The Tube

Here’s a simple activity that our toddlers love. We’ve found some long cardboard tubes. They are a little longer than wrapping paper tubes, but twice as wide. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures. We had one teacher sitting holding one end of the tube and the other end was slanted down to the floor. It looked like a ramp. Then the toddlers rolled balls down the tube and chased them across the room.

One toddler wanted to see what would happen if we held the tube straight forward with someone at each end. One person to put the ball in and the other to catch it. We found out that it the ball still would role down the tube. Next, he wanted to see what would happen if he held the tube closer to his face. He’d laugh whenever someone dropped a ball in the tube. One little girl experimented with putting a dish at the bottom of the slanted tube. The balls would role down, but the toddlers couldn’t see them. A couple of them weren’t sure where the balls were going so we asked them to peak inside the dish. They laughed when they discovered that the balls stayed in the dish.

The new teacher has several of these tubes and she’d like to add them to the gross motor room. She wants to mount them to the wall at different angles so that the children can experiment with the balls moving in different angles and directions. She also wants to try tennis balls with the tubes so that Crawling Baby can use them. The small ones that we are using now can be a choking hazard for him. He spent some time in the toddler room today and he was very interested in the tubes and balls, but didn’t understand the rules of our game. At one point, he wanted to drag the tube away. I wanted to see how he’d use the tube, but the other teacher brought it back to the group to continue the game.
I have a feeling that the children will do lots of experimenting with these tubes and that we can use them for a variety of activities.

New Friends

The new school year has started which means we have several new friends to get to know. The first is another Baby J, but since there’s already a Baby J who is older, I’ll refer to him as Little Guy. That’s kind of his nickname right now anyway because he’s so small. We aren’t supposed to call them by nicknames because of the NAEYC standards, but once in a while, we call some of the babies Buddy or other nicknames, but we mean no harm by it. Anyway, he started when he was six weeks old. Now he’s closer to nine weeks and he’s already grown since he started. He loves to lay on the floor on his blanket and look around. That seems to be his favorite place most of the time. At other times, he can be fussy, but he’s usually happy after he gets fed. Some people are bothered by the fact that he hates his pacifier and gets really mad when someone tries to put it in his mouth. If only we could read his mind! I know he must be wondering why anyone would try to shut him up with that. After I tried giving it to him a couple of times, I’ve stopped because he obviously has his preferences. I think we should respect that instead of trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth just because it works for other babies. He’s one of those babies who fights going to sleep, but he isn’t the only one.



There’s Baby E who just started last week. She is tiny and looks like a baby doll. That’s the first thing I said when I picked her up to feed her. She’s six weeks old and is another one who doesn’t seem to want to ever sleep. I rock her to sleep, but she wakes up as soon as I put her down. She enjoys being held and likes to sit facing out so she can look at everything. I always make sure to have her leaning against me for support since she’s nowhere near old enough to support herself while sitting. We have Baby S who I’ll meet next week. She started last Wednesday. She’s a year old and I don’t know anything else about her.



We have some new friends in the toddler room as well. I met M about two weeks ago. He’s pretty quiet most of the time, but likes to get involved in what the other kids are doing. I’ve seen M playing drums and pretend to water plants with D. He also likes to pretend to drive using a steering wheel that’s mounted to a wooden post on the playground. He likes to look at books. He kept pointing out different babies in a picture book we were looking at together. Then there’s F who I’ve only met once so far. She started this past week. She fit right in and even started climbing the shelves and tables. We had to tell her to get down, but she seems to love her new school. She spent most of her first morning with us on the climber going up and down the stairs and slide.



In the preschool room, there are at least eight new kids who I’ve never met. Most likely, I’ll be only interacting with them out on the playground since I don’t usually work in their classrooms. It’ll take me longer to get to know them. There is also a new teacher in the toddler room and she has brought many positive changes. She’s brought organization, fresh ideas and she has introduced new toys, books and activities. I think this will be great for the toddlers this year. I will share some of those activities in later posts. For now, I’m looking forward to getting to know our new friends.

