FULL MOTION

Motion

What is Motion?

Motion is when things move or change position.
Motion is one of the most important topics in physical science because everything in the universe moves. It impacts many things that we do. Motion is the changing of position or location. In order to change a force is applied. It's when something goes from one place to another, like when a toy car rolls across the floor or when a bird flies through the sky. So, motion is all about things moving around! During this investigation we will be looking at how our bodies can push or pull objects.

Fast Facts!

Zooming Cars: Toy cars zip down ramps because of gravity! Gravity pulls the cars downward, making them go faster and faster.
Fluttering Butterflies: Butterflies fly by flapping their wings up and down. Their fluttery motion helps them move through the air gracefully.
Rolling Balls: When you roll a ball on the ground, it keeps moving until something stops it. That's because of something called inertia—it means objects like to keep doing what they're already doing.
Jumping Frogs: Frogs hop from place to place using their strong legs. They push off the ground with their legs to jump up and forward.
Spinning Tops: When you spin a top, it twirls around and around because of something called angular momentum. It's like a spinning dance!
Twirling Dancers: Dancers spin in circles because they push off the ground and turn their bodies. The faster they turn, the more fun it is!
Skipping Stones: When you throw a flat stone into the water just right, it skips across the surface like magic! It's all about the angle and speed.
Swinging Swings: When you push a swing, it goes back and forth because of the push and pull of gravity and your strength.
Bouncing Balls: When you drop a ball on the ground, it bounces back up because of elasticity. The ball squishes a little, then springs back into shape!
Floating Feathers: Feathers fall slowly from the sky because of air resistance. It's like they're dancing as they drift down.

All children have experienced some type of movement. Movement may have included rolling, sliding, jumping, bouncing, running, and so on. These life experiences will help children gain a deeper understanding of how and why objects move.

Approaches to Motion
Infants/Toddlers naturally study motion through their everyday experiences and interactions with their environment. Teaching about movement to toddlers typically involves engaging them in hands-on, experiential activities that allow them to explore different types of movement using their bodies and senses. Here are some common approaches:

Exploration: Children learn about motion through exploration. They observe how objects move when they push, pull, or drop them. Providing a variety of toys with different shapes, sizes, and textures allows toddlers to experiment with motion in a hands-on way.
Outdoor Play: Outdoor play provides children with opportunities to explore motion in a larger space. They can run, jump, climb, and roll on different surfaces, experiencing various types of motion firsthand.
Sensory Activities: Sensory activities involving movement, such as playing with water, sand, or kinetic sand, allow toddlers to explore motion through tactile sensations. They can pour, scoop, and manipulate materials to observe how they move and behave.
Gross Motor Skills: Motion activities for children focus on developing gross motor skills, which involve large muscle groups and whole-body movements. Activities such as jumping, hopping, skipping, and rolling help toddlers build strength, coordination, and balance.
Simple Playful Experiments: Children can engage in simple experiments that demonstrate basic principles of motion. Set up simple experiments and activities that allow infants and toddlers to explore cause-and-effect relationships related to motion. For example, let them drop objects of different sizes and weights to see how they fall or roll, or provide materials for them to build ramps and test how objects move down them.
Play-Based Learning: Play is a crucial component of learning for children, and motion activities can be incorporated into various types of play. From imaginative play with toy vehicles to active play on playground equipment, toddlers learn about motion through play experiences that are fun and enjoyable.
Music and Dance: Dancing to music provides children with opportunities to explore rhythm, tempo, and movement. They can observe how their bodies move in response to different types of music and experiment with different dance movements.
Books and Videos: Age-appropriate books and videos about motion can introduce toddlers to concepts such as speed, direction, and force in a fun and engaging way. These resources can spark their curiosity and encourage further exploration.
Outdoor Adventures: Taking children on nature walks or visits to parks allows them to observe motion in the natural world, such as the movement of animals, leaves blowing in the wind, or water flowing in streams.
Modeling Behavior: Young children learn by imitating the actions of adults and older children. Modeling activities that involve motion, such as kicking a ball or jumping, can help toddlers learn new skills and understand how their bodies move.
Narration: Describe the movements and actions that infants and toddlers are experiencing using simple language and descriptive words. Narrate their play and movement activities to help them make connections between their actions and the concept of motion.
Repeat and Reinforce: Offer infants and toddlers plenty of opportunities to practice and repeat movements and actions in a supportive and encouraging environment. Reinforce their efforts with positive reinforcement and encouragement to build their confidence and motivation.
Language Development: Encouraging toddlers to verbalize their experiences and observations during motion activities supports their language development. Using descriptive language to talk about movement, such as fast, slow, up, down, and around, helps toddlers learn new vocabulary and concepts.
Structured Activities: Structured activities, such as obstacle courses, dance routines, or yoga sessions tailored for toddlers, provide opportunities for guided movement exploration. These activities often incorporate elements of fun, play, and repetition to engage toddlers and reinforce learning.
Storytelling and Pretend Play: Storybooks and imaginative play scenarios often involve characters or animals engaged in different movements. By participating in storytelling and pretend play, toddlers can act out these movements, enhancing their understanding of motion and narrative comprehension.
Encouragement and Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement and encouragement from caregivers and educators play a crucial role in teaching toddlers about movement. Praise, clapping, cheering, and supportive feedback motivate toddlers to explore and experiment with different movements.
Variety is Key: Offering a variety of motion activities helps toddlers develop a range of skills and experiences. Outdoor play, sensory exploration, music and dance, and simple experiments all contribute to their understanding of motion.
Supporting Curiosity: Caregivers can support toddlers' curiosity about motion by providing opportunities for exploration, asking open-ended questions, and encouraging them to make observations and discoveries on their own.
Everyday Learning: Motion is a fundamental aspect of everyday life, and toddlers are constantly encountering opportunities to learn about it in their surroundings. Encouraging active exploration and play fosters a lifelong appreciation for movement and physical activity.
Individualized Learning: Recognizing that each toddler develops at their own pace, educators and caregivers tailor movement activities to meet the individual needs and abilities of each child, providing opportunities for both challenge and success.
Parental Involvement: Parents and caregivers play a crucial role in facilitating children's exploration of motion. Joining in on play activities, providing encouragement and support, and modeling movements help toddlers feel confident and motivated to explore their physical abilities.
Safety Awareness: Ensuring a safe environment is paramount when facilitating motion activities for infants/toddlers. Supervision, appropriate safety equipment, and child-proofing measures are essential to prevent accidents and injuries during active play.

By providing young children with a variety of opportunities for exploration, play, and learning, caregivers can support their natural curiosity about motion and help them develop a deeper understanding of the world around them.

Study of Motion through Daily Routines
Children can study motion and movement of the body through their daily routines in various ways. Here are some examples:

Getting Dressed: As toddlers put on clothes and shoes, they engage in movements such as reaching, bending, pulling, and balancing. Encourage them to independently dress themselves to develop fine motor skills and body awareness.
Mealtime: During mealtime, toddlers use their hands and utensils to pick up food, bring it to their mouths, and chew. They also practice movements such as stirring, pouring, and scooping if they are involved in food preparation.
Playtime: Toddlers naturally engage in a wide range of movements during playtime. Whether they're crawling, walking, climbing, running, jumping, or dancing, they're constantly exploring and experimenting with different motions.
Water Play/ Bath Time: Bath time offers opportunities for toddlers to observe water movement and experiment with pouring, splashing, and scooping. They can also practice washing different parts of their bodies, promoting body awareness and coordination.
Outdoor Exploration: Taking walks or playing in outdoor spaces allows toddlers to experience various types of movement, such as walking on different surfaces, navigating obstacles, and interacting with natural elements like trees and rocks.
Gross Motor Activities: Incorporate gross motor activities into daily routines, such as marching around the house, doing animal walks (e.g., bear crawl, crab walk), or playing simple games like "Simon Says" that involve different movements.
Fine Motor Activities: Provide opportunities for toddlers to engage in fine motor activities like stacking blocks, threading beads, or using crayons to draw and scribble. These activities help develop hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
Transitions: Encourage toddlers to participate in transitions between activities, such as walking from one room to another or climbing into their car seat. These everyday movements contribute to their overall physical development and spatial awareness.
Nap/Bedtime Routine: Even bedtime routines can involve movements that promote relaxation and body awareness, such as stretching before getting into bed or practicing deep breathing exercises.
Observation and Imitation: Throughout the day, toddlers observe the movements of adults and older siblings and may try to imitate them. Encourage positive role modeling of movements and provide opportunities for toddlers to practice new skills in a safe and supportive environment.

By incorporating movement into daily routines, toddlers can naturally study and learn about the motion and capabilities of their bodies. These everyday activities offer rich opportunities for exploration, skill development, and physical literacy.

Mechanics + Motion
Physics studies many types of motion and forces. Motion is one of the key topics in physics. Everything in the universe moves. It might only be a small amount of movement and very very slow, but movement does happen. Don't forget that even if you appear to be standing still, the Earth is moving around the Sun, and the Sun is moving around our galaxy. The movement never stops. Motion is one part of what physicists call mechanics. Over the years, scientists have discovered several rules or laws that explain motion and the causes of changes in motion. There are also special laws when you reach the speed of light or when physicists look at very small things like atoms.

Speed it Up, Slow it Down
The physics of motion is all about forces. Forces need to act upon an object to get it moving, or to change its motion. Changes in motion won't just happen on their own. So how is all of this motion measured? Physicists use some basic terms when they look at motion. How fast an object moves, its speed or Velocity, can be influenced by forces. (Note: Even though the terms 'speed' and 'velocity' are often used at the same time, they actually have different meanings.)

This solid gold car has a mass, a velocity, and a rate of acceleration. Acceleration is a twist on the idea of velocity. Acceleration is a measure of how much the velocity of an object changes in a certain time (usually in one second). Velocities could either increase or decrease over time. Mass is another big idea in motion. Mass is the amount of something there is, and is measured in grams (or kilograms). A car has a greater mass than a baseball.

Simple and Complex Movement
There are two main ideas when you study mechanics. The first idea is that there are simple movements, such as if you're moving in a straight line, or if two objects are moving towards each other in a straight line. The simplest movement would be objects moving at constant velocity. Slightly more complicated studies would look at objects that speed up or slow down, where forces have to be acting.

There are also more complex movements when an object's direction is changing. These would involve curved movements such as circular motion, or the motion of a ball being thrown through the air. For such complex motions to occur, forces must also be acting, but at angles to the movement.

In order to really understand motion, you have to think about forces, acceleration, energy, work, and mass. These are all a part of mechanics.

Forces + Motion
Have you ever wondered why things move or stop? Well, it's all because of something called forces! Forces are like invisible pushes or pulls that make things happen.

Imagine you're playing with a toy car. When you push it gently, it starts moving. But if you give it a big push, it zooms faster! That's the force at work.

Now, think about pushing a light box versus a heavy one. The light box is easy to push, right? That's because it needs less force to move. But the heavy box? It needs more oomph!

When you push that toy car and then it slows down, it's because of two tricky forces: air resistance and friction. Air resistance is like the air pushing against the car, trying to slow it down. Friction happens when things rub against each other, like when you rub your hands together and feel them getting warm.

