Baby Animals | Blue Bird Day
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Table Time

Activity: Match the Baby Animals

Materials:

Print animals

Scissors to cut them out

Blue Bird Day and animal book

Skill Check 

The goal of this week is to practice identifying big/small and matching non-identicals

Expanding Skills

Increase the array (e.g., instead of 2 different pictures on the table to match to, have 3 or 4 different pictures and ask them to match). The 2nd activity can be used to expand skills by drawing a line from the big animal to the little animal.

Floortime Play

Activity: Baby Animal Charades

Materials:

Your child’s favorite toy animals or pictures of baby animals

Blue Bird Day and kid toy shark

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is to spending time together in a playful, imaginative way

There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending

Expanding Skills

Sit down with your child and make all the sounds of their favorite animals.

Begin crawling on your hands and knees as if you are the animal too

Encourage your child to pretend to be an animal

Don’t be discouraged if your child does not pretend, go back to making animal sounds and try again.

Build on the idea by drinking water like a cat, eating elephant cupcakes, and peeling a banana like a monkey

Relaxation Time

Activity: Mindful Breathing

Book:

Breathe like a Bear by Kira Willey – Bunny Breath (follow along as Dr. Laura Mraz reads this mindfulness meditation here)

Blue Bird Day and Breathe like a bear book
Breath Like A Bear - Bunny Breath Relaxation Video

Skill Check 

The goal of this week is to practice bringing attention to breath in a fun and playful way

Expanding Skills

Read “Bunny Breath”

Sit together in a circle and take turns feeling each other’s belly muscles working as you breath deeply and slowly

See who can hold themselves still the longest and model slow, relaxed movements

Creative Time

Activity: Garden Sensory Bin

Materials:

Dried Beans

Small container or shoebox

Pretend Animals

Flowers

Bugs

Etc.

Blue Bird Day and sensory skills

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is for your child to engage in tactile play

Expanding Skills

Encourage your child to explore the sensory bin

Engage in pretend play with items in bin

Movement Time

Activity: Baby Birds

Materials:

Ball

Book

Stuffed animal to hug

Blue Bird Day and ball play

Skill Check 

The goal of this week focuses on using all the muscles in your body at the same time to create a ball pose while on your back

Expanding Skills

Have your child pop bubbles with their feet or kick a balloon while lying on their back!

Challenge your eyes by reading a book in this position, balancing the book by your knees and lifting your head to read

Toss a ball to your child while they are on their back and see if they can kick it back to you

Reach your right leg long with the left leg still tight to your stomach, bring the right leg back in and try it on the other side

Mealtime

Activity: Play With Food

Materials:

Novel foods

Cups

Utensils

Blue Bird Day and mealtime

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is to assess your child’s responses to new foods and promote exploration in a safe and supportive environment

Expanding Skills

This might be difficult if you child is a “picky eater”. Focus on their ability to explore foods without signs of distress. Praise your child for small victories such as playing with new foods for 5 minutes!

Practice scooping foods with a spoon by having races to see who can fill up a small Dixie cup with food first

Once filled, try moving the scooped food playfully towards your child’s face, mouth or nose (wherever the child is comfortable)

Play “restaurant” and order different variations of kabobs

Use the fork as a “kabob” and pierce different types of food

Ex. “I would like a watermelon, orange slice kabob”

Take turns being the “chef”

Sing familiar songs while practicing using utensils

Scoop and pour soup, applesauce, or pudding to create a “rain shower” while singing “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”

Language Time

Activity: Animal Sounds Matching!

Materials:

YouTube Link – Animal Sounds For Children

Toy Animals

Blue Bird Day and toy dinosaur

Skill Check 

The goal of this week is to provide opportunity for your child to increase use, expand, and improve understanding of language through play

Expanding Skills

Put out a few toy animals to play with, then play the YouTube link with the different animal sounds. Ask your child to match the toy animal to the sound they hear.

Consider being silly with this to increase participation and interest; take turns guessing the animals, and get it wrong! Ask your child to help you pick the right match

Add additional questions to the activity (e.g., “Where does the animal live?” “What does the animal look like?” “Who takes care of this animal?”) to target higher level receptive language skills

Act out animal movements to make it more playful and interactive

Describe the animals on how they look. You can even draw the animals together to target increased expressive language

WEST LOOP LOCATION

1233 W Adams St, Chicago, IL 60607

WHEATON LOCATION – Now Open!

140 E Loop Rd, Wheaton, IL 60189

NORTHCENTER LOCATION

1921 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613

CONTACT INFORMATION

(312) 243-8487

info@bbdprogram.com

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