen to read that book (Goodnight Moon) more often than usual.

Little Blue Truck is a story that involves a little blue truck, a dump truck, and a bunch of farm animals. I had a dump truck and farm animals already, but I didn’t have anything for the main character, Little Blue Truck. Since I didn’t want to buy a new truck toy, I just printed off a picture of Little Blue Truck from the book’s online resources. I laminated it to make it stronger, and then I taped it to a wooden block.

I read through Little Blue Truck once with Buddy before I gave him the basket. After we read the story, I gave Buddy the storytelling basket. As he pulled out each object, we talked about what that object was. I also found the part of the book where that character first appears and showed Buddy the picture. Once he had pulled out everything, we reread the book and acted it out with the figures.

Our dump truck was much nicer than the one in the book because he gave rides to Little Blue and many of the other animals. (Or maybe Buddy was just trying to show what might have happened after the story ends?) Either way, he enjoyed playing with the figures for a long time, and he did go back from time to time to look at the pictures in the book again.

I will be curious to see if this activity will make Buddy more interested in this book in the future. (That was definitely the case with the Goodnight Moon book after that storytelling basket.) In the meantime, I will have to think about what book would be good for our next activity. Please share any ideas you have. I’d love to hear them!

Edible Finger Paint

Pom Pom Play

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I’ve been wanting to do something with pom poms for awhile. Since today is Try Something New Thursday, it was the perfect time to try playing with pom poms for the first time.

Buddy loves putting things in and pulling them out of containers. I’ve seen a lot of different variations of poms and containers on Pinterest, and I decided to use a snack cup to hold the poms. We have only tried to use this cup with an actual snack once, which wasn’t very successful. I liked the idea of reintroducing this cup as a toy, since it isn’t being used at all right now. Maybe later, Buddy will be more interested in using it to hold snacks once he’s used to it.

I took a couple of handfuls of poms and put them in a pile on the floor. Then, I handed Buddy the cup. He immediately started putting the poms into the cup. He started by putting one pom in at a time, but eventually got so excited that he started using both hands to shove handfuls of poms in the cup.

I didn’t think ahead of time about whether or not all of the poms would fit in the container. Luckily, they did, although it took some effort on Buddy’s part for the last two to go in.

Mom, this one won’t go in!

Once all of the pom poms were in the container, Buddy wasn’t sure what to do. He shook the cup to try to get them out, but they stayed in. He put his hand in, but he couldn’t get many out. I let him use his problem solving skills for awhile, but eventually I took the cup and poured out the poms. Then Buddy started over putting the poms back in the cup.

After the second time the cup was full, Buddy decided to make up his own pom pom game. He took poms and lined them up on the bookshelf. Then he knocked them down. He kept doing this over and over for quite a while.

This activity was a huge hit, and we will be doing this again soon! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy idea to keep a little one entertained.

Painting with Water

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For this week’s Water Wednesday, I needed an activity that was quick and easy. My original plan was to play in our new water table (affiliate link), but it was raining this afternoon. (I did wonder if getting soaked taking groceries to our car could count as our water activity today… Buddy certainly enjoyed it.) Then I remembered this activity, which we’ve done before.

I put some water in a small cup and used it to wet the end of a paint brush. I demonstrated to Buddy how to use the paint brush to draw on the construction paper. He loved making marks on the paper and feeling the wet paint brush bristles. When the brush dried out, I would rewet it for him. After seeing me do this a few times, Buddy tried to do it himself. (He didn’t quite get the hang of this, but it was cute to see him try.)

This was the perfect quick, fun activity for today. Buddy had a lot of fun, and I didn’t need to take any time to set up or clean up the activity. Painting with water is a go-to staple for summer fun!

Crawling Obstacle Course

Exploring Shapes Through Reading and Play

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Today for Time to Read Tuesday, I chose to read two shape books followed by some play with different types of shapes. This activity was a blend of my love of reading and my love of math. It’s exciting to be working with Buddy already on a math topic.

I started by reading the book Paris: A Book of Shapes, which is part of the Hello World series. (I highly recommend it! Each book takes place in a different city and focuses on a different topic.) When I planned out this activity, I originally just was going to read one book. Yesterday, though, I found another book on shapes at the library (Louis the Lion Shapes), so we read that book too. While we read each book, we spent a long time looking at the pictures and finding each shape.