These forces don't stop things right away, though. They slow them down gradually. So, if you want to stop your bike quickly, you've got to squeeze those brakes tight!

And guess what? Forces aren't just about pushing and pulling. There's magnetism, which makes magnets stick together or push apart. Gravity keeps us on the ground and makes things fall down. And air pressure? It's what makes kites fly and balloons float!

So, forces are like the superheroes of the world around us, making things move, stop, and even change direction.

Overview of Motion
To begin the investigation start by connecting movement to familiar objects and experiences.

Motion Concepts
For young children, introducing motion concepts can be done in simple and engaging ways. Here are some motion concepts to consider:

Push and Pull: Toddlers can learn about the concepts of pushing and pulling by playing with toys that require these actions, such as toy cars, wagons, or push-along animals. They can experiment with exerting force to move objects forward or backward.

Up and Down: Toddlers can explore the concepts of up and down through activities like jumping off low steps or climbing up small stairs. They can also play with toys that move up and down, such as pop-up toys or elevator toys.

Directional Movement: Describe how toddlers can move forward, backward, sideways, and in circles. Provide examples of each type of directional movement, such as walking forward, crawling backward, or spinning in circles.

Fast and Slow: Toddlers can learn about speed by observing how different objects move. They can experiment with moving toys at different speeds, such as rolling a ball slowly and then quickly. They can also explore speed through activities like running fast and walking slowly. Offer simple activities for toddlers to explore speed, such as racing toys or playing "fast and slow" games.

Round and Straight: Toddlers can learn about different types of motion, such as circular motion and straight-line motion. They can play with toys that move in circular paths, like spinning tops or toy car tracks, and compare them to toys that move in straight lines, like toy trains or cars.

Stop and Go: Toddlers can learn about stopping and starting motion through activities like playing red light, green light or freeze dance. They can practice stopping and starting their own movements in response to verbal cues or music.

Balance and Stability: Discuss the importance of balance for staying upright while moving. Toddlers can explore concepts of balance and stability by playing on balance beams, walking along lines on the floor, or stacking blocks. They can experiment with how their bodies stay balanced or tip over depending on their movements. Provide activities that help toddlers develop balance, such as walking on a balance beam or balancing on one foot.

Cause and Effect: Teach toddlers about cause and effect by showing how their actions lead to movement. Toddlers can begin to understand cause and effect relationships related to motion, such as understanding that pushing a toy car makes it move or that dropping a ball makes it fall to the ground. They can engage in simple cause-and-effect experiments to explore how their actions affect objects around them, such as rolling balls down ramps or blowing bubbles to make them float.

Forces and Energy: Introduce basic concepts of forces and energy in simple terms appropriate for toddlers. Discuss how pushing and pulling are forces that can make things move. Use examples like wind pushing leaves or a ball rolling down a hill to illustrate the concept of energy in motion.

Safety and Awareness: Emphasize the importance of being aware of surroundings and moving safely. Provide tips for parents on teaching toddlers about looking where they're going, avoiding obstacles, and staying away from hazards. Offer suggestions for age-appropriate safety rules and guidelines for outdoor and indoor play.

By introducing these motion concepts through play and exploration, toddlers can begin to develop an understanding of how things move and interact with their environment. These activities also support the development of important motor skills, coordination, and spatial awareness.

Rotation + Trajectory
By incorporating these concepts into educational activities, teachers can help young children develop a deeper understanding of how their bodies and objects move in space.

Rotation: something spinning or turning around, like a spinning top or a merry-go-round.
Trajectory: the path an object takes when it moves through the air or along the ground.

Teachers can encourage toddlers to explore rotation by engaging in activities such as spinning around, twirling, or rolling on the ground. Through these playful movements, children can begin to grasp the idea of objects turning around an axis and observe how their bodies rotate. Similarly, teachers can demonstrate trajectory by providing opportunities for toddlers to throw, kick, or roll objects. By experimenting with different forces and angles, children can observe how objects travel through the air in various arcs or paths.

Here are some simple activities:

Spin and Twirl: Show children how they can rotate their bodies by spinning around in circles or twirling. Encourage them to experiment with different speeds and directions. Use words like "spin" and "twirl" to describe what they're doing.
Rolling Objects: Provide children with round objects like balls or toy cars and demonstrate how they can make them move by rolling them on the ground. Talk about how the objects rotate as they roll and how their trajectory changes depending on how they're pushed.
Toy Wheel Exploration: Offer toys with wheels like toy cars, trucks, or toy trains. Let children push these toys around and observe how the wheels rotate to make them move. Encourage them to experiment with different surfaces and inclines to see how it affects the trajectory of the toys.
Balloon Play: Blow up balloons and let toddlers bat them around or watch as they float through the air. Talk about how the balloons rotate as they move and how their trajectory changes as they're pushed or blown in different directions.
Obstacle Course: Set up a simple obstacle course using cushions, pillows, or other soft objects. Encourage toddlers to navigate through the course, jumping over obstacles or crawling under them. Talk about how they need to adjust their movements to avoid obstacles and how their trajectory changes as they move through the course.

Imitation
When teaching infants and toddlers about motion and the science behind it, imitation can be a powerful tool. By incorporating imitation into teaching strategies, caregivers can help infants and toddlers learn about motion in a fun and interactive way, promoting their physical, cognitive, and social development. Here are some ways imitation can be used to teach infants and toddlers about motion:

Modeling Movements: Caregivers serve as powerful role models for infants and toddlers. By demonstrating simple movements like clapping, waving, or stomping their feet, caregivers provide infants and toddlers with clear examples of motion. Infants and toddlers naturally observe and imitate these movements, learning about their own bodies and how they can move in space.
Copying Actions: Infants and toddlers are keen observers and quick learners. When caregivers engage in interactive activities like rolling a ball, pushing a toy car, or bouncing up and down, infants and toddlers are eager to join in and copy these actions. Through imitation, they begin to understand the cause-and-effect relationship between their actions and the resulting motion of objects.
Mirror Play: Mirrors provide infants and toddlers with a fascinating opportunity to explore their own movements and facial expressions. By observing themselves in a mirror, infants and toddlers gain self-awareness and can experiment with different motions. Caregivers can use mirrors during playtime to encourage infants and toddlers to imitate movements they see, fostering a deeper understanding of their own capabilities.
Interactive Play: Toys and games that respond to a child's actions can be particularly engaging for infants and toddlers. Interactive toys that produce sounds, lights, or movement when manipulated encourage infants and toddlers to explore different motions. Caregivers can play alongside infants and toddlers, modeling how to interact with these toys and encouraging imitation.
Music and Movement: Music has a powerful influence on infants and toddlers and can enhance their learning experiences. Caregivers can incorporate music into playtime by singing songs with accompanying movements, such as "The Wheels on the Bus" or "If You're Happy and You Know It." Infants and toddlers delight in imitating the movements they see, reinforcing their understanding of motion concepts.
Storytelling and Puppets: Storytelling and puppet play provide opportunities for imaginative exploration of motion. Caregivers can use puppets to act out stories that involve different types of motion, such as animals running, jumping, or flying. Infants and toddlers are captivated by the puppet characters and eagerly imitate their movements, deepening their comprehension of motion concepts.
Outdoor Exploration: The outdoor environment offers a rich array of sensory experiences for infants and toddlers. Caregivers can take infants and toddlers for walks in nature, where they can observe and imitate different types of motion, such as leaves rustling in the wind or birds flying overhead. Outdoor exploration stimulates infants' and toddlers' curiosity and encourages them to experiment with their own movements in new and exciting ways.

By incorporating imitation into teaching strategies, caregivers can create enriching learning experiences that support infants' and toddlers' physical, cognitive, and social development. Through observation, exploration, and imitation, infants and toddlers develop a deeper understanding of motion and movement, laying the foundation for future learning and discovery.

Try This!

Bubble Chase

Materials needed:
Bubbles (can be store-bought bubble solution or homemade)
Bubble wand or bubble blower

Instructions:

Set up a safe and open area indoors or outdoors where babies and toddlers can move around freely.
Start by blowing bubbles into the air, ensuring that they float within reach of the children.
Encourage the babies and toddlers to chase and catch the bubbles. You can demonstrate by reaching out to pop bubbles yourself.
Cheer and praise the children as they interact with the bubbles, whether they pop them, touch them, or simply watch them float.
You can vary the height and direction of the bubbles to encourage different types of movements, such as reaching up high or bending down low.
Join in the fun by blowing bubbles alongside the children or gently guiding them to move around the space.
Have fun chasing and popping bubbles as they float through the air. Observe how bubbles move and change direction in response to wind or air currents.

To add a sensory element, you can use scented bubble solution or add a few drops of food coloring to the bubble mixture for colorful bubbles.

This activity promotes gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, visual tracking, and sensory exploration in babies and toddlers. It's a delightful way for them to engage with movement and sensory experiences while having lots of fun!

Family Connection
Encourage families to continue exploring motion with bubbles at home. Provide suggestions for additional bubble activities, such as making giant bubbles or experimenting with bubble solution recipes.

Questions/Discussion
Here are some questions you can ask during and after the Bubble Chase activity:

During the Activity:
"Look at the bubbles! Can you reach out and try to catch one?"
"Where did the bubble go? Can you follow it with your eyes?"
"How does it feel when the bubble pops on your hand?"
"Can you jump up high to reach the bubbles?"
"What color are the bubbles?"

After the Activity:
"What was your favorite part about chasing the bubbles?"
"How did you feel when you popped the bubbles?"
"Did you like watching the bubbles float up high or down low?"
"What sound did the bubbles make when they popped?"
"What other things do you like to chase and catch?"

Extension Ideas

Encourage children to experiment with blowing bubbles using different types of bubble wands or blowers.
Explore how bubbles move through the air by observing their trajectory and patterns as they float.
Provide various objects such as plastic rings or cookie cutters, for children to use as bubble blowers. Dip these objects into the bubble solution and blow bubbles through them onto paper to create bubble art.
Encourage children to observe how the size and shape of the bubbles change depending on the object used.

Or Try This!
Salad Spinner Spin Experiment

Materials Needed:
Salad spinner
Small toys or objects (such as plastic animals, beads, or blocks)
Instructions (printed or written on a card)
Instructions:

Set Up the Experiment:
Place the salad spinner on a flat surface, such as a table or countertop.
Gather a selection of small toys or objects to use for the experiment.
Select Objects:
Invite the kids to select a few small toys or objects to place inside the salad spinner. Encourage them to choose objects of different shapes and sizes.

Load the Salad Spinner:
Place the selected toys or objects inside the salad spinner basket.

Spin the Spinner:
Secure the lid of the salad spinner tightly.
Demonstrate to the kids how to operate the spinner by turning the handle.
Encourage the kids to spin the salad spinner and observe what happens to the toys or objects inside.

Observe and Discuss:
As the salad spinner spins, observe how the toys or objects move inside.
Discuss with the kids what they observe. Ask questions such as:
What happens to the toys or objects when we spin the salad spinner?
How do the toys or objects move inside the spinner?
What do you think makes the toys or objects move?

