Nursery 2 Ready Lesson Plan (12

If you're looking for games and activities to develop children's language skills, here are some great ideas.

Every child grows and learns new things at their own pace.

The activity guide is designed around key routines. Each routine provides multiple opportunities for interactions with adults.

12 - 18 Months

How it normally works:

• Imitates others during games;
• May be in a bad mood and throw tantrums;
• Shows fear of strangers;
• Uses several isolated words;
• Points to things he/she wants;
• Walks without asking for help;
• Likes to doodle things;
• Says and shakes his head at the word “no”;
• Drink from a glass and eat with a spoon.

First words, first steps and first efforts towards independence – what an exciting time for parents.

Hearing your baby say, "It's mine" is common. During this period of active exploration, it's best to direct the child to another activity if they are engaging in unwanted behavior.

Let's eat:

• Allow more time for the child to practice feeding himself with a spoon and drinking from a sippy cup;
• Teach and use simple sign language (see Resources) such as “eat” “More milk”, “please”, “thank you” and “it's over”. Communication is a wonderful tool to help your child communicate while language is being developed.

Let's walk:

• Play with balls! Encourage the child to throw, push and kick a ball forward.
• Drop several small plastic toys and ask them to fill the bucket with items, kids love to fill and dump things over and over again!

Let's share words and stories:

• Read a book to the child. Then dip the children's finger into the non-toxic red, blue, etc. inks and press the fingers onto the paper. Talk about how colors blend together to create other colors;
• Look for books with real pictures of animals and do exercises, make animal sounds together. Talk about animals. For example,
  “The snake is slimy and makes hissing sounds.”.

Let's say hello and goodbye:

• When a storm is coming, alleviate the child's fear and make it fun by singing a song about the rain.

Other activities:

• Body parts: Teach the names of parts of your body, then ask them to point to their nose, eyes, ears, etc.
• Games with instructions: Children at this age are increasingly able to follow simple instructions and will be so proud of themselves when they can do what you ask. This could include closing the door or bringing out the purple ball.
• Shapes and numbers: Talk about shapes, colors and numbers all day long. “That is a round, red ball.” “We only have one banana left.” “Let’s find your green shirt.”
• Motor coordination: A child's Task is to catch a ball in the bucket using a giant spoon. Younger children can use their hands instead of a spoon. Great for developing hand-eye coordination.
• Pitch: This is another activity that is very successful. The objective is to throw the balls into a box.
• Look for the animals: Tear a tissue paper into small pieces and hide the toy animals underneath. When the child finds each one of them, you ask him to repeat the names and sounds of animals. This is a great sensory activity and helps with language development.
• Walk over sensory sacs: Old socks can be turned into sensory bags. Fill them with beans, rice, pasta, wheat flour, flour or any other grain. The child can play with them, touch them, hide them in boxes or walk on them.
• Combine lids with bottles: This is an easy task to do and one that children enjoy. All you need is a couple of empty plastic bottles and caps. It's difficult for little hands to put a lid on a bottle, they may need a lot of practice. It gets more challenging when there are lids of different sizes and they have to choose the right one. Benefits: development of fine motor skills, comprehension and recognition of shape and size.

18 - 24 Months

How it normally works:

• Says 30-50 words and a few sentences;
• Show interest in using the potty;
• Shows a variety of emotions;
• Shows defiant behavior;
• Build towers of 4 or more blocks;
• Can name familiar objects;
• Understands "mine" and "his and hers".

At this age the child begins to walk, run and climb with greater skill, a new sense of independence emerges.

Let's eat:

• Look at pictures of food in magazines and teach the child the names. Help her tear or cut (with child-size scissors) pictures of food and glue them together to make a food book. Count the foods together.
• Talk about how vegetables grow and how they help a child get strong.

Let's walk:

• Draw a simple map of the school (like the classroom and hallways) before you go for a walk and point out the places on the map as you go.

Let's share words and stories:

• Relate stories to things the child is familiar with and ask things like, "Where do dogs live?" “What sound does a dog make?”
• Allow the child to look at books independently and tell the story to you.

Let's say hello and goodbye:

• When it's time to clean up toys, sing a song showing him/her how and where to put toys and praise the child as he/she cleans up. “Wow, you're doing a great job guarding your toys!”

Other activities:

• moving the buttons: Put some buds in a plastic bag, add some gel, draw a circle on the back of the bag and stick it on the window. The objective of the activity is to move all these buttons inside the circle. It's great for developing fine motor skills!
• ice painting: Painting can be more fun for children when they paint something unusual. Have them try to paint on the ice cubes, it will be a great sensory activity for them, children are very curious about what is going on.
• sorting the colors: This activity is great for color sorting, it's easy to make and clean up. Ask the child to place hair elastics on straws, the color of the elastic on the corresponding color of the straw.
• learning the emotions: Draw happy, surprised, angry and sad faces on the balloons and ask the child to try to copy the expressions on the faces.
• Walking in bubble wrap: If you receive any packages with bubble wrap, please do not throw them away! Place the bubble wrap on the floor and have the children walk on it.

Related Item:Lesson Plan for Nursery I