After reading, I gave Buddy a bag of Attribute Links as well as his shape sorter block toy to play with. The Attribute Links were given to me as part of one of my college courses, but because I’ve only taught middle school math, I’ve never used them. Buddy was very interested in the links because they were new to him. We picked out squares first. I turned the pages of both books to the square pages, and then we made a pile of squares. I linked a bunch of the squares together, which Buddy loved.

We continued to look at one shape at a time with both the blocks and the links. For each shape, I referred back to the book pages and placed the shapes on top of the picture. Buddy was able to pick out the circles on his own, but he needed help with the other ones.

Buddy enjoyed putting both the links and the blocks in and out of the bucket. He did better than with the actual shape sorter on the top of the bucket than he has in the past. Maybe the extra practice looking at the shapes and the books has helped him figure out what holes to use. (Or maybe he was just having a lucky day.)

Overall, Buddy enjoyed both books and both sets of shape toys. It was a lot of fun for me finding something in my classroom that could be used as an educational toy for my son. I’m sure we’ll be playing with both shape toys again soon.

Repurposed for Fun: Ball Tube

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Buddy loves playing with new things, so I am constantly looking for new ways to play with things around our house. The longer I can keep Buddy entertained, the less time I have to spend chasing him around trying to keep him out of trouble. (Right now he really wants to go down the stairs, and he makes a beeline for the stairs whenever he is bored.)

Recently, I used up a couple rolls of wrapping paper. I noticed that one roll wasn’t a firm tube, but instead was a rolled piece of firm brown paper. Balls are one of Buddy’s favorite toys, and I realized that the leftover wrapping paper tube would work well as a ramp for the balls. The only thing I needed to do to get the tube ready for play was use masking tape to hold the tube at the right size for the balls.

Buddy really had to concentrate at first to get the ball into the tube while holding it.

The first time we did this activity, Buddy wasn’t sure what to think. He mostly watched me roll the balls down the tube and chased them around the room. Today was different. After I sent the first couple balls down the tube, Buddy wanted to control both the ball and the tube himself. We used the Bright Start balls for this activity, and they were perfect! (Affiliate link) He had a lot of fun putting balls into the tube and watching them roll around the room. The only problem was the tube was easily crushed when Buddy crawled over it. However, I was able to fix it quickly whenever that happened.

Buddy chasing after the balls.

Whoa! Look at the ball roll!

This was a great way to play with the balls in a different way. Buddy had a lot of fun, and I’m sure we’ll do it again soon. In the meantime, I’ll continue to look for ways to play with other things around our house.

Rice Sensory Bin

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Today, for Try Something New Thursday, I put together a rice sensory bin for Buddy. I’ve been wanting to try sensory bins for a long time, but I’ve been too busy with school work to have time to put one together.

I bought a extra large bag of rice and a big bin to put it in. Then I threw in some measuring cups, a slotted spoon, an empty container of baby food, a bowl, and a plastic cup (left over from our ice boat activity). I thought Buddy would like to scoop and play with the rice, and I knew he’d want to shake it up in the container with the lid. (He loves anything that makes noise.)

Buddy is checking out everything in the bin.

Buddy checking out everything in the bin.

Buddy was very interested in the rice bin, but he wanted to take the items out of the bin to examine them closer. He realized the rice made a noise when he shook the bowl, but unfortunately that meant rice went all over the floor. My sweet little boy tried to pick up the rice and put it back into the bowl (and he was somewhat successful), but he quickly realized it was too much to pick up. I knew before we started that it would make a big mess, but I underestimated how quickly the rice would be everywhere!

Buddy loved playing with this cup.

Buddy had lots of fun, even though the majority of his play was on the kitchen floor and not actually in the bin. Eventually, he decided to push the bin around and then explore the kitchen. (He never gets to play on the floor of the kitchen, and I think he was excited to crawl around in a new setting.)

Even though this activity was a big mess, it only took a few minutes to clean up. I definitely will try it again, but next time I’ll try some different materials in the rice.

Tales of a Teacher Mom

Learning and Fun with a Little One