-large laundry basket - ball of yarn - large teddy bears - scissors
(Materials for modifiers) - small teddy bears - large plastic dinosaurs
Modifiers
For an easier challenge: - Only weave the yarn through a few holes in the laundry basket - Replace the large teddy bears with soft teddy bears - Include soft balls
For a trickier challenge - Weave the yarn through a multitude of holes - Replace cars with large plastic dinosaurs - Include plastic balls
Follow-Up Ideas
- Fill water bottles with Cheerios and have the children try to get the Cheerios out of the bottles by themselves.
- Place a box over an infant's toy and observe how the infant gets the toy back.
- Make a lift-the-flap animal puzzle. Glue animal cut-outs to a piece of poster board, then cover with a piece of felt. The infants have to lift the flap of the puzzle to find the animals.
Originating Idea
This activity not only utilizes household items to introduce intellectual challenges to infants, but promotes their gross motor skills in a unique way. This is also a great activity to implement during Halloween (you could replace the teddy bears with large soft spider toys)!
How to Make Activity
First you need to place the large teddy bears at the bottom of the basket. Then take the ball of yarn and weave it in between the holes of the laundry basket. Once you've weaved the yarn through the holes of the basket enough times, cut the yarn from the ball with scissors and tie the ends to the basket. If you wish to make the activity trickier, you can slip some of the teddy bears in between the yarn.
How to Implement Activity
The teacher can begin this activity during small group time. The teacher will split the infants into two groups of four. Her group will sit on the carpet with her, with the laundry basket in the middle. The teacher will say, "Look at all the presents at the bottom of this basket! How can we get the animals out?" She will then observe how the infants interact with the spider's web.
The students will start examining the spider's web with their bodies and hands. They will reach into the basket and weave their hands through the yarn to pull out the toys. Once they get the teddy bears, the teacher will let the infants enjoy toys.
After the first group of infants have explored the activity in full, the teacher then rings a bell and says, "Time to switch groups!' The teacher will then tell her group, "Let's say bye-bye to the teddy bears for now! We can play with them later!" before helping them move to the next group. She puts the teddy bears back in the laundry basket before starting the activity with the next group. Once the second group is done exploring the activity, she rings her bell again and says, "Small group time is over! Let's have choice time!" The children get out of their groups and chose a toy they want to play with off the shelves. The toys from small group activities (including this activity) are left out so the infants that want to explore these activities can continue to do so.