Warning: some activities may contain items that are choking hazards. Children should be supervised at all times during the activities. For food activities Startwell recommend chopping food into finger shapes/sizes. No not chop into circular/disc shapes as this increases the risk of choking.
Smiley Shen promotes clean and healthy teeth. He encourages us to look after our teeth by brushing our teeth twice a day and for two minutes (2×2), visiting the dentist regularly, cutting down on sugary foods and drinks and drinking from the correct drinking vessels.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Do water play using open lidded cups? Pour water into a tuff tray with a range of unlidded cups, this could be with two handles, one handle or no handles. Encourage children to fill and pour from these cups to help their coordination and transition onto unlidded cups. | Tuff tray Water Variety of unlidded cups |
| Sprinkle some soil on a mat for children to sit on and give them some toothbrushes. Show them how to sweep the soil using the bristles on the brush. | Soil Mat Toothbrushes |
| Mint sensory play – to help children familiarise themselves with minty smells and flavours create small bunches of mint leaves to use as toothbrushes. Encourage children to dip them into plain yogurt and draw on coloured paper. | Coloured paper Mint leaves Plain yogurt |
| Fill a bucket with ice cubes and tooth brushes, encourage and help babies to brush the ice cubes. | Bucket Ice cubes Toothbrushes |
Sammy Skills wants us to develop physical skills. Remember that the core and larger limbs develop first.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Hand eye coordination is a key skill that we want to develop in children and this can be initiated with non-walkers through ‘eye tracking’. Tie a toy/ ball to a bright ribbon and dangle it in front of baby and encourage baby to reach for the toy. Skill: In one place – lying- sitting-standing- stretching- extending-flexing- reaching. | Toy/ ball, ribbon |
| Ball games in a circle – Sit the children down in a group and practice rolling, pushing and bouncing the ball to each other in turn. Try to discourage throwing in this activity. Skill: Manipulation of object control -Sending Away – pushing-rolling-bouncing | Balls |
| Splash and squeeze – place a small amount of warm water in the tray and give baby a dry sponge to feel and squeeze. Encourage them to use 2 hands to pat, reach, grasp and explore the water and sponges. Squeeze a wet sponge over babies fingers and encourage them to reach to the drops. Introduce the flannel and allow them to explore it dry and then wet. After a while introduce the metal tray/lid so they can hear the noise as the water bounces off it. Skills: Exploring – touching – holding-squeezing – stretching-pointing-turning-tapping-clapping-pressing-grasping-pulling-twisting – rhythm. | Small sponges, flannel, shallow tray, baking tray or saucepan lid |
| Get it – catch the moving toy as it rolls/ moves. Lay out a range of toys that move and allow the baby to explore them. If the child shows an interest in anything particular then say look and push or roll the item to encourage movement. Encourage the child to crawl, roll, reach or toddle towards it to retrieve it and repeat several times. Skill: From place to place –rolling -wiggling- crawling- walking. | Cars/trucks, balls, other wheeled toys. |
Micky Me Size is all about portion control – remember that babies’ tummies are small and don’t need a lot to fill them. If they are over fed their tummies stretch, need more to fill them and can lead to obesity.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| To celebrate National Picnic month in July have a picnic for one of your tea time meals and ensure everyone has the correct portion size. | Picnic mats |
| Read “The tiger who came to tea” to celebrate International Tiger Day in July. Fill different sized plates or bowls for the tiger’s portion or Sophie’s portion. | The tiger who came to tea book Different sized plates or bowls Food toys or pictures |
| Play with different size balls and use size terminology with the children. | Different sized balls |
| How many cucumber sticks? Use snack time to work out the correct portion of cucumber sticks for their size. Remember that a portion of fruit or vegetables is what fits in their hand. Check how many sticks fit their hand, how many do they need for a portion? Feed this back to parents at pick up time. NB you can do this with any of your fruit and vegetables at snack time. | Cucumber sticks (or other fruit or vegetable) |
Fay 5 a Day wants everyone to eat a minimum of 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables everyday once weaned. Fruit and vegetables are our protective foods that help to keep our bodies’ healthy and fight off illness.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Carrot pictures – make carrots by putting the babies’ feet in orange paint and then printing them onto white paper. Use green paper to attach to the top of the carrot to make the stork. Use this craft activity as an opportunity to talk to parents about the number of portions the babies have had in nursery that day. | Carrots Orange paint Paper |
| Cucumber water – put some water in a tuff tray with some sliced cucumber. Let the babies explore the water and cucumber, feel the textures and taste the cucumber and even the flavoured water. | Tuff tray Cucumber Water |
| Edible sensory play – tip some frozen fruit and veg into a tray for children to play with. Encourage babies to look at the different colours, shapes and sizes. | Tuff tray Frozen fruit and vegetables |
| Yoghurt flavours – laminate pictures of fruit and get the corresponding flavour yoghurts. Put the laminated pictures on a plate or in a bowl. Cover the laminated pictures of fruit with corresponding flavoured yoghurt. Let the babies eat the yoghurt to reveal the picture of fruit underneath (and flavour of yoghurt). Make sure you are saying the names of the fruit aloud to the babies so they start to learn their names. | Laminated pictures of fruit and corresponding flavoured yoghurts |
Active Azra wants us to MOVE MORE SIT LESS, by getting our ‘belly buttons on the move’, this is also known as the ‘translocation of the trunk’.