Music and Sand

Today I spent a few hours with the toddlers, but since there were a couple extra teachers, I spent most of the time in the classroom cleaning and taking care of other things while the kids were either napping or outside. Towards the end of the day when there were only two kids left, one of the girls decided she wanted to play the drum. It’s a medium sized drum with two sticks. We both took one. Her drumming was loud of course so I showed her that she could drum quietly as well which didn’t last long. She kept trying to put the sticks back into holders on the drum, but she couldn’t quite push them in. I’d get them started for her, but then she realized it worked better if she pushed them in with her foot. We also tested what the sticks sounded like when moved across the drum and on three different balls. After a while she pushed them away and went back to loud drumming with both sticks. One of the supervisors came in and told her that she loved her music. They had one of those stability balls in the room so she loved bouncing on that too. She thought it was fun to fall off. This girl usually gets into trouble almost every day, but today she was doing great. She didn’t get in trouble at all and on the playground, she skipped around telling everyone how happy she was.

I stopped by the infant room to see if the teacher in there needed help. Crawling Baby came over to the gate and started to whine at me so I picked him up and talked to him for a few minutes. When I went to put him down, he started to cry so I tried to get him to play with a couple toys, but then the teacher suggested I take him to the sand box. He was happy out there. He liked watching me shovel sand into a bucket. I’d do it in different ways. Sometimes, I’d slowly let the sand fall into the bucket or quickly dump it in which he thought was funny. I started to dump the bucket because I thought he’d enjoy seeing the big pile of sand, but he didn’t want me to. He wanted me to keep shoveling and patting. I started to tell him about the texture of the sand when he spotted his mom on the preschool playground. I held his hands and we walked over to her. She told me how much Crawling Baby loves the sand box, but I think he was glad to be going home.

Activities for Toddlers

Here’s what we did today.
We built towers with square blocks. They were taller than most of the toddlers, but the best part was knocking them over. In one case, one boy ran the bike right through it.
We chased, kicked, threw and bounced balls. The best part was seeing how far they go across the room. One girl asked to play pass with her friend, but unfortunately she wasn’t interested. Maybe next time. Some of the boys carried them around keeping them from everyone else. Eventually, when they found something else to do, other kids got to play with them.
We bounced on and built towers with large squishy blocks. The toddlers had the most fun bouncing on them. It got a little chaotic when everyone wanted a turn at once. A couple of them started working together to bounce by holding on to each other’s hands instead of mine.

I blew bubbles while the toddlers chased after them. One boy kept asking for a bigger and bigger one. I did the best I could with making them bigger, but there’s only so much you can do with a small wand and a different amount of liquid each time. They thought of a new game when they started stomping around and saying, “pop, pop!”

All the toddlers rode bikes at least once. The toddlers love the three bikes and everyone wants a turn at once. I had to distract them several times by building towers, throwing balls, etc. It usually worked, but some were insistent on having the bikes now. One girl sat with me until she could calm down and eventually she got her turn.

They finger-painted while I watched. It was more about the process because there were few colors and the toddlers didn’t stay at the table long. There were some lines and blobs and when some were done, they folded and crumpled their papers. We unfolded them and set them in the hall to dry. We ended up with eight paintings that looked pretty much the same, but that’s okay. It’s for the experience.

We played outside in the rain. I didn’t enjoy this because it was a little cold and wet, but they loved it. They played in puddles, rode bikes on the path, played in the sand box and simply ran around the playground. They didn’t mind the rain at all and needed the fresh air.

We looked at books. Several of us sat together and just looked at the pictures. Some of the books had special features like textures and a bell, but the children were most interested in the ones with simple words and pictures. Many of the books had pictures of different people and animals. They especially liked the book with pictures of babies. It had baby rabbits, human babies etc. One of the babies even looked like one of the toddlers.

When nap was over, we started the routine all over again. The only things that were left out were playing in the rain and finger-painting. We also used the tunnel. It worked well at first when one person went in at a time, but then got crazy when three kids were inside the tunnel at once. It was too crowded and the one in the middle wanted to get out. We had to put it away after a while, but it's a good activity for learning to take turns. My day ended quietly with all the kids leaving before five.

When We Work Together

Today, I spent most of the morning with the toddlers. There were more than enough people in the infant room and the teacher in the toddler room really needed help. When I walked in, there were four kids crying and one lying on the couch by herself. I’m not sure what got all of them so upset. I’m guessing it was that some of them got to go for a walk outside and others didn’t. Some of them go on one day and the rest of the group goes on the next day. They even take a couple of the infants that are going to be in the toddler room in the next couple of months. Anyway, I helped calm them down. They walked around the room crying for a few minutes, but then I distracted a couple of them by pointing out the box of markers on the table. They quickly started dumping the markers and watching them role across the floor instead of drawing. The ones who were interested in drawing insisted on drawing on everyone else’s papers instead of their own. One girl kept telling a boy to draw on his own paper, but he wasn’t listening. Eventually, we picked up the markers and they moved on to other things around the room.