Experiment with Speed:
Encourage the kids to experiment with spinning the salad spinner at different speeds. Discuss how the speed of the spinner affects the motion of the toys or objects inside.

Cause and Effect Discussion:
Guide a discussion about cause and effect. Talk about how spinning the salad spinner causes the toys or objects inside to move.
Encourage the kids to think about other cause and effect relationships they observe in everyday life.

This experiment demonstrates the relationship between spinning the salad spinner (cause) and the resulting motion of the toys or objects inside (effect). It helps kids understand the concept of cause and effect while also exploring the principles of motion in a playful and engaging way.

Family Connection or Extension Idea

Salad Spinner Art

Materials Needed:
Salad spinner
Small toys or objects (such as plastic animals, beads, or blocks)
Paint (washable and non-toxic)
Paper
Towels for cleanup

Instructions:

Begin by setting up a clean and safe workspace for the experiment. Place a piece of paper or a disposable tablecloth underneath the salad spinner to catch any paint splatters.
Invite the kids to select a few small toys or objects to use for the experiment. These can be items that fit inside the salad spinner and are safe to spin.
Set up a painting station by placing small amounts of washable, non-toxic paint in different colors on a palette or in small containers.
Have the kids dip the selected toys or objects into the paint, ensuring that they are evenly coated.
Carefully place the painted toys or objects inside the salad spinner basket.
Secure the lid of the salad spinner tightly and demonstrate to the kids how to operate the spinner by turning the handle.
Encourage the kids to spin the salad spinner with varying speeds and durations. As they spin, observe how the painted toys or objects rotate and the trajectory of the paint splatters.
After spinning, carefully open the lid of the salad spinner and remove the painted toys or objects. Allow them to dry on a clean surface.

Questions/Discussion
Once the paint has dried, discuss with the kids their observations. Ask questions such as:

What happened to the toys or objects when we spun the salad spinner?
How did the speed of the spinner affect the rotation of the toys or objects?
What patterns did you notice in the paint splatters? How far did they travel?
Encourage the kids to reflect on what they learned about rotation and trajectory through this experiment.

Observation Questions:
What did you notice happening when we spun the salad spinner?
How did the toys or objects move inside the spinner?
What did the paint do as the spinner spun?

Prediction Questions:
Before spinning the salad spinner, what did you think would happen to the toys or objects?
Did you expect the paint to splatter inside the spinner? Why or why not?
How did you think the speed of the spinner would affect the movement of the toys or objects?

Experiment Analysis:
How did changing the speed of the spinner affect the movement of the toys or objects?
Were there any differences in the paint splatters when the spinner was spun fast versus when it was spun slowly?
Did any patterns emerge in the paint splatters? If so, what were they?

Reflection Questions:
What was the most exciting part of the experiment for you?
Were there any surprises during the experiment? What were they?
How did this experiment help you understand the concepts of rotation and trajectory?
How could we modify this experiment to learn more about these concepts?

Real-World Connections:
Can you think of any real-life examples where rotation and trajectory are important?
How might understanding rotation and trajectory be useful in everyday activities?
Can you think of any toys or objects at home that move in a similar way to the toys in the salad spinner?

Learn more...

Motion of Body: Movement
The children will be discovering their bodies as a simple machine as we push and pull objects and participate in music and movement exercises. Young children are inherently curious about their bodies and the world around them, and studying the motion of their bodies is a natural part of their developmental journey. From the moment they start to crawl, walk, and explore their environment, young children are constantly engaged in activities that involve movement. Understanding the motion of their bodies is crucial for their physical development, as it helps them build strength, coordination, balance, and spatial awareness. Through play, exploration, and guided activities, young children learn to control their bodies, refine their movements, and develop skills such as walking, running, jumping, climbing, and balancing. The study of body motion also fosters a sense of curiosity and wonder as children discover what their bodies can do and how they can interact with the world around them. By providing opportunities for active play and movement-based learning experiences, caregivers and educators support young children in developing a foundation for lifelong physical health and well-being.

Motion for toddlers refers to the physical activity and movement experiences tailored to the developmental stage of toddlers, typically aged between 1 to 3 years old. These activities are designed to promote the development of their gross motor skills, coordination, balance, and spatial awareness. Motion activities for toddlers are crucial for their overall physical development and well-being, as they provide opportunities for toddlers to explore their environment, strengthen their muscles, and enhance their sensory perception. These activities can include walking, running, jumping, climbing, crawling, dancing, and playing with balls or other objects that encourage movement. Motion activities for toddlers should be safe, age-appropriate, and supervised to ensure the optimal development and safety of the child.

How Bodies Move + How Children can Control their Movements
Understanding the motion of the body is important for toddlers as they develop their gross motor skills and spatial awareness. Children can begin to understand how their bodies move and how they can control their movements to explore and interact with their environment. Here are some key aspects of body motion for toddlers:

Walking and Running: Toddlers typically start to walk between 9 and 15 months of age. Encourage them to practice walking independently and gradually introduce activities that involve running, such as playing tag or running races with a parent or caregiver. Explain to children that walking involves putting one foot in front of the other to move forward, while running is moving faster by taking bigger steps and moving both feet off the ground at the same time.
Climbing: Toddlers love to climb, whether it's on furniture, playground equipment, or climbing structures designed for their age group. Climbing helps toddlers develop strength, coordination, and balance while also providing a sense of accomplishment. Discuss how climbing involves using their hands and feet to move upward, like when they climb stairs or playground equipment. Teach them to use both hands and feet to hold on and move safely.
Jumping: Jumping is a fun and energizing activity for toddlers. Encourage them to jump off small steps, over cushions, or onto soft mats. Jumping helps toddlers develop leg strength and coordination while also improving their balance. Teach children that jumping involves pushing off the ground with their legs and feet to lift their body into the air and then landing back down. Practice jumping in place and jumping forward or sideways.
Balancing: Balancing activities help toddlers develop core strength and stability. Explain that balancing involves keeping their body steady and upright, like when they stand on one foot or walk along a narrow beam. Practice balancing activities, such as standing on one leg or walking heel-to-toe. Set up simple balance beams or lines on the floor using tape and encourage toddlers to walk along them. You can also try activities like standing on one foot or walking heel-to-toe.
Dancing: Dancing is a great way for toddlers to explore body motion while having fun. Put on some music and encourage them to move their bodies to the rhythm. Dancing helps toddlers develop coordination, balance, and spatial awareness.
Stretching and Bending: Encourage toddlers to stretch and bend their bodies in different ways. Simple yoga poses like downward dog or child's pose can help toddlers improve flexibility and body awareness. Help children understand that bending involves moving certain parts of their body, like their knees or waist, to bring them closer together, while stretching involves moving those parts of their body farther apart to feel a gentle pull.
Twisting: Show children how they can twist their bodies from side to side, like when they turn to look behind them or when they dance. Encourage them to twist their torso and hips while keeping their feet in place.
Rolling and Tumbling: Rolling and tumbling activities are enjoyable for toddlers and help them develop spatial awareness and coordination. Encourage toddlers to roll on the floor or practice somersaults in a safe and supervised environment. Demonstrate how children can roll their bodies on the ground, like when they roll from their back to their tummy or from side to side. Encourage them to tuck their arms and legs in and roll like a ball.
Swinging: Show children how swinging involves moving back and forth while holding onto a swing or a bar. Demonstrate how to pump their legs to make the swing go higher.
Swimming: Swimming is an excellent activity for toddlers to develop body motion in the water. It helps them build strength, coordination, and confidence while also providing a fun way to cool off and stay active.
Imitating Animal Movements: Encourage toddlers to imitate the movements of animals like frogs, bears, or birds. This playful activity helps toddlers explore different ways of moving their bodies while also fostering creativity and imagination.
Outdoor Play: Outdoor play provides toddlers with ample opportunities to explore body motion in a natural environment. Let them run through grassy fields, climb over rocks, or jump in puddles to experience different types of movement firsthand.

By introducing these concepts in a simple and engaging way, young children can begin to understand how their bodies move and how they can control their movements to explore and interact with their environment. Encourage them to practice these movements through play and physical activities to develop their coordination, balance, and gross motor skills. Overall, encouraging toddlers to engage in a variety of body motion activities helps support their physical development, coordination, and spatial awareness while also promoting a lifelong love of movement and physical activity.

Imitation + Mirror Play
Using imitation and mirrors can be effective ways to teach toddlers about motion as they allow children to observe and mimic movements in a visual and interactive manner. Here's how you can incorporate these strategies:

Demonstrate Movements: Start by demonstrating various movements in front of the toddler, such as clapping your hands, waving, or stomping your feet. Use exaggerated movements to make them more noticeable and engaging.
Encourage Imitation: Prompt the toddler to imitate the movements they see by saying simple instructions like, "Can you clap your hands like this?" or "Let's wave to each other!" Offer plenty of praise and positive reinforcement when they successfully imitate the movements.
Mirror Play: Sit or stand facing a large mirror with the toddler. Encourage them to watch their reflection as you demonstrate different movements. Point out their reflection and help them make connections between the movements they see and their own actions.
Mirror Imitation: Have the toddler stand in front of the mirror and mimic your movements while watching their reflection. Start with simple movements like waving, touching their nose, or stomping their feet, and gradually introduce more complex actions as they become more comfortable.
Interactive Songs and Rhymes: Sing songs or recite rhymes with actions that toddlers can imitate while looking in the mirror. For example, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" is a popular song that encourages children to touch different body parts as they sing along.
Dance Party: Have a dance party with the toddler in front of the mirror. Put on music and encourage them to copy your dance moves or freestyle their own movements while watching their reflection. This activity promotes gross motor skills and body awareness.
Storytelling with Actions: Tell simple stories or create narratives that involve specific movements. Encourage the toddler to act out the movements described in the story while watching themselves in the mirror.
Exploration with Props: Use props such as scarves, ribbons, or musical instruments to add visual interest and movement to mirror play. Encourage the toddler to experiment with different ways of moving the props while watching their reflection.
Pretend Play: Engage in pretend play scenarios that involve movement, such as pretending to be animals or characters with specific actions. Use the mirror to enhance the experience by allowing the toddler to see themselves in character.
Extend Learning: As the toddler becomes more familiar with mirror play and imitation, you can introduce concepts like symmetry, body awareness, and spatial relationships by exploring movements and reflections together.

By incorporating imitation and mirrors into activities and playtime, toddlers can develop a greater understanding of motion, enhance their motor skills, and build self-awareness through observation and mimicry.

Proprioception + Movement for Infants
Proprioception is an essential aspect of infant development, contributing significantly to their body awareness and understanding of movement. Here's a breakdown of proprioception and its relation to movement for infants:

What is Proprioception?
Proprioception is the sense that allows us to perceive the position, movement, and orientation of our body parts without relying on vision. It provides us with a subconscious awareness of where our body is in space and how it is moving.

