What are some sensory and gross/fine motor activities for infants?

Question

Just some ideas please...

For group care setting...

6 month and older...

Answer 1

Sensory activities are so fun for infants.  Condensed milk paintings are always fun, and the children love to eat it!  Also cool whip, pudding, and jello work great.  Do these in a variety of ways, sit them at the table or high chair to do, and do full body paintings, take all their clothes off and place them on their belly with the paper and "paint" in front of them, they will usually grab for it and if able pull their bodies onto the paper, be sure to do this on a noncarpeted area and have baby soap on hand!  Make shakers out of old formula cans (ask the parents to bring them in when they are done with them) and place any type of noisy object in it, rubber balls also work great.  Make sure when you are done placing the objects in the can that you seal the can tightly and use duct tape to tape the can shut.  These should not be used unless the children are being closely supervised.  Fine motor can include painting, having a child grab for a medium ball, the open close them song with hands.  For gross motor try to get the children up and active.  Place something on the floor you know they enjoy to get them to crawl such as a tunnel.  Also get a ball pit and sit them inside it, they will throw the balls and use their arms.  Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Incorporating texture is great for this age.  Consider a Texture Crawl:  Place own different materials, carpets, etc in a row/line and tape down.  Encourage the children to crawl on them.  Remember that some will not like this at all.

Create a texture caterpillar.. cut circles out of cardboard and glue on a different texture to each circle.  I glued on sand, just plain glue (makes it very smooth), rubber mat, aluminum foil, yarn, etc on mine.  Then I placed it on a wall in the form of a caterpillar.  They loved to touch them.

Ooshy, Squeezing:  Take a bit of fruit juice and add some unflavored gelatin and let it set to make jello. Put some of her jello in a plastic bag and tie the top. Let her squeeze it and experiment with what happens when it is pushed, poked, prodded, and bang. When she’s done with the bag, pour the jello out so they can continue to play and eat it with fingers

Fingerpainting:  yogurt, ketchup, whipped cream, dollop of cereal on tray.

Cushion Climb:  Set up some cushion “stairs” so they can begin to learn to climb stairs properly.

I love to tape a large section of contact paper with sticky side up on the floor.  They all react so differently to it.  Some will have no problem with stepping on it or touching it but others will just put toys on it.

Bubblewrap---supervise closely :-)  I tape it to an aluminum pan.  Sometimes I add paint and bubbles or lotion or a bit of water.

I have tied colorful scarves together and placed them into a transparent juice bottle.  They pull and pull and pull!

I just PB containers to place different colorful materials in so they can shake them and hear the sound and see the color...a mixture of beans, noodles, rice, water and foamies, pom poms etc.

Water is always a favorite and you don't need a lot to keep the baby happy.  :-)

I've been known to place a child in a plastic wading pool with a washtub of sensory material.  Of course you have to be right there because they are still learning not to put it in their mouth but they soon learn :-)  The wading pool keeps the mess contained since they like to remove it from any of the containers in it.

Collect some big boxes of different sizes and they will be in their glory to crawl through them!

Attach colorful ribbons together and hang them near a window.  The older ones will love to have their own to shake and even take outside and see what the wind does.

Bubbles of course!

Rhythm instruments and nursery rhymes

I've placed jingle bells inside of a decorated oatmeal container and they children rolled it and then crawled after it.

The following are from the book Beginning with Babies...I'm not sure who the author is.  Sorry.

Noisy Sock Ball:  Cut cellophane into smaller squares or strips and stuff the toe of a colorful, patterned sock with crumpled pieces until you have a ball shape. Leaving about 1 ½ -2 inches above the ball, cut off the remaining portion of the sock. Securely sew the ball closed using the needle and thread.  Babies enjoy dropping and throwing objects. This activity helps babies develop eye-hand coordination and encourage their exploration of the concept of cause and effect.  The crinkling sounds adds interest to the ball and the baby will extend her play with it.

Jiggle Jug:  Clean a milk or juice jug with handle.  While baby is watching, drop 6-8 old fashioned wooden clothespins into and shake the jug.  Shake the clothespins out and drop them into the jug again.  A very young baby will enjoy the jug as a giant rattle. An older baby may attempt to empty the clothespins out and put them back in.  The baby will enjoy shaking or kicking the jug. Add some background music and encourage the baby to shake the jug in time to the rhythm.  This activity help the baby learn about cause and effect and develop eye-hand coordination.

Sticky Pictures:  Remove the paper backing from a 1x3ft long piece of Con-Tact paper and use tape to attach it to the wall at baby-height, sticky side out. Cut out photo or magazine pictures to fit the tops of the lids from small yogurt containers.  Glue the pictures to the lids. Position the baby in front of the ConTact paper- “the sticky wall.”  Stick the picture lid to the sticky wall and then remove them. Encourage the baby to stick a picture lid on the wall. Help him if necessary. Talk about the pictures, the sound the lids make when you remove them, and how it feels to touch the sticky wall.  This is a wonderful small-muscle activity. It helps the baby practice grasping with his thumb and finger as he peels the lids from the sticky wall. If you use photos of the baby and other child in your care or their families and pets, you turn this into a social/emotional activity, as well.

Climber:  Wrap tape around an old thick phone book to help the book retain it’s shape, then cover the entire phone book with Con-Tact paper.  Babies are going to become climbers, so it is a good idea to have a lot of low, safe things around them to climb on, over, and around. This activity helps babies practice balancing and adjusting their bodies to remain upright.

Better let this be all!  There are some great infant resource books at your local library I'm sure!

Answer 3

Try a textured mat they can crawl over, with all sorts of different textures to it like silk/satin, cotton, wool etc. If you or anyone you know is good at sowing you should be able to do this pretty easily.

play-gym although it will only work with one child at a time.

push toys which the children can use to walk with.

water play

balls mostly large ones. You can roll them to the child and then try to get them to roll it back or to another child

simple obstacle course for the children to walk/crawl through

blocks either largish cube ones or duplo

You could also try letting them hold their own spoons when eating with your help.

don't use anything too small as everything tends to go in their mouth