The Physical Activity Guidelines for children aged under 5 years old as out lined in the UK Chief Medical Officers Report states that extended periods of inactivity should be broken up by at least light physical activity.
| What you need | |
|---|---|
| Musical Balloons – Fill balloons with lentils, sand, water and various other items that when the balloon is blown up will create sound and noise. Encourage baby to push the balloon away with their hands and feet. | Balloons Lentils Sand Water |
| Filling and emptying – give baby a container or basket and crawl/ walk with them around the room trying the put items in their container/ basket. Let them tip all of the items out and explore them. | Container/basket |
| Ball Roll on the parachute- Place babies around the parachute, either lying on their front, sitting up or standing. If your parachute has a hole in the middle, place a small ball on the parachute and firstly encourage children to lift and lower their arms in order to make the ball roll, or shake the parachute to see the ball rolling over the parachute. | Parachute Ball |
| Rainbow Spaghetti play – put a tuff tray outdoors filled with rainbow coloured cooked spaghetti. Allow the babies to sit in the tuff tray, they can roll, crawl or even walk in it. | Tuff tray Rainbow spaghetti |
180 Katie wants us to remember that non walking babies need at least 30 minutes of tummy time spread throughout the day. Tummy time is important for core strength.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Clapping is a great way for encouraging movement. Initially clap with baby and encourage them to do the same. You can then start to sing as you clap. See if baby can start to make steps as they clap. | Nothing |
| Nursery rhymes are a great way to encourage movement – rather than sitting down and singing nursery rhymes, encourage them to stand up and sing. | Nothing |
| Make bottles with rice in them and encourage baby to move around and shake their bottle, you could put some music on which will encourage them to shake the bottle more. | Bottle Rice/pasta |
| Turn off the lights and use a torch to flash around the room, encourage baby to track the flashing light and even try and move towards the light shining on the wall. | Torch |
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Fruit yogurt – From 6 months give children homemade fresh fruit yogurt. Give children a piece of the fresh fruit you are using to make your yogurt so they can become familiar with it e.g. a piece of banana (cut into a finger shape for them to hold) for a banana yogurt. And let them see you using it to make their flavoured yogurt | Plain full fat yogurt Banana Chopping board Knife Bowl Fork Spoon |
| Cottage cheese – From 6 months give infants a scoop of cottage cheese on a plate to feel, smell and taste. This will help babies become more familiar with lumpy textures. Serve alongside fruit/veg. | Cottage Cheese Apricots or peach |
| Behaviour – To teach children that we need regular intakes of food throughout the day do a feed the bear activity. Invite a bear at each snack and mealtime and feed the bear toy food models. | Teddy bear |
| Rice – To enable infants to familiarise themselves with rice make some coloured rice and create rainbow rice sensory bins. From 6 months infants can snack on rice cakes with fruit/veg. Visit our Baby Activities board on Pinterest for instructions on how to create rainbow rice https://www.pinterest.co.uk/startwell/baby-activity-ideas/ | White Rice Food Colouring Vinegar Sealable Baggies Rice Cakes Strawberries |
Suzy Startwell is all about being a good role model for our children. Children learn from copying the behaviours of those they see around them. As a parent, practitioner or adult who is in close contact with children it is important that the behaviours they see and copy are positive.