How Proprioception Develops in Infants:

Early Sensory Experiences: Proprioceptive development begins in infancy through sensory experiences such as touching, grasping, and exploring objects with their hands and feet.
Muscle Feedback: Infants receive feedback from their muscles and joints as they move, helping them understand the location and movement of their body parts.
Weight Bearing: Activities like tummy time, crawling, and standing allow infants to experience the sensation of weight bearing through their limbs, further developing proprioceptive input.
Exploratory Movements: Infants engage in exploratory movements such as reaching, grabbing, and pulling, which provide proprioceptive feedback about the position and movement of their arms and hands.
Integration with Other Senses: Proprioception integrates with other sensory systems, such as vision and vestibular (balance) input, to provide a comprehensive understanding of body awareness and movement.

Relation to Movement:

Coordination and Balance: Proprioception plays a crucial role in coordinating movements and maintaining balance. It allows infants to adjust their posture and movements to navigate their environment effectively.
Motor Skills Development: Proprioceptive input contributes to the development of motor skills such as crawling, walking, and reaching. It helps infants refine their movements and develop precision in their actions.
Spatial Awareness: Proprioception enables infants to understand the spatial relationship between their body and objects in their environment. It allows them to interact with objects and people accurately.
Body Confidence: As infants develop proprioceptive awareness, they gain confidence in their body's abilities and movements. This confidence encourages further exploration and experimentation with movement.

Activities to Support Proprioceptive Development in Infants:

Tummy Time: Encourage infants to spend supervised tummy time to strengthen muscles and develop body awareness.
Exploratory Play: Provide opportunities for infants to explore different textures, objects, and surfaces through touch and movement.
Reach and Grasp: Offer toys and objects within reach to encourage infants to reach, grasp, and manipulate objects, providing proprioceptive feedback.
Assisted Movement: Support infants in activities such as rolling over, sitting up, and standing with assistance to help them experience proprioceptive input in different positions.
Gentle Massage: Engage in gentle massage or tactile stimulation to provide soothing proprioceptive input and promote body awareness.

Overall, proprioception is a foundational sense that supports infants' motor development, spatial awareness, and body confidence. By understanding and supporting proprioceptive development, caregivers can facilitate infants' exploration and mastery of movement during the critical early years of life.

The Importance of Music + Movement
Children naturally love music! Whether it’s soft and soothing or a lively tune, children feel it both physically and emotionally.

Throughout the early years, children are learning to do new things with their bodies. Young children are also learning that movement can communicate messages and represent actions. Young children are able to perform and recognize pantomimed actions such as ironing, stirring, swimming or playing the piano.

Most children usually are quite at home with movement. They begin to learn about the world by acting on objects and people, and they “think with their bodies” well before they think with words. This is why body movement is not only fun for children but also a good opportunity for them to solve problems. When you ask questions that call for verbal responses (“Can you think of some other ways that Pooh could get up to the honey tree?” or “What did we do to make applesauce yesterday?”), some children may have difficulty responding in words. But when questions call for movement (“What are some ways you can think of to get from one side of the mat to the other?”), children aren’t limited by their verbal abilities. Movement problems challenge children in different ways and help teachers/parents learn about the problem solving and creative abilities of less verbal children.

Singing or chanting can help make routine activities and transitions, such as gathering children into a circle or group activity, smoother and more enjoyable. And, music helps to set a mood. Quiet, soothing music calms and relaxes children, while a lively marching tune rouses them for energetic clean‐up time. Music and movement are also social activities that help children feel part of the group.

As children grow in their appreciation of the beauty of music and dance, they acquire a gift that will bring them great pleasure. Music brings another dimension of beauty into our lives. Music and movement benefit a child’s development in many ways. Here are skills that music and movement can help develop:

Social Skills: Music and movement activities often involve group participation. Because of this, a sense of belonging is often an outcome of taking part. Children make new friends, learn names and help others, thus strengthening their social skills.
Emotional Expression and Management: Children often are unaware of feeling upset. If they express themselves through song and movement, they can get control of their emotions and learn new coping skills to be drawn upon in the future. In addition, regular exposure to music and movement can help kids manage their emotions, which is an important part of their emotional development. Soothing music helps to relax children, for example, while more lively beats can energize them.
Pre-Reading and Vocabulary Skills: Listening to and singing songs often involves pre-reading skills such as rhyming, repetition, storytelling and voice/body expression. Songs can be used to learn new words and to practise letter sounds, word parts and alliteration.
Traditions, Self-Concept, and Social Studies Skills: Through music and dance, children can experience the arts of other cultures. They also gain a new or wider appreciation for the tunes and movements of their own cultures.
Pre-Maths Skills: Beat, rhythm and melody all relate to maths. Beat supports one-to-one correspondence and can lead to the concept of “more.” Rhythm also relates to one-to-one correspondence, in addition to the concept of “patterns.” Melody also connects to patterns, such as when sounds or words are repeated in songs.
Listening Skills: Kids learn to listen for changes in musical pitch (high/low) and tempo (slow/fast) while taking part in music and movement. In addition, they practice listening when learning new words or movements modelled by adults or leaders.
Memory Skills: In order to remember and internalize words, tunes and movements, children sharpen their short- and long-term memory skills. They call upon their memories and past experiences each time they meet a new opportunity for movement and song.
Problem Solving: Young kids sometimes have trouble expressing themselves in words. When asked for ideas on how to solve a problem in real life or in imaginary situations, such as in a story, they can often express their ideas more easily through movement and physical expression.
Creativity and Imagination: Music and movement are not merely singing and moving along to prescribed songs and sways. Kids need opportunities to create their own tunes, words and moves, which can lead to sharpened imaginations in other areas, such as storytelling.
Focus and Attention: In order to effectively learn and follow along with songs and movements, children must practise focus and how to remain attentive. This involves not only listening but also watching.
Cause/Effect and Predictability: Musical instruments are a wonderful way to explore cause and effect. What happens when I shake/press/strum this? In music and movement, children learn to predict what happens next.
Balance, Coordination, and Rhythm: Movement and music offer practice in body control and developing a sense of rhythm. These include activities such as dancing, marching, skipping, leaning and bending.
Sensory Motor Skills: Kids learn by doing. Music and movement activities give them more opportunities to combine motor skills with the senses of sight, hearing and touch.
Small Motor Skills: Small motor skills involve mainly the hands and fingers. Music and movement offer opportunities to enhance those strengths through activities such as playing musical instruments and taking part in finger plays.
Large Motor Skills: Movement that involves the arms, legs and back strengthens kids’ large motor skills. Actions involve bending, balancing, dancing, hopping, stretching, skipping and jumping.

How do Movement Activities Help Babies + Toddlers?
Engaging in movements, orienting themselves in the space, and using their bodies is something that comes to every baby and toddler naturally. Getting absorbed in movement activities can help growing children link concepts and cause to action and learn through trial and error- an experience that is exceptionally important for them to have.

Some studies have also linked movement activities to better memory in children. And of course, there are always the physical benefits of movements including improved balance and stability, gross motor skills, and strengthening of muscles. That’s not all; getting involved in movement activities can be incredibly helpful to less vocal children.

Teaming movement activities up with some music can help you make the most of the entire experience.

How does Music Benefit in Early Childhood?
Music has been a part of us from the beginning and has influenced us a lot, whether we acknowledge it or not. In our early childhood years, music stimulates the senses and has positive a positive effect on our social and cognitive skills. Studies have also demonstrated that children who participate in group musical activities tend to score higher on listening comprehension tests compared with those who do not. It was also found that young children who were exposed to music developed higher test scores in language, basic math, and visual-motor performances.

In fact, studies have also revealed that infants who had musical experiences displayed higher IQs throughout the first three years of life compared with their non-musical counterparts.

Music can be introduced early on through activities such as singing songs, playing instruments, or dancing and when this happens, the brain forms neural connections which aid in future development. These neural pathways help children to interpret sound patterns that are then utilized in education and social activities. Musical interaction also supports a young child's emotional intelligence by helping them develop an ear for different sounds and developing a greater understanding of speech.

Musical experiences in the early years of life have also been found to help with reading, learning new languages, math, and developing problem-solving abilities.

Singing songs to babies can aid in establishing connections between concepts like words and objects through repetition. Repetition is especially helpful when introducing children to new information or skills. Furthermore, musical activities help young children retain information better than visual presentations alone.

While it is clear that there are numerous benefits to music, the manner in which children acquire musical skills is also very important. Singing songs and playing instruments must be introduced as early as possible for a child's brain to develop best.

Best Music Activities for Babies
Music and movement activities for babies can be lots of fun and can also help foster the bond between the parent and child. Here are some good activities you can get started with.

Start with any song to sing to, and encourage your baby to dance and wiggle to it, until you use the word ‘STOP.’ Depending on your baby’s age, you might need to demonstrate this a few times. This simple activity can help your baby develop impulse control and offer opportunities for him to engage in cooperative play and sharpen his listening skills.
Use fingers to demonstrate numbers when singing a song or a rhyme. This simple activity can help enhance your baby’s pre-math skills.
Sing songs together that reinforce certain behaviors and actions. The song ‘when you’re happy and you know it is a good example. Using music as a tool to encourage your child to perform a certain activity can be really helpful specifically when it comes to developing a routine.
Use hand or finger puppets to make song time even more fun.

How does Music Help Infants?
Infants are able to pick up on things around them almost immediately after birth. Everything from the sound of your voice, what you sing to them, the music they hear on TV or radio can all contribute to their development. There are many research studies on the effects of music on infant development.

One of the very first experiences babies associate with music is touch. Through rhythmic stroking of their bodies, parents help infants develop sensory skills and muscle control. This makes them better able to hold objects later on. Newborns enjoy listening to lullabies, classical melodies, folk songs, and jazz because these forms are slow-paced and soothing. Mood-sensitive music has been shown to calm crying babies more effectively than conventional, nonmusical methods.

Best Music Activities for Toddlers
Here are a few excellent music activities to get toddlers involved in:

Get the child to stomp his feet or clap his hands to the beats when you’re playing some music. It is also a good idea to exaggerate how loud your stomping sounds are when doing this, as it will make it more fun for them! This activity works particularly well with children who may be hyperactive and would benefit from using up some excess energy!
Jumping along with an instrument is a great activity for toddlers who want to get involved in music, but may feel a little nervous about stamping their feet.
Kids will enjoy learning numbers and singing songs at the same time. Play a number, such as “one,” and have your child repeat it back to you. Then sing them a song that also begins with that number.
It is important not to force your toddler to take part in activities that they don't want to do, or that make them uncomfortable. If you have a toddler who will only stomp their feet on very familiar songs, it's fine to just stick with those ones.

How does Music Help Toddlers?
Just like infants, toddlers can also benefit from exposure to music.

Playing fun songs that have high energy can help stimulate them and get them to release their energy, which is perfect for hyperactive toddlers. Listening to soothing songs, in contrast, can help them calm down, which is a good idea to practice during bedtime.

When toddlers dance to their favorite tunes and move their bodies, they are also enhancing their gross motor skills.

Playing counting and alphabets songs and singing along can strength your toddler’s vocabulary and help him learn more about these valuable concepts in a learning experience that are super fun.

Dance Party Time!
Explore the motions and movements a human body can make. Clear some space in a room, put on some music and hold a dance party. What does it feel like to twirl, to leap, to jump, to fold, to stand on one foot? Here a few dance party variations:

Take turns making up, showing off, and teaching a dance move to others. Once everybody has shared a move, string them together in one choreographed dance!