A group of them started playing with the big foam blocks. One boy remembered the bouncing game from a few weeks ago. A couple of the foam blocks are rectangle shaped and those work the best because they can sit on them and there’s enough room to bounce. Anyway, he told me he wanted to bounce so I held his hands. A girl came over and said it was her turn. I asked the boy if he heard his friend say it was her turn. He said it was still his turn so I let him bounce a few more times. Then the girl reminded him that she wanted a turn. He sat on the block for another few minutes while saying, “Mine and my turn.” I wasn’t sure how to let her have a turn without just taking the block away from him. Then I thought of a way they could work together. I suggested that he could hold her hands while she bounced and then when it was his turn, she could hold his hands. He hesitated, but I helped him stand up. She sat on the block and he grabbed her hands and they started laughing when one of them would bounce too hard and fall off. I had to remind them once in a while whose turn it was, but they figured out that its fun when they work together. Then another boy got involved and we had to add more turns, but he moved on to something else pretty quickly. The boy wanted his own block so he tried the squares, but he found that they were too small for bouncing, but we finally found another rectangular block. They enjoyed bouncing next to each other too. They also built a huge tower together and loved when someone else knocked it over. That meant that it was time to rebuild.

When the other toddlers came back from lunch, I saw D again. She was the girl who says, “Got you!” Her newest game is to sort of hide behind a chair. Of course, she can’t really get behind it because it’s an adult sized chair which is partially against the wall. I can still see her, but she says, “I got you” from there. Eventually, she’ll run out and across the room. She’s trying to talk a lot more. I don’t understand most of her words, but she is trying really hard. Most of the time, I know what she’s asking for though. She was asking for milk today which I could understand. She’s learning to use a regular paper cup, but she crumples it and the milk spills, but she’s trying. She’s grown so much since I met her in February.

In the infant room, I spent more time with Baby L and Baby C. We put them in the squishy seats again. They always reach for each other and like to look at each other’s toys. Baby C babbled a lot today and was excited to get in the jumper. There are keys on the jumper that you can press and they make musical notes. She loved hitting them and figuring out that they made different sounds. Baby L also discovered this earlier in the day. I was sitting with him and pressed the keys a few times to let him hear the sounds. He tried imitating me, but his hands aren’t strong enough to press the keys. Finally, he’d press his cheek against them and they’d make the sound. He spent a lot of time doing this. He also liked playing with a rattle that was hanging from the top of the jumper. I’d make it swing from side to side and he’d catch it. When it was just hanging there, he’d shake it and babble about what he was doing. At least that’s what I think he was babbling about. We also played with a ball. I’d give the ball to Baby C because she actually would grab it with both hands and would drop it. Of course, it’d role all over the place. Baby L would only push on it while it was in my hand and it would fall. Then he’d reach his hand out to touch the ball again. He also kept scratching it, but didn’t figure out that he could use both hands to hold it. He also showed interest in a big blue ball that they have for the older infants. The ball is at least twice his size, but he wanted to play with it so I’d gently role it over to him so he could touch it and he’d push it away, but then would try to reach for it again. It would get too far away from him though and he’s not strong enough to crawl after it. I have a feeling he’ll be crawling soon because he’s already showing interest in chasing after objects and will lean towards them while stretching his hands out. For now, we are enjoying the stage that Baby L is at because he loves to be held, but is just as happy to be playing by himself.

Where's the Chicken?

Today, I got called in to sub at a different center. It’s affiliated with the center where I volunteer, but it’s in another town. I worked with the infants and toddlers for a couple of hours this morning. My job was to cover everyone’s breaks. It got a little confusing because every half an hour, I had to go to a different room. Luckily, it was only two rooms or I really would’ve been confused because the place was totally new to me.

