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Toddler Learning Games & Activities

Many consider babies to become toddlers when they reach the age of 15 months, or when they begin to "toddle." The title "toddler" carries with the children until they turn 3, and then are considered preschool age. Toddlers learn with every experience they encounter through their five senses and through the world around them. One way to help toddler development is by providing a wide variety of play activities and learning games.

Body Part Bingo
- A gingerbread shape turns into a toddler bingo game.
  
  Help the toddler press a gingerbread cookie cutter shape into a piece of bread, and tear off the excess bread. Provide pieces of cereal for the toddler to press into the bread shape to play the bingo game. Say the names of body parts, such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, elbow, knees, toes. The toddler may put a piece of cereal on the gingerbread man shape to show where the body parts are. This game is also safe to eat for a snack when finished playing.
Texture Mat
- Create a texture mat by gluing a variety of items onto a piece of poster board. A good size for the attached items is about an 8-inch square. Textures may be sandpaper for rough, felt for soft, bubble wrap for bumpy, cotton batting for fluffy, and grass-like carpet for a "tickle" feeling. Talk to the toddler as he touches the different textures to help develop understanding of the textures as well as language skills.
  
  To play a game with this activity mat, have the toddler toss cotton balls or a soft toy ball onto the various textures. The toddler may walk across the textures to retrieve the balls and play the game again.
Let's Go Hunting
- Let's go hunting for three bears.
  
  Cut out paper shapes of items such as bunnies, dinosaurs, bears, pumpkins or other objects related to themes, seasons or book characters, and then hide the paper shapes around the room. Then, take or send the toddler on an adventure to find five bunnies, two dinosaurs, three bears, seven pumpkins or whatever other shapes have been hidden.
  
  Older toddlers may want to take a turn in hiding the objects for adult or other children to find.
Fishing Game
- Go fishing in a tub of bubbles.
  
  Make lots of soap suds with mild soap. Pour the bubbles into a shallow tub. Place fish toys into the bubbles. Supervise while toddler plays in the bubbles to find fish.
  
  Ducks or other plastic animals may be used in place of the fish.
Empty or Full
- Provide two buckets or bowls and a scoop or large spoon. Let the toddler scoop lots of cotton balls or other safe items from one container to the other. Develop language and build concept skills by using words such as "empty" and "full" during the activity.
Colors, Counting and More
- Play games with colorful paint sample cards.
  
  Ask for paint sample cards from a paint store. The sample cards are about 2-by-4 inches. Choose primary, bright colors for young toddlers. Older toddlers can tell the different shades of the same color. Have toddlers choose a card and say the color, sort the cards by color, or count how many of each color.

Kids Games