How many parts of your body can rotate in a circular motion? Try rotating your head, your hands, your feet, your arms, and your legs. Now turn your whole body! Try spinning with your arms out and your arms tucked in. What do you notice?

Try your dance moves on different surfaces to see how the force of friction affects motion. Is it easier to spin on rug or tile? On grass or concrete? Now explore how the force of gravity affects your movements: Can you push against gravity and jump really high? What is the best jumping technique? Straight knees or bent knees?

As you change up the music – from a fast song to a slow song or from loud to soft - how does it change how you want to move your body?

Animal Movements to help Children's Gross Motor Development
Improve motor skills for kids by playing games that encourage movement

Bear Walk – Start with a classic! Have your child move around on their hands and feet with the front of their body facing the ground and their bottom up in the air. Engage in conversation as your child walks along. Ask if they are a black bear? A grizzly? Or maybe even a polar bear?
Elephant Swing – Get your child to put their arms together in front of their body and then swing from side to side as if their arms are an elephant’s trunk.
Penguin Walk – Keep arms straight by their side and take short, quick steps. Encourage them to try walking on their heels to waddle like a penguin.
Tiger Crawl – Have your child crawl on their arms and knees. Tell them to try to stay as low to the ground as they can, just like a tiger would in the jungle.
Flamingo Hop – Ask your child to stand on one foot and do a small jump. When they hop have them switch off which leg is raised to practice balancing.
Crab Walk – Tell your child to sit down with their hands by their side and their fingers pointed towards their feet. Tell them to push up on their hands and feet so their body is like a table. Keep hips high to work on strengthening core muscles. If your child is ready for a balance challenge try touching right hand to left foot while in the crab walk position, then switch hands to work on balancing.
Snake Slither – Lie on stomach and move forward trying not to leave the floor as much as possible, like an army crawl.
Horse Run – Galloping is great for gross motor skills. Encourage your child to leap as high as they can with one foot forward. Leg movements need to be coordinated and timed correctly, and acting like horse is a fun way to practice.
Seal Slide – Have your child lie on their stomach then push up on hands until their arms are straight. Have them move across the room while dragging their legs.
Duck Walk – Squat down and walk around from there. Keep your arms out or bend them to look like wings.
Turtle Crawl – Get in a pushup position and move side to side. Don’t let feet or hands cross.
Inchworm Walk – Tell your child to start standing up then bend to touch their toes. Then have them walk their hands forward as far as they can until they’re in a push up position. Stand up and repeat. For an extra challenge, try walking hands back towards feet to stand back up.
Kangaroo Jump – Keep legs together and get as low as possible. Jump straight up as high as possible while keeping your legs together.

These activities are great ways to get fidgety kids moving and develop motor skills for kids. Have them move forwards, backwards, and side to side just like real life animals do! There are a lot of gross motor skills practiced here, but it is a great chance to work on many areas of development and can help them practice balance and movement.

In addition to improving motor skills for kids, use this opportunity to also work on communication skills. Ask about certain sounds like during the snake slither, “What sound does a snake say?” You can also get your little one talking with questions about the animal they are pretending to be. Where do they live? What other animals live there? Do they like hot or cold weather? Do they like the water?

Try This!

Yoga Adventure: Exploring Motion

Prepare the Space:
Clear a safe and open area for the yoga activity, preferably with a non-slip surface such as a yoga mat or carpet.
Gather any props or visual aids you may want to use, such as stuffed animals, pictures of animals, or yoga cards with child-friendly poses.

Warm-Up:
Start the activity with a gentle warm-up to prepare toddlers' bodies for movement. You can engage them in simple stretches like reaching up high to the sky or bending down to touch their toes.

Introduction to Motion:
Gather the toddlers in a circle and explain that you will be going on a yoga adventure to explore different motions our bodies can make.
Show them pictures of animals or objects that move in different ways (e.g., a bird flying, a snake slithering, a tree swaying in the wind) and ask the toddlers to mimic the motions with their bodies.

Animal Yoga Poses:
Introduce a series of yoga poses inspired by animals, focusing on poses that involve various types of motion. For example:

Cat-Cow Pose: Invite toddlers to come onto their hands and knees and arch their backs like a cat (cow pose), then lift their heads and drop their bellies towards the floor like a cow (cat pose).
Downward Dog Pose: Encourage toddlers to come onto their hands and feet, lifting their hips up high towards the ceiling like a stretching dog.
Tree Pose: Have toddlers stand tall on one leg, lifting the opposite foot to rest on the inner thigh or calf of the standing leg, with arms stretched overhead like branches swaying in the wind.

Guided Movement Sequence:
Lead toddlers through a guided movement sequence incorporating the animal yoga poses. Encourage them to move slowly and mindfully, focusing on the sensations in their bodies as they transition between poses.

Free Play:
Allow toddlers to explore movement freely, encouraging them to experiment with different yoga poses and motions on their own. Provide verbal cues and gentle guidance as needed.

Cool Down and Relaxation:
Conclude the yoga adventure with a calming cool-down and relaxation period. You can guide toddlers through deep breathing exercises or lead them in a short guided visualization, inviting them to imagine floating like a cloud or resting like a sleeping animal.

Reflection:
Gather the toddlers together to reflect on their yoga adventure. Ask them to share their favorite animal poses or motions they enjoyed exploring during the activity.

This yoga activity offers toddlers a playful and interactive way to learn about the motion of their bodies while fostering physical activity, creativity, and mindfulness. It provides a foundation for building body awareness and developing healthy movement habits from a young age.

Questions/Discussion

What was your favorite animal pose we did during our yoga adventure?
Can you show me how you moved like [specific animal]?
How did your body feel when we stretched and moved in different ways?
What was the silliest or funniest pose we tried?
Did you notice any new feelings or sensations in your body while we were doing yoga?
Which pose do you think was the most challenging for you? Why?
What other animals can you think of that move in interesting ways?
How did taking deep breaths help you feel calm and relaxed during our cool-down?

Reflection Prompts:

Let's take a moment to close our eyes and think about how our bodies feel now after doing yoga. Can you notice any differences from before we started?
Can you share one thing you learned about your body or movement during our yoga adventure?
What was something new or surprising you discovered about yourself while doing yoga today?
How can you use the movements and breathing techniques we learned in yoga to help you feel calm or happy in other situations?
What was your favorite part of our yoga adventure today? Why?
Is there a specific animal pose you'd like to try again or explore further next time we do yoga?
How do you think yoga helps our bodies and minds stay healthy and strong?

Family Connection
Family Yoga Adventure: Invite families to join in on a Family Yoga Adventure where they can participate in the yoga activity alongside their toddlers. Here's how you can structure it:

Invitation: Send out invitations to families, inviting them to participate in a Family Yoga Adventure with their toddlers. Include details about the activity and what to expect.
Set the Scene: Create a welcoming space for families to gather, preferably in a spacious area with yoga mats or blankets laid out for each family.
Introduction: Begin the Family Yoga Adventure with a brief introduction, welcoming families and explaining the purpose of the activity. Emphasize the importance of spending quality time together while exploring movement and mindfulness.
Guided Yoga Session: Lead families through a guided yoga session, incorporating the same animal-inspired poses and movements as the toddler yoga activity. Encourage families to participate alongside their toddlers, demonstrating the poses and movements together.
Partner Poses: Introduce partner poses that families can do together with their toddlers, such as partner tree pose (standing side by side and holding hands) or partner boat pose (sitting facing each other with legs extended, holding hands and leaning back).
Family Reflection: After the yoga session, gather families together for a reflection and discussion. Ask families to share their experiences and observations during the activity. Encourage them to discuss how yoga can promote family bonding and well-being.
Take-Home Resources: Provide families with take-home resources, such as handouts or digital materials, that include simple yoga poses and relaxation techniques they can practice together at home. Encourage families to continue exploring yoga as a way to connect and unwind as a family.
Follow-Up Opportunities: Offer follow-up opportunities for families to engage in yoga together, such as regular family yoga classes or workshops. Provide information about local resources or online platforms where families can access additional yoga resources and support.

By incorporating family engagement into the yoga activity, you create an inclusive and enriching experience that promotes family bonding, mindfulness, and physical activity. It encourages families to connect with each other while exploring movement and relaxation techniques in a supportive and enjoyable environment.

Learn more...

Learning Through Play
Infants and toddlers are like scientists—curious and excited to learn about their surroundings. Young children engage in the study of motion through play, a natural and fundamental aspect of their learning journey. Through play, children explore and experiment with the concepts of movement, velocity, and force in a hands-on and interactive manner. Whether they're pushing toy cars down ramps, rolling balls across the floor, or swinging on playground equipment, children are constantly discovering how objects move and interact with their surroundings. Play-based learning allows children to make connections between their actions and the resulting outcomes, fostering a deeper understanding of cause and effect. Moreover, play encourages creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration as children work together to build structures, navigate obstacle courses, or invent new games. By incorporating motion into play activities, caregivers and educators create rich learning experiences that support children's physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. As children manipulate objects, test hypotheses, and engage in imaginative play, they develop essential skills that lay the foundation for future academic success and lifelong learning. Ultimately, learning through play not only enhances children's understanding of motion but also nurtures their natural curiosity, creativity, and joy of discovery.

Movement + Play for Infant/Toddlers

Play is key to all areas of infant/toddler development, including movement and motor skills development.
In their first year, infants learn to lift their heads, roll over, sit, crawl, stand and possibly walk.
Tummy time helps babies build the strength they need for crawling and pulling to stand when they’re older.
Toddlers are naturally active, especially as they get better at climbing, running and jumping.
Play ideas for baby motor skills development include music and sound play, dangling objects, push-and-pull toys and more.
Play ideas for toddler movement include music play, ride-on toys and tricycles, outdoor play and more.

Infant/Toddler Play + Why its Important
Play is one of the main ways that children learn, develop and grow. Getting babies moving through play is good for all areas of their development, especially their motor skills development.

Play helps infants:

strengthen the neck and upper body muscles they need to hold their head up and move around
practice reaching and grasping
strengthen muscles for movements like rolling, crawling and pulling to stand.

Play helps toddlers:

move and strengthen their muscles and bones
good for a toddler’s confidence, as they test their abilities and discover that they can climb higher, run faster and jump further all the time
physical activity is good for their overall health and wellbeing

What to Expect: Infants + Movement
At 3-6 months, babies might be:

reach for toys and roll on to their back during tummy time
bring their hands to their mouth and reach for their legs and toys when lying on their back
try rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy.

By 6-9 months, many babies like lying on their tummies rather than on their backs. When babies lie on their tummies, they can reach for toys and move around in a circle. When they’re ready, they might even try to crawl. Other things babiesmight do at this age are:

rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy
sitting with your help or by themselves
pushing up onto their hands and knees
standing on their legs with your support.

From 9-12 months, babies might be:

crawling, rolling and pulling to stand
sitting by themselves and reaching for toys without falling
moving from a sitting position onto their tummy and back again
playing using both hands.