The infants are older at this place and most of them are walking. We only had four this morning. The only one who wasn’t walking was another Baby L. I come across a lot of Baby L’s. This one is a girl and she’s very cute. If I spend more time with her, I’ll come up with a better name. She had come in on one of my times in the toddler room so when I came back to the infant room, I didn’t notice her at first. When the other teacher left the room, I looked over and noticed her in the jumper. She started jumping really fast and I told her that she was really good at jumping. One of the boys noticed and he started grabbing her and the toys that were bouncing up and down with her. This made her nervous and she started to fuss. I tried the technique of showing the boy how to be gentle with her like I did with Baby L and Crawling Baby, but it didn’t work because she started to freak out. She stopped after we backed away from her a little bit, but then started to cry louder. I thought it was me that was bothering her at first because I’m new and I had touched her cheek. I’ve noticed that babies always try to touch each other’s faces because that’s what Crawling Baby does and that’s what this little boy did. Anyway, she reached her arms up so I picked her up, but I was worried that the other teacher was going to come back to the room to a screaming baby. I was surprised though when she calmed right down. The other teacher came back and I was glad because I couldn’t hold her and pay close enough attention to the other three walking around the room. So we sat in the rocking chair and another little girl brought over some blocks that the boys had been throwing all morning. I gave them to Girl Baby L to look at and she babbled a little bit as she looked at the different blocks. After a few minutes, we took the babies outside and Baby L sat in a swing which she enjoyed. She started fussing again when we went back inside and then didn’t want to sit in a seat while the older babies ate lunch. I held her for a while and she kept putting her head on my shoulder. I would’ve helped put her to sleep, but I had to go back to the toddlers.

I met some cool kids there too. There was one girl in particular who was really talkative. I’ll call her K. When I first walked in, she was talking about how she was fixing cereal for her baby that was sitting in the highchair. Then another girl came over and she showed me some different juice containers. They were containers with different things in them that were glued shut. Most had water with different food coloring, but others had some substance that was made to look like milk and another one had cheerios in it. I thought it was creative to make these for the kitchen area and the children really enjoyed them. They were different sizes and had different amounts of liquid in them. The girls wanted me to keep pouring them juice, tea, milk etc. Meanwhile, K pretended to feed her baby cereal and juice. I asked her what kind of juice she was drinking and she told me, “Milk juice.” Then she brought over a different bottle and I asked her what kind of juice that was. She told me, “Cereal juice.” Later, she said another bottle had grape juice in it. The girls started trying to dress their babies and wanted me to put diapers on them. K told me I needed to put a diaper on her baby so she wouldn’t pee or poop. She brought over a doctors kit and said she was making everyone feel better. The other girl said her baby wasn’t sick so she didn’t need to go to the doctor.

They asked me my name and I told them it’s Darcey. I asked them what their names were and K kept giving me the other girl’s name instead of her own so I was getting confused about who was who because the other teachers hadn’t told me any of their names. They told me that they were both two-years-old. K said, “I’m a toddler and my sister is a preschooler.” The other girl told me that she was a toddler too which got them into a conversation about how they were all toddlers in the room.

Later during lunch, we had scrambled eggs and toast. They loved the eggs, but K asked, “Where’s the chicken?” I told her that we weren’t having chicken for lunch and that I didn’t know why. She said, “Why aren’t we having chicken?” Then she said that when she was a baby, her mother had chicken, but it was all gone. She also told me, “When I was a baby, I was a boy, but then I turned into a girl.” I asked if she was sure because she looked like a girl to me and that I thought she had always been a girl even when she was a baby. She told me no, that she was a boy as a baby, but not anymore. She was a girl now. When the director came over to check on things, the toddlers at the table told her I was a lot of fun.

Got You!

Today, I worked with the infants and toddlers. When I first got there, Baby J started to cry from the swing so I held him for a while, but he wouldn’t stop crying so the other teacher took him. He wasn’t feeling well. Later, Crawling Baby came in and he has a new trick. He can stand up while holding onto something, but can’t walk while holding on to something stationary like the couch. He’s figured out that he can walk if he holds on to someone’s hands. He grabbed both of my hands and stood up so I started to move backwards to let him catch up with me. We went around the room a few times, but after a while it was hard because I was on my knees. He was having a good time though. He played with his phone again and he’s found a new favorite toy, a plastic corn on the cob. He also kept dumping out a bucket of toys. I’d refill it just so he could dump it again. Baby L who I usually play with was on vacation, but it gave me a chance to play with and learn more about Crawling Baby.

