A Closer Look at Infant and Toddler Playtime:

A Closer Look at Infant and Toddler Playtime:

Independent Play/Floor Time includes activities like…

• Building with blocks
• exercises fine motor skills, builds concepts like balance and stability, aids color differentiation and counting abilities.
• Playing with toy animals
• helps cement animal sounds, encourages dramatic play and imagination.
• Climbing on large blocks
• exercises large motor skills and builds concepts of balance, gravity, height, and perspective.
• Playing with balls



Picasso Class Circle Time

• exercises large motor skills, hand-eye coordination, cooperative skills, and interactive play.
• Exploring the sensory boat
• exercises fine motor skills and concepts of force and cause-and-effect.
• Playing with puppets, babies, and stuffed toys
• which encourages self-soothing, dramatic and imaginative play, care-giving, and concept of gentle hands.
• Looking at books
• encourages fine motor skills, early literacy skills, and observation skills.
• Playing with vehicles
• exercises fine motor skills, large motor skills, color and shape identification, and dramatic/imaginative play.
• Using musical instruments
• instills beginning math skills of rhythm and patterns, exercises fine motor skills and dramatic play, encourages self-expression

Art activities…

Water Touch Tub Time

• exercise fine motor skills, color and texture differentiation, and decision making.

Touch Tubs/Play Dough…

• aid texture differentiation, self-soothing, fine motor skills, cooperation, and cause-and-effect.

Circle time (singing and reading)…

• aids early literacy skills, counting, alphabet, rhythm, memory, decision making, cooperation, listening and responding.

All activities encourage sharing, parallel and/or cooperative play, and vocabulary development. 

~ T. Marissa

Getting our hands messy with some finger paint

Looking at a book about trains