Hey there, Baby and Toddler Club Trailblazers! Ready to sprinkle some magic into your sessions and watch those little ones light up with joy? We've got just the ticket! A well rounded baby and toddler group needs to bring a variety of activities to the table. Of course, each activity will have a purpose, whether it's to help parents bond with their children, help the children's emotional development, help teach the kids safe ways to play and explore their world, or develop children's language. If you're stuck looking for activity ideas for your own toddler club or mother and baby group, here's a list of fun and engaging activities to try in your sessions!

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Emotional Development

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It’s no secret that baby and toddler groups like yours come with a multitude of benefits for children and their parents. Not only does it help parents bond with their young babies, but the toddler activities you provide in your groups can help toddlers to build confidence and other valuable skills as well. The emotional development of kids is a super important life skill that they can work on in your baby toddler groups. So, what are some examples of activities that promote the emotional development of babies and toddlers? Dive into the feels with these heartwarming activities:

Emotion-Focused Story Time

Get ready to dive into tales that tug at the heartstrings. Use story time to convey the emotions of fictional characters and discuss the emotions throughout. This activity is great for older toddlers especially, but even simply discussing emotions openly is great for all ages.

Emotion Flashcards

Use flashcards to teach the kid’s the facial expressions that come with different emotions. Let the children identify the emotions displayed, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise and turn learning emotions into a playful game.  

Empathy Building Activities

Engage toddlers in activities that promote empathy and understanding of others' emotions. How? Try some role-playing scenarios where toddlers become the heroes and comfort a crying doll or stuffed animal. It’s empathy in action!

Language Development

Another great benefit to baby and toddler groups is that they can help encourage speech and language development, so let's put the "fun" in language fundamentals! If you want to help children in your groups to develop their language skills, try the following activities in your sessions:

Language Games

Play games that involve naming objects, identifying colours or shapes, or matching pictures with words, turning it into a linguistic adventure! For example, you can hide objects around the room and ask toddlers to find them based on verbal cues.

Sing-Alongs and Music

Music can be the key to new verbal skills. Singing songs and nursery rhymes with repetitive lyrics helps babies and toddlers learn new words and phrases. Bonus points for adding matching actions or movements that correspond with the lyrics to enhance engagement!

Narration Games

Have the children perform tasks whilst narrating what they’re doing. For example, have them pretend that they are coming home and taking their shoes off at the front door whilst narrating and telling the other children how they do that. Or maybe they are walking through the grocery store, picking up items for dinner and describing that. You can also help by asking engaging questions if a child gets stuck or even encourage the other children to explain what their friend is doing. It’s like charades with a twist!

[.pink__text]Top Tip: Use fascial expressions, tone of voice and hand gestures when speaking to the children to help their speech along. Alot can be learned from how we speak![.pink__text]

Practical Learning

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Time to roll up those sleeves and dive into some hands-on fun! Involving activities that allow kids to learn more about situations they may face in the future is both fun and educational. Play out scenarios that could happen in real life and utilise the tools you have around you. Here's where the real-world adventures begin:

Explore the Outdoors

Take the group outdoors to explore playgrounds, parks, or nature trails. Provide opportunities for toddlers to climb, slide, swing, and play in open spaces while interacting with natural elements.

What’s in the Bag?

This game is great for many reasons! It’s great for sensory learning and for exploration and play too. Simply put some items into a bag and have the children pull the items out of the bag. With babies, try to describe the items and use your voice to keep the baby engaged and encouraged. Explore the item together. For toddlers, try having them describe the item they pull out to the other kids, or ask them questions about the items.  

Tidying Up

Who says tidying can't be fun? Turn clean-up time into a musical masterpiece or a playful game. Have the children practicing tidying up their toys, some clothes, or some plastic dishes. You could even have this be a routine part of your sessions that signals the end of the sessions to the children!

Copycat

Play a game of copycat and let the children lead your actions. Talk about what you’re doing as you copy them, or have the parents in your group do it one-on-one. This will help the kids to understand their actions and develop words for them. Older children may also be able to play this game with each other: in this case you can have one child lead the other’s actions. Try it out with a game of Simon Says!

[.blue__text]Top Tip: Most of these activities can be adjusted to fit all age groups, so take some creative liberties when implementing them in your own sessions so that they fit for the kids that join your groups![.blue__text]

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