Baby J fell asleep and Baby O who’s the oldest went for a walk with a small group of toddlers. Since only Crawling Baby was awake, they sent me to the toddler room where they figured they’d need more help. Since some of them were out for their walk, there were only four, but they were the rowdy ones. We colored, played with foam blocks and some of them found the balls they had out a few weeks ago. Today, they mostly loved rolling and chasing them around the room. They experimented with rolling the ball on the slide and sliding down after it. The girl who is the youngest and had trouble walking in the snow was there. I’ll call her D. Only three weeks ago, I never heard her say any words. She’d communicate by crying, sign language or just by taking what she wanted. The infant teacher is learning sign language and she teaches simple signs to the kids. Anyway, today, her dad left and she was upset about it. Any time she started crying, she’d say, “daddy.” She kept walking me around the classroom and especially to the door that leads to the playground. She got there late and missed the outside play time. She also went back to her cubby for her coat. I kept having to explain that she missed outside time and that maybe she could go out later this afternoon. She also likes to watch the preschoolers on the playground which she does often. Finally, she brought me to the climber where she likes to play peak-a-boo with me on the stairs. We played for a few minutes and she thought it was so funny. Finally, she tried to say “peak-a-boo.” Then I went to check up on the other toddlers and she ran after me. When she caught up with us, she grabbed me and said, “got you!” That was our saying of the day after that. Any time we’d play together that’s what she’d say. I was glad to hear her talking now. The other toddlers seemed to talk more as well. They are learning new words everyday. They recognized me right off too even though I haven’t been in their room for three weeks. I decided to stay in there longer than planned to help with lunch and putting them down for nap. It was a very busy morning.

I went back to the infant room, but Crawling Baby was asleep. The only one awake was Baby O. Her and the other teacher looked at books and she walked around the room from one toy to another. Finally, Crawling Baby woke up and I went to get him from the room where the cribs are. We played more with the toys in the bucket, looked at books and his new favorite pass time, walking with me around the room. I felt bad for him because he wanted to look at books with Baby O, but she kept pushing him away. He didn’t want to take it from her; he just wanted to see the pictures. Then she was sitting on the couch and Crawling Baby came over and was trying to hold on to the couch. He ended up touching her feet since they were hanging off the couch and she got really annoyed with him. the teacher told me she doesn’t like him touching her at all. I think he grabs too rough sometimes, but he means well. He came up to me later while I was holding Baby J and he was touching his head. I made sure he was gentle though. At least Baby L doesn’t freak out when Crawling Baby comes over.

In the afternoon, Baby C came in. I didn’t get to play with her much today, but she does a ton of babbling. More than the others. I had to feed and hold Baby J. I had to keep walking him around the room or rock him because he wouldn’t settle down. Eventually, we put him in a playpen type thing, but it’s made out of wood and is higher off the ground. Instead of mesh sides, it has sides like a crib. It has a blanket on the bottom and we put some soft toys in there. He started to fuss in there too, but the teacher said he needs to learn to soothe himself which is true. I held him for over an hour and if he gets to used to someone holding him automatically every time he gets fussy, he’ll never learn how to calm himself down. After a couple minutes, he was quiet. I’m not the only one who holds him for a long time. We all do because he likes it, but sometimes he needs some time on the floor or in the play pen. Before I left, I walked with Crawling Baby some more. When I had to leave, I found his corn on the cob and he was happy to chew on that while sitting next to a full bucket of toys.

WhatWe CanDo With a Ball

This week, we played outdoors. The girl from last week who had trouble walking in the snow still had trouble. She’d take a few steps by herself and then fall. She was having trouble getting up because she kept sinking in the snow. She’d laugh when she fell though so at least she was having a good time. After a while, she grabbed my hand and I walked with her if she wanted to go somewhere else on the playground. She’d even try to keep walking by herself after balancing by holding my hand, but she’d grab my hand again when she would start to fall. After going inside, she started to be clingy and constantly wanted to be picked up. One thing I noticed was that she likes looking out the window. I’d bring her over so she could watch the preschoolers play outside. One of her favorite games is peak-a-boo on the climber. I sit beside the climber stairs because there’s a little window there. I look through the window and she sees me from sitting on the stairs. Then I disappear. When she stands to look over the railing, she laughs because she sees me on the bottom. We had fun looking at our reflections in the mirror next to the climber. The toddlers like to press their faces right against the mirror. Some of the boys kept spitting on the mirror. They thought it was really funny, but I reminded them about the germs and they eventually stopped.