Tummy Time
Tummy time is time your baby spends on their stomach while they’re awake. Doing tummy time from soon after birth helps your baby build neck, head and upper body strength to crawl and pull to stand when they’re older.

At first, your baby might not like tummy time – it might make your baby vomit or they might miss seeing you when they’re on their tummy. If this sounds like your baby, try tummy time on your chest or across your lap. This puts less pressure on your baby’s tummy and can help with problems like reflux. This position also lets your baby see your face.

You could also get down on the floor with your baby. Let your baby know you’re there by singing, talking, stroking their back or tickling their hands. Try doing tummy time on a range of surfaces, like on carpet indoors or on a blanket outside.

You can start with 1-2 minutes of tummy time and build up to 10-15 minutes several times a day as your baby gets used to it.

Tummy time can be tiring, especially for young babies. When your baby gets tired, roll them onto their back for a break before trying again.

Consider this: Baby walkers and jolly jumpers aren’t recommended. They can delay walking, crawling and sitting without support. It’s better to put your baby on a play mat or blanket on the floor.

What to Expect: Toddlers + Movement
At this age, toddlers will probably be able to:

pick up small pieces of food between their pointer finger and thumb
use both hands well but might prefer to use their left or right hand (choosing the left or right hand for writing and drawing won’t happen for another few years)
hold a pencil in a basic writing position at 2-3 years
turn doorknobs at 2-3 years
walk up and down stairs using alternate feet at 2-3 years – but they’ll probably still need to hold a handrail or an adult’s hand
throw a ball without falling over
screw and unscrew jars and lids at 2½-3 years.

As toddlers heads towards 3 years, you might see that they can’t keep still – they’re always running, jumping or kicking! Toddlers might even try to climb up and over you or other familiar grown-ups. Many toddlers also like rough-and-tumble play.

With practice, walking gradually becomes the heel-to-toes grown-up style, rather than the legs-apart, flat-feet style of a new walker.

Your toddler students are becoming more coordinated and is better at doing simple things for themselves. For example, toddlers can start dressing independently, eating independently with a spoon and fork, and drinking from a cup. By 3 years they can manage toilet training.

Children will want to test physical limits, climbing as high and running as far as possible – small bumps and falls are common. This is a natural part of how children learn and develop.

Play Ideas to Encourage Movement in Infants
It’s good to try plenty of different play activities with infants. This allows babies to move in different ways, which builds their strength and helps them learn how to use different body parts. This is all good for a baby’s motor skills development.

At 0-6 months, you could try the following ideas:

Encourage baby to move to music and sound by singing songs and rhymes or shaking rattles.
Place baby on their tummy to play for short periods several times a day.
Give baby ‘face time’. This involves making eye contact and getting a baby to follow your eyes and turn their head. It helps to build the baby's neck strength and head control.
Encourage baby to lift his head by holding toys at eye level in front of him.
Give baby something to reach for and hold onto such as your finger or a toy.
Hold your baby upright with her feet on the floor, and sing and talk to her.
Use toys that are soft, safe for infants and colorful to attract attention.

Babies aged 6-12 months might like the following activities:

Place toys just out of the baby’s reach to encourage reaching, rolling and moving. You can also use simple toys like rattles to encourage touching and holding.
Give baby wooden spoons to bang on pots and pans, or sealed containers with beads inside to shake.
Sit and support baby upright on the floor, and move a ball or toy in front of them. This encourages the baby to follow the toy with their eyes, reach for it and grasp it.
Encourage a baby to pull to stand. Sit your baby near furniture, and encourage your baby to pull themselves up. Make sure that your furniture is sturdy and won’t fall over.
Encourage baby to squat from standing. Place some toys on the ground in front of a standing baby so they have to squat to pick them up.
If a baby can stand with support, try push-and-pull toys like block wagons. If the wagon goes too fast, put some heavy books or a bag of rice in it to slow it down.
Make tunnels out of chairs or cardboard boxes for a baby to enjoy crawling and moving through.

Quiet, gentle activities are also important, especially for developing a baby’s fine motor skills. For example, picking up small objects or putting pegs into a bucket is good for practicing small finger movements – just make sure your baby doesn’t put any small objects into their mouth. And when a baby spends time just looking at things like colorful books or pictures, it helps them get better at moving their eyes.

More Movement Ideas

Five senses: Provide objects with different colors, shapes, sounds, and textures. Infants will love to examine items from the classroom and nature, like keys, sponges and pinecones. Sit back and see what interests them most.
Let them move around: Give the baby time and space to explore their surroundings by reaching, rolling, scooting, and crawling. Just make sure they are safe.
Go outside: Use all five senses to observe your surroundings. Stop and linger when a child shows interest in something. Examine it and talk about it.
Practice Reaching: Hold a toy over the infant’s head or put one on the floor just beyond their reach to encourage movement.
Move arms and legs: When playing with baby, help them experience new movements. Gently bicycle their legs. Or clap their hands or feet in a rhythm as you sing or chant.
Container play: Once baby can grasp objects, they will enjoy picking them up and dropping them into containers. What objects/containers could they use? Describe their actions using position words.
Mirror play: Give baby a small mirror to play with or sit in front of a large mirror together and make silly faces. Point to and label their body parts.
Play peek-a-boo: Hide your face with your hands and then open them up to show a big smile. You can also hide objects under a towel or in a box for the baby to find.
Help with experiments: An infant discovers how the world works by experimenting. They also learn through repetition, so they might drop a spoon over and over to see what happens. Watch and assist!
On and off: Help older babies push buttons or turn things on/off (with supervision). Think doorbells, light switches, or faucets. Talk about what they did and what happened as a result.
Sink or float: During water play, guess whether an item will sink or float. Then place it in the water to find out. Try a different object. See what happens and talk about it.
Roll a ball back and forth: Make a “Wheee!” sound when you roll it toward them. Or say “My turn/your turn.” They might enjoy throwing or kicking the ball.
Play obstacle course: Make a simple obstacle course using blankets, pillows, or boxes. See if the children can go “over,” “under,” “around,” and “through” them.
Move like animals: Invitechildren to move like different animals. Can they hop like a frog? Flap like a bird? Slither like a snake? Burn off some energy and have fun choosing new animals to imitate.
Make art: Toddlers will enjoy scribbling with crayons, markers, or chalk. They can also experiment with folding or tearing paper. Talk to them about the colors and shapes.
Keep it simple: Simple objects provide opportunities for using imagination. Provide children with simple toys and objects to use creatively. What can they do with a big cardboard box and paper towel tubes?
Act it out: Toddlers will start to imitate grown-up activities, like putting a doll to sleep or giving it a shot. Follow their lead and play along, or watch as they play independently.
Mystery bag: Play guessing games. For example, put a few objects in a bag and have your child guess what’s inside without looking. They can feel, smell, and shake the bag.
Fast and slow dancing: Play a fast song for your child to dance to, then a slower song. Talk about the different speeds and how your child’s dancing changes with the music. Join in if you could use a dance break!
Let them problem-solve: If the children are concentrating on something, stand back and see what they can figure out by themselves. If they get stuck, give just enough help so they can keep going and not give up.

Play Ideas to Encourage Movement in Toddlers
It’s good to try plenty of different play activities with your toddler. This strengthens your toddler’s muscles and helps them learn how to control their body. It’s good for a toddler’s motor skills development.

Here are play ideas to get your toddler moving in different ways:

Listen to music that gets your toddler moving to the beat. Add simple props – like ribbons or homemade shakers – to encourage your toddler to shake, sway or twirl. You can even sing simple songs and rhymes with actions for your toddler to copy.
Try ride-on toys from 12 months.
Try scooters, balance bikes and tricycles from 2-3 years. You can try this even earlier if your toddler shows they’re interested.
Give your toddler different-sized containers so they can put the small ones into larger ones. This helps your toddler practice fine motor skills.
Block or magna tile play
Go for outdoor play in parks or backyards, at the beach, or anywhere your toddler can safely walk, run and explore. This gives your toddler the chance to practice gross motor skills on hilly, sandy, rocky and other surfaces.
Go outside for free play or playground equipment including sand and water sensory play.

Movement on the Playground
Swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and climbing structures are loads of fun – and they offer first-hand experiences with simple machines like ramps and levers, not to mention forces such as rotation, gravity and friction. Exploring and observing how things move provides children with important early experiences in physical science. Turn your local play area into a science playground with these simple activities.

Balance Beam: Many children enjoy the challenge of walking on balance beams or ropes, seeing how long they can stay on. Encourage your child to talk about what she is feeling as she tries to keep her balance. What is she doing with her arms in order to keep her balance? What about her feet? The rest of her body? Asking her to think about what she is doing will help her begin to focus on how certain kinds of movements seem to help balance while others do not. Talk about the force of gravity that is trying to pull her down.
Swings: Learning how to pump legs at the right time to get a swing moving is a milestone of childhood! It’s also a lesson in physics. What leg movements and upper body movements make the swing move faster? What slows it down? Experiment! And talk about how every time they swing up, gravity pulls them back down.
Tire Swings: As they spin, does leaning their body in make the tire move faster or slower? What about leaning their body out?
Floating in the Air: The playground offers high perches where you and your child can investigate how different things fall to the ground and see the force of gravity at work. Find a safe space that is high off the ground. Bring various materials to drop such as balls, feathers, pieces of paper, etc. Do they all fall to the ground the same way? Does a piece of paper fall the same when it is dropped as an open sheet as it does when crumpled into a ball? How about when folded as a paper airplane? Does anything twirl or rotate as it drops?

Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is about cultivating thinking skills. Some thinking skills that mature through movement play include understanding, categorizing, and evaluating—the abilities central to making basic decisions such as when to take a risk and when to avoid one. Examples of thinking skills developing in a young child on the playground:

Understanding – Big kids climb these bars much faster than I do.
Categorization – The ground here is hard, the other playground has soft ground.
Evaluation – Am I swinging slow enough to jump off this swing safely?
Memorization – That boy was at the park the last time I was here.
Visual processing – That merry-go-round is going slow; it was going much faster before.
Focus – I’m going to keep shoveling sand until this bucket is full.
Handle distractions – that boy has a fun toy, but I’m going to keep filling this bucket.
Multitask – I can talk to the girl next to me while I climb on these bars.

As these thoughts occur to children, unique neural pathways are forming in their brains. Those early neural pathways will become the foundations for more sophisticated forms of understanding, categorizing, remembering and so on.

Neuroscience research has shown that movement play enhances the growth of neurons and the connections among neurons in the pre-frontal cortex—the area of our brains where executive functioning happens (Burgdorf). “Executive Function” skills are what enable humans to make the thousands of decisions we face in daily life.

Movement is a way we learn about ourselves. The bodily pleasure of movement is a joyful aspect of our lives. Many adults have lost connection to that joy. It would do us good to reconnect to that joy and experience the rejuvenation it offers—a chance to offset the stress created by the difficulties and anxieties of adult life (Sheets-Johnstone).

Try This!

