I need to know what to do with 2yr old and toddlers?

Question

Well I work at a daycare and I just started I am trying to find games that interact with the kids, can anyone help me? I have centers and all along the walls we have colors ,shapes and animals. Most two yr olds have a attention span of 10mins,and I have quickly ran out of ideas.

a list of other thing I do is dance,music,exercise,sing,paint,drawing,... and they go outside. also we read a lot. any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Think of some learning activities that goes with the seasons, they can decorate leaves with their names on them and put them on a paper tree you tape on a wall.  They can decorate pumpkins or learn how to roast pumpkins seeds they can eat as treats.  In winter they can make snow flakes and replace the leaves on the tree with them.  You can teach them how some animals and plants go to sleep during this time and so on with spring and summer.

Answer 2

How about play? Building blocks would be good. Or pretend play with dolls. Duck Duck Goose is fun. Beginning sign laguage (you could get a DVD for yourself and then do 2 or 3 new words a day with the kids).  Tea parties fun for them.

Answer 3

You can have a certain time of day where they all have to sit still (even though it  is hard)in a circle  and sing songs together such as abc's , If your happy and you know it, Teddy Bear song and more. Then take turns counting blocks at first count them together. So it teaches them to sit still and listen but also makes them feel important and helps them learn. You can make up songs and short games that are fun and since you are switching to different songs or games they will have fun. They really like to dance so if you can use a t.v. there are dvd's or tapes with kid songs on them. It sounds crazy, but they will pay attention and the songs change  and they can even play with toys  so they never get bored. Even if you play the same one every day they will catch on and start to sing.

Answer 4

My own kids love to play postman with junk mail.  

Get a shoebox(es) and label them with children's names (You can make temp labels so everyone gets a turn).

Use the daycare's junk mail or your own.  Let the kids also pretend to write letters to one another. Give them a sack to put the mail in.  

Also bring in your clean old socks and ball them up.  Let kids take turns tossing the balls into a small basket. It's good for gross motor skills and nobody gets hurt if a "ball" smacks them in the head.  

Dress up clothes (clothes from your house you don't want anymore), old scuffed up shoes, big floppy hats, etc... make great toys for kids.

Answer 5

Kids Love singing and hearing other people sing, teach them some dancing and singing it will be fun for you and the kids. They will love it. They also love it when you like oclor with them and stuff.

Answer 6

ok painting with water give them all a brush and a tiny bit of water in a glass when the water changes the wall or wood color they think they are painting they love it in n out~u can sing the days of the wk and teach them they love it ~ only show educational TV ~ have a scrap box for crafts kids love to glue anything~have color wk and let them tear pics out of mags to glue do alot with nature`this kids eat this up there like little sponges have fun there fun1 i found it much easier to group them off in dif .. groups then have play stations blow my whistle then they go to a new group enjoy

Answer 7

Honestly you can never do enough creative craft activities! My two year olds love animals so I try to teach as much about animals as possible. Two year olds have an amazing imagination, you should use this to your advantage! Say you're learning about dinosaurs, when they go to play in the blocks ask them if they know what kind of house a dinosaur might live in. Maybe in housekeeping they act like they are a dinosaur family. Expanding the imagination is a wonderful thing! It provokes all kinds of skills like processing questions, expanding their ability to think beyond themselves, and social interaction.

The biggest thing I run into with my intelligent 2 year olds is that the answer to every question is "mommy or daddy" with asking open-ended questions, "Where is Tommy going?" instead of "Is Tommy going to the store?", it makes them thing outside of their little box. They also need to learn how to interact with other children, how to get along and follow those ever present rules! lol

Just remember, if all else fails... they will never be sad to see you in the floor playing with them. You will always have more hugs than ever dreamed if you put their best interest first.

Answer 8

kids are sometime a bit crazy.

Answer 9

dancing is good for 2 years old and put painting , building blocks, art and painting , tell them cute storys, karaoke , gymbo gym, Construction, Tiny Town....

Answer 10

Untill a child reaches the age of 30 or more they have the attention span of two minutes,  Repitition, keep doing the same games, teaching abilities,  children learn by repitition. Read the same books, just keep doing the things you are.

Answer 11

My daughter loved the story of scat the cat. It's a rhythmic story about a cat who wants to change his color. You can make felt cats in the different colors scat changes into and all the kids love to scream the color when you hold up the new color in the story. Also they love to scream the scat the cat line and snap their fingers. It's so cute to watch.  

Here's the link to the story and they also have a felt pattern to make the different scat colors. I actually bought my set off of ebay for a few dollars.

I think this a great story b/c it teaches kids to love their own "color" and be happy with who they are.

Answer 12

you can play with them hide and seek and when you catch them tickle them or something. also, rent movies for then to watch, maybe they would get bored easily but if they do get the ones that get bored and try teaching them new things.

Answer 13

My mom was a pre-school teacher and she read books (Hungry Caterpillar) and cut out HUGE circles and had the kids color on them and glued them all together to make a immense caterpillar and hung it up on the wall. It took awhile but my mom had SOOO many compliments!She also did a lot of writing activites. I, on the other hand, made edible peanut butterplay dough! My sisters enjoyed this activity soo much! They played for hours. You need cornstarch and peanut butter and children will play with it like play dough. And at the end... they can eat it!!!!!!

Answer 14

Uh, actually, most two year-olds have the attention span of two minutes.  The age is the number of minutes for attention span according to research.  

Do you have a sandbox?  Do you have a block area?  Do you have a dress up area?  Do you let them create their own snacks (like ants on a log--which would be celery with raisins and peanut butter)?  What about Leap Pads?  Computers?  

You may want to look at the following websites for other ideas:

Good luck!!