Most of the morning play surrounded three balls. Two of them are the regular smooth balls and the other one is bumpy and a little smaller. They discovered that they could do a lot with these balls. They could push them around the room like their trucks. They can carry them, they can role them, they can try to bounce them; they can sit on them and bounce on them. This only worked for some toddlers. The girl I mentioned needed the smaller ball and then she was able to bounce on the ball. She discovered this after trying one of the bigger balls. She’d fall off and after trying a few times, I asked, “what about the bumpy ball?” She tried that one and it worked much better although it was hard for her to keep her balance. We can play pass with the ball. It started with me and another girl on the floor. We’d role the ball back and forth. Then she started throwing it. A boy came over and joined into the game until he wanted the ball all to himself. We can take turns with the ball or we can fight over it. The girl noticed the other ball wasn’t being used so she brought that one over. We rolled it down the slide a couple of times, tried to bounce it off the floor and throwing the ball into the air. She saw that if she rolled the ball farther away, she could chase after it. Then more toddlers got involved with chasing the balls around the room. They practiced kicking and then chasing. Then I’d throw the ball in the air to see where it lands and the kids would chase it until they caught up to it. We’d start all over again with our game. Some even used the balls to knock over towers built from foam blocks. Playing with a ball is a great way for toddlers to develop those gross motor skills plus it’s so much fun!

Another cool thing that happened this week was they are starting to know my name. One of the girls kept saying, “Darcey, watch this!” Since most of these toddlers aren’t talking much yet, sometimes I forget what they can really understand and remember. I hardly ever hear them say the other teacher’s names and they work with them all the time so I was surprised when a couple of them said mine. When I came in, the girl who plays peak-a-boo came over and brought me right to the climber. It amazes me sometimes how much they know and remember even with someone they don’t see that often. Next week, I will be volunteering with the infants since there will be more babies.

Testing The Limmits

Today was the first day that we’ve gone outside since I’ve been volunteering with the toddlers. We were out there for a half an hour. I thought it was cold, but it was good for them to get out and get rid of all that extra energy. They mostly walked around in the snow, but some of them went on slides and on the swings. One girl got angry because she couldn’t get on the slide that was made for the preschoolers. That lasted a few minutes until she found something else to do. The youngest girl who is sixteen-months-old was cautious about walking in the snow. She started to walk and then fell down. She laughed, but seemed worried about what would happen if she got back up. Eventually, she stood there, but wouldn’t move. I walked over and asked her if she wanted to hold my hand and try to walk through the snow. She thought about it for a minute and grabbed my hand. We walked to the swing set that was a few feet away and she started climbing up the steps to the slide. Another toddler seemed concerned about trying the slide, but had a big smile on her face when she finally slid down.

After we went in, the toddlers worked on today’s art activity which was drawing with crayons. They were given a blank piece of paper and a large crayon. Each kid had a different color. We went around the table a few times repeating names of colors. The children were confused about which color they had. One boy had orange, but the girl next to him had green. The boy thought he had green and the girl thought she had orange. That was never really understood, but the kids had fun naming the colors. Most of the kids did scribbles, some crooked lines and dots, but a couple of them were able to draw shapes like circles and squares. One boy informed us that circles were round. After a while the kids switched colors, but the coloring turned to crumpling of papers. That was until one of the toddlers discovered that if you tap the crayon on the paper, you’ll make dots. Then everyone started doing that until the teacher asked them to stop because they were being too rough with the crayons. It went back to the paper crumpling until the teacher took their papers to write names on them.

It was back to play time where the boys were riding bikes and the girls were walking around, climbing on the climber or in the home corner. They kept testing their limits on the bikes. One boy was insistent on crashing into another one with his bike until the teacher said it wasn’t safe, but he continued to do it until he almost got the bike taken away. Then another boy decided that he wanted to play with a bike and a puzzle at the same time. The problem was that someone else wanted the puzzle and the pieces were all over the place. We were trying to keep the puzzles and their pieces together on the table so one of the rules was that if you wanted to work on puzzles that you had to stay at the table. Finally, someone else wanted the bike too. The boy was mad about choosing and decided he was going to dump out his puzzle pieces and then put the flat part of the puzzle on top of his bike seat. That way if he was sitting on it, no one could get it from him. Eventually, we noticed and told him to bring the puzzle back to the table. I helped him back to the table, but he chose not to work on the puzzles. Meanwhile, someone else took the bike because he chose not to use it. He was upset about this for a few minutes until another bike was free. Then the group of boys decided to tip their bikes over and push them around and try to ride them with the wheels in the air. They kept getting caught in the bikes and falling off so we decided it wasn’t safe. If you wanted to ride bikes, you had to ride them the proper way. One of the boys got really upset because after three or four times of telling him that he could either ride the bike properly or not use it, we had to take it away. I asked him if he was ready to use the bike the right way and he said no so I left it under the table. Eventually, he was able to think about it and decided to ride the right way.