Soft Obstacle Course Exploration for Babies

Creating a simple obstacle course for babies is a fun and engaging activity that can help develop their gross motor skills and spatial awareness. Here's a step-by-step guide along with some ideas:

Choose a Safe Space: Select a safe and spacious area in your home where you can set up the obstacle course. Make sure there are no sharp edges or hazardous objects nearby.
Gather Soft Objects: Collect pillows, cushions, blankets, stuffed animals, and other soft objects that your baby can crawl over, under, and around. Make sure the items are stable and won't topple over easily.
Set Up the Course: Arrange the soft objects in various configurations to create obstacles. You can stack pillows to form tunnels or ramps, lay blankets on the floor for your baby to crawl over, and place cushions to crawl under.
Include Tunnels: If you have large cardboard boxes or tunnels designed for babies, incorporate them into the obstacle course. Tunnels provide a fun way for babies to crawl through and explore spatial relationships.
Add Challenges: Introduce additional challenges to the obstacle course to keep it engaging. For example, you can place toys or stuffed animals at different points along the course for your baby to reach or grab.
Encourage Exploration: Once the obstacle course is set up, encourage your baby to explore and navigate through the obstacles. Use encouraging words and gestures to motivate them to crawl over, under, and around the objects.
Provide Assistance: Depending on your baby's age and development level, they may need some assistance navigating the obstacle course. Offer a helping hand or provide gentle guidance to help them overcome any obstacles they encounter.
Celebrate Success: Celebrate your baby's achievements as they navigate through the obstacle course. Offer praise, claps, and smiles to reinforce their efforts and encourage further exploration.
Rotate and Modify: To keep the activity fresh and exciting, rotate the objects in the obstacle course or add new elements over time. You can also modify the course to increase the level of challenge as your baby grows and develops.
Supervise Closely: Always supervise your baby closely during the obstacle course activity to ensure their safety. Stay nearby to provide assistance if needed and intervene if any hazards arise.

Reflection
These questions can help parents or caregivers reflect on their baby's experiences, identify areas for further exploration and growth, and deepen their understanding of their child's development.

What did your baby seem to enjoy most about the obstacle course?
Did you notice any particular challenges your baby faced while navigating the obstacles? How did they overcome them?
How did your baby's spatial awareness and motor skills develop during the activity?
What strategies did your baby use to explore and interact with the different obstacles?
Did you observe any changes in your baby's confidence or independence throughout the activity?
How did you support and encourage your baby during their exploration of the obstacle course?
What modifications or additions could you make to the obstacle course to further challenge your baby's development?
Did you notice any patterns or preferences in how your baby approached the obstacles?
How do you think activities like this one contribute to your baby's overall physical and cognitive development?
What other activities or experiences could complement and extend the learning from the obstacle course exploration?

Family Connection
Here are some extension ideas related specifically to the soft obstacle course activity for families to continue exploring motion and movement:

Redesign: Invite family members to help redesign the soft obstacle course together. Encourage everyone to come up with new configurations and challenges using the same soft objects.
Races: Turn the soft obstacle course into a friendly competition by timing each family member as they navigate through the course. See who can complete it the fastest or who can come up with the most creative way to overcome the obstacles.
Theme-based Courses: Create themed obstacle courses based on your child's interests or favorite stories. For example, you could design a jungle-themed course with pillows as stepping stones and stuffed animals as obstacles.
Obstacle Course Relay: Divide the family into teams and set up multiple stations within the obstacle course. Each team member must complete one station before tagging the next teammate to continue through the course, promoting teamwork and cooperation.
Challenges: Introduce specific challenges within the obstacle course, such as crawling backward through a tunnel or hopping on one foot between cushions. Encourage family members to support and cheer each other on as they tackle these challenges.
Storytelling: Turn the obstacle course into a storytelling adventure by narrating a story or creating a scenario that family members must act out as they navigate through the course. Encourage imaginative play and creativity.
Photo Challenge: Take photos or videos of family members navigating through the obstacle course and create a scrapbook or digital album to document the experience. Reflect on the memories created together.
Obstacle Course Yoga: Incorporate yoga poses into the obstacle course, using soft objects as props to support balance and flexibility. Practice child-friendly yoga poses together as you move through the course.
Obstacle Course Night: Set up the soft obstacle course in a dimly lit room and use glow sticks or flashlights to add a magical glow. Explore the obstacle course in the dark for a unique sensory experience.
Family Picnic: Spread out a blanket at the end of the obstacle course and enjoy a family picnic together. Reflect on the fun you had while sharing snacks and stories.
Add Photos: Incorporating family photos into the soft obstacle course activity can add a personal touch and create a warm, welcoming environment for children. Here's how you can integrate family photos into the activity:
- Photo Stations: Set up stations within the obstacle course where family photos are displayed. Each station can feature photos of different family members engaged in various activities or special moments together.
- Photo Pathway: Create a pathway lined with family photos leading through the obstacle course. As children navigate through the course, they can see familiar faces and feel comforted by the presence of their loved ones.
- Photo Memory Game: Use family photos to create a memory game within the obstacle course. Place pairs of matching photos at different points along the course, and encourage children to find the matching pairs as they move through the obstacles.
- Photo Puzzle: Print out a large family photo and cut it into puzzle pieces. Scatter the puzzle pieces throughout the obstacle course, and challenge children to find and assemble the puzzle as they navigate through the obstacles.
- Photo Hide-and-Seek: Hide small family photos among the soft objects in the obstacle course. Children can search for the hidden photos as they crawl over, under, and around the obstacles, adding an element of excitement to the activity.
- Photo Storybook: Create a storybook using family photos to accompany the obstacle course activity. As children move through the course, they can flip through the pages of the storybook and see themselves and their family members engaged in different adventures.
- Photo Scavenger Hunt: Develop a scavenger hunt using family photos as clues. Children can search for specific family members or objects depicted in the photos as they navigate through the obstacle course.
- Photo Reflection Corner: Dedicate a corner of the obstacle course to reflection and relaxation, adorned with family photos. Encourage children to take a moment to look at the photos and reflect on happy memories with their loved ones.
- Photo Collage Wall: Create a collage wall using family photos as a backdrop for the obstacle course. Children can admire the photos as they move through the course, fostering a sense of connection and belonging.
- Photo Celebration: At the end of the obstacle course, gather as a family to celebrate by looking at a photo album or slideshow of cherished family memories. Reflect on the joy and love shared within the family.

By incorporating family photos into the soft obstacle course activity, you not only create a calming and welcoming environment for children but also reinforce family bonds and create opportunities for meaningful connections and conversations.

Or Try These Sensory Play Ideas
Sensory play activities with sand or rice, allow toddlers to explore movement in a tactile and kinesthetic way. They can manipulate materials, experiment with pouring, scooping, and sifting, and observe how different movements affect the materials they interact with. These sensory play ideas provide toddlers with rich opportunities to explore movement while engaging their senses and fostering creativity and imagination. Remember to supervise toddlers closely during sensory play activities to ensure their safety and enjoyment.

Adding Toys with Wheels: Incorporate toy vehicles such as trucks, cars, or trains into the sensory bin filled with sand or rice. Encourage your toddler to push the vehicles through the material, observing how the wheels move and create tracks.
Making Tracks: Provide tools like sticks or toy shovels for your toddler to draw lines or make tracks in the sand or rice. They can experiment with different movements like dragging, swirling, or tapping to create patterns and shapes.
Scooping and Pouring Obstacle Course: Set up an obstacle course using small containers or cups placed at different heights and distances. Encourage your toddler to scoop sand or rice from one container and pour it into another, navigating the obstacles along the way.
Sorting and Transferring: Introduce objects of different shapes, sizes, and textures into the sensory bin along with the sand or rice. Encourage your toddler to sort the objects based on specific criteria (e.g., color, size) and transfer them from one container to another, promoting hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Imitating Animal Movements: Use toy animals or animal figurines to inspire movement in the sensory bin. Encourage your toddler to imitate the movements of animals such as digging like a dog, burrowing like a rabbit, or slithering like a snake in the sand or rice.
Experimenting with Gravity: Provide various containers with different openings (e.g., funnels, tubes, colanders) and let your toddler explore how sand or rice moves through them. They can experiment with pouring the material from high to low or watching it trickle through narrow openings, learning about gravity and cause-and-effect relationships.
Creating Sensory Art: Spread a layer of paper over a flat surface and invite your toddler to sprinkle sand or rice onto the paper using their hands or tools. They can explore movement by shaking the paper to spread the material, creating textured artwork.
Building Sandcastles or Rice Structures: Encourage your toddler to use their hands or molds to build structures like sandcastles or rice towers in the sensory bin. They can experiment with different movements and techniques to construct and manipulate the materials.
Water Play Integration: Combine water with sand or rice to create a unique sensory experience. Your toddler can observe how the addition of water changes the movement and texture of the materials, allowing for new exploration opportunities.
Exploring Sensory Paths: Lay out sensory paths using sand or rice-filled trays or shallow containers on the floor. Your toddler can walk or crawl along the paths, feeling the different textures under their feet and practicing balance and coordination.

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Motion of Objects
For young children, the study of motion extends beyond their own bodies to include the physical objects around them. Through exploration and hands-on experiences, children learn about the concepts of movement, force, and interaction with their environment. Simple activities like rolling balls, pushing toy cars, or dropping objects help children understand how objects move and behave in response to different actions. By observing cause-and-effect relationships, such as seeing a ball roll when pushed or fall when dropped, children begin to grasp fundamental principles of motion. Through play-based learning and guided experimentation, young children develop a basic understanding of concepts like speed, direction, and momentum. These early experiences lay the foundation for more complex scientific concepts in the future, fostering a lifelong curiosity about the physical world. Moreover, studying the motion of physical objects not only enhances children's cognitive development but also promotes fine and gross motor skills, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving abilities. By providing opportunities for hands-on exploration and discovery, caregivers and educators empower young children to become active participants in their own learning journey.

Young children are constantly on the move. As they run, jump, climb and tumble, they experience motion, stability and balance with their own bodies. They also observe how toys respond to their actions and how objects, materials and living things in the world around them move. Pushes and pulls — what scientists call forces — can make things go, stop, speed up, slow down or change direction. They can also make things change shape. Toddlers enjoy experimenting with pushing, pulling, dropping, throwing and kicking things to see what happens. They observe how toys roll, how balls bounce and how the wind blows things around. When you provide safe spaces and lots of opportunities for your child to explore pushes and pulls, you promote their learning. When you join in, you give them the message that their explorations are important. As you investigate pushes and pulls with your young children, introduce and use words — like stand and topple, slide and roll, up, down, left, right and sideways — that help them express what they are doing, noticing and thinking about. Individual children will be interested in exploring different things, so remember to follow your child’s lead!

Objectives

The children need to understand that objects have to be put in motion.
The children will need to identify ways in which objects move (eg. roll, slide, etc.).
The children will need to understand the impact that force has on an object.