Then it was back to the puzzle table. One kid decided to throw all the puzzle pieces on the floor and a few other toddlers joined him. I kept trying to clean up the mess, but they continued to throw the pieces all over the floor. They were also stomping on the puzzles and I thought they’d break them so I tried to tell them not to stomp on the toys. They threw pieces on the floor almost all the way through clean up time. After several times of telling them to stop, they did, but then they went on to testing their limits with another teacher while they were washing their hands for lunch. They played in the water, were messing with the toilet and not coming over when they were called. Lunch went okay and then we read books. There were a few times during the stories where the children were pushing, but it wasn’t a big deal. Then at nap time, most of them settled right down because they were so tired. One girl who usually wants to nap kept crying and didn’t want to lay on her mat. I tried to calm her down, but she kept getting up and running around the room. She’s the youngest and was recently moved up from the infant room. It’s taken her a while to get used to the routine. She doesn’t talk yet and she spends a lot of time near the door. She eventually settled down after one of the regular teachers sat with her. Most of them slept up until a few minutes before I left. They seemed happier after nap. I know there are days like these. This isn’t the first one I’ve had and it won’t be the last. It was a day of testing limits.

Towers, Slides and Finger Paintings

Yesterday was my second day volunteering with the toddlers. It was a little confusing at first because they had a few extra people there. There were two high school students who were there to observe. At least that’s what it looked like. Then a community reader came in and she sat in the reading area for a while. Some toddlers stayed with her the whole time reading books and the others chose to play in other parts of the room. They were really into the blocks still. When I arrived, they had the foam blocks scattered all over the floor. One of the toddlers started jumping on them again while grabbing my hands. This didn’t last long because she had found the container of small blocks. She wanted to build tall towers. I started building a tower on my own with the foam blocks. A few seconds after I had the tower three blocks high, a boy had knocked it to the ground. We laughed and I started to build another tower for him to knock over. This went on for a few minutes until he went over to cook in the kitchen area. Meanwhile, another toddler came over and handed me an empty bowl. I asked him what it was. He didn’t answer so I asked if I could eat it. He said yes so I pretended to eat and then asked if he’d like some. Then he took the bowl, pretended to eat and headed off to the kitchen area.

I went over to the small table where the little girl was building tall towers. I told her that her tower was really tall so she started knocking it over and laughing. After the tower was completely destroyed, she started rebuilding it. Another toddler came over and started knocking blocks on the floor. I kept picking them up and putting them on the table for the other girl to use for her towers. I started to label some of the blocks telling her which ones were round, square, white, red, big, small etc. she’d repeat the words as she built. I counted her two towers and then she counted up to four by herself. I think she thought she had four towers instead of two, but that’s okay. Finally, she found a new game. She thought knocking all the blocks off the table was fun. I told her she’d have to pick them up which she did, but it was really fun for her to keep knocking them over. Another girl noticed and she started doing the same thing only this time, she was scattering them across the room. That’s one thing about working with toddlers; you clean up even during play time. If we didn’t, everything would be on the floor all at once. I find it’s easier to pick things up that aren’t being played with. If they take them out again, it’s okay because we can pick something else up that’s not being used. I ask the toddlers to get involved by having them put books back on the shelf or by bringing foods back to the kitchen area. Even if they don’t put the foods back in the baskets, it’s a start to have them bring the things back to the right area.

The structured activity of the day was sponge and finger painting. They were using these foam sponge type things. They weren’t exactly sponges, but a thicker foam material. They were washable. There were hearts, numbers, dogs, rhinos, etc. The idea was to have the toddlers stamp with them. We had a few trays of paint with different colors and the toddlers could use any of the stamps or colors that they wanted. We practiced asking each other for stamps or other colors of paint since everything was divided up among three tables. This turned into finger painting after a while and stamping handprints onto the paper. A couple of kids decided to fill their whole paper with different colors. This was another mess to clean up, but it was fun for them. As long as it was fun for the kids, it’s worth the trouble. I saved the teachers some time by cleaning all the paint trays and stamps.

Later, they had a circle time where one of the teachers sang songs with the kids and looked at books. Those who wanted to participate could and those who didn’t were busy on the climber. It has a slide that the kids love sliding, crawling or walking down. Some even like to go up the slide. This is one place where there is constant negotiating. Kids are either in each other’s way or there are too many people on the slide or the stairs at once. I kept telling them, “One at a time on the slide, please.” After hearing this a couple of times, one of the little girls started repeating me when she saw too many people on the slide. For the most part, the toddlers listen.

In the afternoon, we ate lunch and then at 12:30, it was nap time. I was disappointed because I was there until three O’clock and they slept all through the rest of my time there. They usually wake up earlier, but they had a busy morning.

Blocks Aren't Only for Building

I volunteered last Wednesday and it went well. I was supposed to help out in the infant room, but since there were only two babies there, they sent me over to the toddler room. Those kids ranged from sixteen months old to two and a half. They didn’t have any structured play time, but they did a creative activity with shaving cream that the kids loved. They squirted a few blobs of shaving cream on the table and added different colors of paint. The kids loved mixing the colors and making a mess.

We looked at a lot of books. One they enjoyed showed the different parts of a truck. I wish I remembered the title, but it had mostly pictures. It was filled with different textures for the kids to explore. On one page there was a mirror, bumpy textures for the windows, round sand paper shapes for the wheels etc. As we went through the book, I labeled the parts of the truck and the textures. The kids would usually repeat me and took time to feel each texture. They especially enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror. They didn’t notice it at first until I pointed it out, but after that, they’d stop longer on that page.

One of their favorite things to play with were the foam blocks. One boy figured out
He could sit on one and jump up and down. I grabbed his hands and he liked jumping
while holding my hands. A few other toddlers grabbed a block from the pile, came
over and said, “My turn.” A little girl found another use for the blocks. She liked to sit on them and rock back and forth. She said she was rocking the boat. She grabbed my hands and she realized she could rock faster and go farther back. When she’d almost hit the floor, she’d pull herself up. Sometimes she couldn’t pull herself up fast enough so I’d help her out. The boys joined in, but they quickly got back to jumping.

Then they found smaller plastic blocks that you can put
together. A little girl started building a tower and a boy came over and knocked
it down. They both laughed and other toddlers came over to see what they were doing.
The boy and girl built the tower again and started to fight over who should knock
it down. Eventually, one of them knocked it over and they all started laughing again.
Now the problem was who was going to rebuild it. I gave the two toddlers the same
number of blocks and told them to put one block on at a time. They liked doing that
and now they could both build the tower and knock it down. They did this several
times while their friends watched. It was nice to see them actually sharing the blocks
because usually toddlers don’t cooperate like that. Most of the time, they want the
toys all to themselves which I saw a lot throughout the day. It’s normal though.
They are starting to learn to share and take turns. Later on, one of the little girls found a smaller set of plastic blocks. She sat on the floor independently and worked on her building. It was only three or four blocks high, but she brought it over and said, “I made a tower!” I told her it was a great tower and she brought it back to add to it. They seemed to have trouble fitting these blocks together. They have shapes on the top and you have to turn them just right to make them fall into place. It was challenging enough for them, but not too challenging to the point where they’d give up.

They also had fun pushing big trucks around and riding bikes. They kept crashing
their bikes into me. I had to remind them to be gentle with the bikes because that
could hurt. I showed them how to slow down and bump into me gently, but then they
decided to play bumper bikes with each other. I had to stop that because I thought
they’d fall over or hurt each other when they crashed. Finally, they decided that the bikes would be perfect to knock the tower over. The toddlers who were building the towers didn’t like this. They wanted to knock their tower down by themselves. I tried to stop the bike each time before it destroyed the tower. Sometimes it was successful and other times not. I told the boys that their friends didn’t want them to knock their building over, but they thought it was so fun. Eventually it was okay because the other toddlers started laughing at the boy on the bike hitting the tower. These toddlers have discovered that blocks aren’t only for building.