How Objects move with the Environment
For infants and toddlers, understanding motion involves grasping fundamental concepts related to movement, speed, direction, and interaction with the environment. Here are some key concepts related to motion for infants and toddlers:

Object Permanence: Understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight is a crucial concept related to motion. Infants and toddlers begin to grasp this concept as they observe objects moving in and out of their field of vision.
Cause and Effect: Infants and toddlers start to learn that their actions can cause objects to move or change position. For example, they might realize that pushing a toy car makes it move forward or pulling a string makes a toy closer to them.
Spatial Awareness: Developing an understanding of space and the relationship between objects is important for understanding motion. Infants and toddlers gradually learn about concepts like distance, proximity, and relative position as they interact with objects and explore their surroundings.
Gravity: Infants and toddlers begin to understand the concept of gravity as they observe objects falling to the ground. They learn that objects are pulled downward by gravity and that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
Speed and Distance: Infants and toddlers start to develop a sense of speed and distance as they observe objects moving at different rates and over varying distances. They may begin to compare the speed of objects and notice differences in how far objects can travel.
Directionality: Understanding the direction in which objects move is an important concept related to motion. Infants and toddlers learn about concepts like forward, backward, up, down, left, and right as they observe objects moving in different directions.
Interaction with the Environment: Infants and toddlers learn that objects can interact with their environment in various ways. They may observe objects rolling, sliding, bouncing, or being pushed or pulled by external forces like wind or their own actions.
Observation and Prediction: Infants and toddlers gradually learn to observe patterns in motion and make predictions about future events based on their observations. For example, they may predict where a ball will land when it's thrown or anticipate the movement of a toy car down a ramp.
Experimentation and Exploration: Infants and toddlers learn about motion through hands-on experimentation and exploration. They engage in activities like rolling balls, pushing toys, and crawling or walking, which allow them to observe and experience motion firsthand.

How to Study the Motion of Objects
Young children can study the concept of motion with physical objects and their movements through hands-on, experiential activities that engage their senses and promote exploration. Here's how you can facilitate this learning:

Rolling Objects: Provide toddlers with balls, toy cars, or other rolling objects and encourage them to observe how these objects move when pushed or rolled on different surfaces. They can experiment with different forces and directions to see how it affects the motion of the objects.
Push and Pull Toys: Give toddlers toys that they can push or pull, such as a toy wagon or a wooden block with a string attached. As they interact with these toys, they can explore the concepts of force and motion, learning that pushing makes objects move forward and pulling makes them move backward.
Ramps and Tracks: Set up ramps or tracks using household items like cardboard tubes, blocks, or books. Toddlers can roll balls or toy cars down the ramps and tracks, observing how gravity and incline affect the speed and distance of the objects' movement.
Drop and Fall Experiments: Provide toddlers with objects of different sizes, shapes, and weights (e.g., soft toys, wooden blocks) and invite them to drop them from varying heights. They can observe how objects fall to the ground and explore concepts like gravity and acceleration.
Simple Machines: Introduce toddlers to simple machines such as ramps, levers, and inclined planes through age-appropriate toys and activities. For example, they can use a toy hammer to pound pegs into a pegboard or use a toy wheel and axle to turn objects.
Sorting and Classifying Objects: Encourage toddlers to sort and classify objects based on their movement characteristics, such as objects that roll, slide, or bounce. This activity helps them develop classification skills and understand the properties of different objects.
Water Play: Provide toddlers with containers of water and objects that float or sink. They can experiment with dropping objects into the water and observe how they move and interact with the water. This activity introduces concepts like buoyancy and fluid dynamics.
Outdoor Exploration: Take toddlers outside to explore natural elements like wind, leaves, and shadows. They can observe how the wind moves leaves or how shadows change throughout the day, gaining an understanding of motion in the environment.
Nature Walks: Take toddlers on nature walks and encourage them to observe and interact with natural elements like rocks, sticks, and plants. They can investigate how these objects move or are moved by wind, animals, or other forces.
Hands-On Exploration: Start by providing a variety of objects for children to explore, such as balls, blocks, and toy cars. Encourage them to roll or push these objects on different surfaces, such as carpet, tile, or grass. Ask questions to prompt their curiosity, such as "What happens when you push the ball?" or "How does the block move when you give it a little push?"
Observation and Inquiry: Encourage children to observe and compare how different objects move. Ask them to notice the differences in how easily each object rolls or slides across the surface. Encourage them to think about why some objects move more easily than others and what factors might be influencing their motion.

Consider this: Spin a Top and ask "How hard do you have to push each type of top before it begins to spin? Are light or heavy tops easier to spin? Are tall or short tops easier to spin? Can a top with a penny taped to it maintain a spin?Try rolling or pushing various objects, such as balls, a block, or a toy car. Why do some objects roll easily while others require more effort? Do heavy objects roll more easily than lightweight ones? Does the surface they roll on make a difference?"

Exploring Motion + Inertia
Introduce the concept of inertia by explaining that it's the tendency of objects to resist changes in their motion. Help children understand that objects at rest prefer to stay at rest, while objects in motion prefer to keep moving at a constant speed and direction. Use examples they can relate to, such as a toy car continuing to roll until it's stopped by something else. Toddlers can learn about exploring motion and inertia through simple and engaging activities that allow them to observe and interact with their environment. Here's how you can introduce these concepts to toddlers:

Rolling Objects Experiment: Provide toddlers with various objects of different shapes and sizes, such as balls, toy cars, and blocks. Encourage them to roll these objects on a flat surface and observe how far they travel. Discuss with them why some objects roll farther than others, introducing the concept of inertia.
Push and Stop Activity: Set up a line of blocks or toys on a smooth surface. Have toddlers push a toy car or ball towards the line of blocks and observe what happens when it collides with them. Discuss how the objects stop moving when they encounter an obstacle, demonstrating inertia in action.
Balloon Rocket Experiment: Inflate a balloon and attach a piece of string to it. Tape the other end of the string to a surface, such as a chair or table. Let toddlers pull the balloon back and release it to see it zoom forward. Discuss how the balloon moves due to the force exerted by the air escaping from it, demonstrating Newton's third law of motion.
Spinning Tops: Provide toddlers with spinning tops or simple gyroscopes and let them observe how they spin and wobble. Encourage them to experiment with spinning the tops on different surfaces and observe how they behave differently based on their motion and inertia.
Sensory Bins with Moving Objects: Create a sensory bin filled with rice, sand, or water and add objects that move easily, such as marbles or toy cars. Let toddlers explore the bin and observe how the objects move through the sensory material, experiencing inertia firsthand.
Rollercoaster Building: Use blocks, tubes, and other building materials to create a simple rollercoaster or marble run. Let toddlers experiment with rolling marbles or small balls down the track and observe how they move and interact with the track's twists and turns.
Bouncing Balls Experiment: Provide toddlers with balls of different sizes and materials, such as rubber, foam, or bouncy balls. Let them drop the balls from various heights and observe how high they bounce back up. Discuss how the balls' motion demonstrates the concept of inertia and elastic collisions.
Outdoor Play with Swings: Take toddlers to a playground with swings and let them experience the sensation of swinging back and forth. Discuss how their motion changes as they swing higher and higher, experiencing inertia and the effects of gravity.
Storybooks and Videos: Use age-appropriate storybooks or educational videos to introduce toddlers to the concepts of motion and inertia. Look for materials that feature simple explanations and colorful illustrations to capture their attention and interest.
Experiment and Explore: Encourage toddlers to ask questions and make predictions about how objects move and behave. Provide opportunities for hands-on exploration and experimentation, allowing them to learn through trial and error

Consider this: Try rolling or pushing various objects, such as balls, a block, or a toy car. Why do some objects roll easily while others require more effort? Do heavy objects roll more easily than lightweight ones? Does the surface they roll on make a difference?

Force + Motion
One type of physical science is the study of forces and motion. Forces could include gravity, magnetism, friction, buoyancy and momentum.

Young children are constantly in motion. Using their everyday actions about objects they encounter every day is an easy way to begin teaching the concepts of force and motion. As children play, they can explain why and how things move the way they do and begin to compare those movements with other objects and activities.

Concepts

Speed – what does it mean and how can we manipulate it?
Force – what is it and how can we affect it?
Friction – how does it work and how do different types of friction compare?
Leverage – how can utilizing a simple machine change the outcome of the tests.

Toddlers can begin to understand the concepts of force and motion through simple and hands-on activities that engage their senses and promote exploration. Here are some ways to introduce these concepts to toddlers:

Push and Pull Toys: Provide toddlers with toys that they can push or pull, such as toy cars, wagons, or blocks on strings. Encourage them to experiment with applying force to make the toys move and observe how the direction and strength of the force affect the motion.
Balloon Rocket Experiment: Inflate a balloon and attach a piece of string to it. Hold the other end of the string and let toddlers pull the balloon back and release it to see it zoom forward. Discuss how the force exerted by the escaping air propels the balloon forward.
Ramp Races: Set up ramps using cardboard, books, or blocks and let toddlers roll toy cars or balls down the ramps. Encourage them to experiment with adjusting the angle of the ramps to see how it affects the speed and distance the objects travel.
Blowing Bubbles: Provide toddlers with bubble wands and bubble solution and encourage them to blow bubbles. Discuss how the force of their breath creates air pressure that pushes the bubble solution out of the wand, causing bubbles to form and float away.
Jumping Games: Play games with toddlers that involve jumping, such as jumping over lines drawn on the ground or hopping from one spot to another. Discuss how they use force to push off the ground and propel themselves into the air.
Bath Time Experiments: During bath time, provide toddlers with cups, containers, and toys that float or sink. Encourage them to pour water into different containers and observe how the force of the water affects the motion of the objects.
Tug-of-War: Play a gentle game of tug-of-war with toddlers using a soft rope or scarf. Encourage them to pull on the rope and feel the force exerted by their hands as they try to move the object.
Outdoor Exploration: Take toddlers outside to explore natural elements like wind, leaves, and water. Encourage them to observe how the force of the wind moves leaves or how water flows and splashes when poured or tossed.
How Toys Work: Explore how toy cars work. Share with preschoolers that toy cars need a source of energy or some type of force to move. Ask children, “How do toy cars move?” and allow them to share their ideas. Some toy cars are powered by springs, gears or batteries, and other cars move as people are the source of energy and push or pull the toy cars. Give children time to explore different types of toy cars such as wind-up cars or cars with gears (friction- powered cars). Children can explore which cars go farthest or fastest. Discuss “why” and continue to observe, experiment and discuss.
Sink or Float: Children can explore buoyancy or what happens when items are placed in water by discovering which objects sink and which objects float. Provide preschoolers with a container of water and a variety of objects. Let the children predict whether each item will sink or float before they place the object in the water. Discuss whether the prediction was correct. Encourage children to think about what is similar and what is different about the objects that sink and float. Promote children’s language and literacy development during the exploration by using vocabulary words such as sink, float, heavy, light, bottom and top. Create a chart listing items that sink and items that float.
Ramp and Tunnel Building: Create ramps and tunnels by using pool noodles (cut lengthwise), gutters, PVC pipe or empty carpet rolls. Roll marbles or cars down the ramps.

Through these activities, toddlers can begin to develop an understanding of how force and motion work in the world around them, laying the foundation for future learning in science and physics. Encourage them to explore and ask questions, fostering a curiosity about the forces that shape our everyday experiences.

Visit a Playground
Visit a playground and explain to them about force and motion through the swings, slide and teeter-totter. Model the concept of applying force to an object to make it move by pushing children on the swings. Demonstrate for children what happens when you sit on a teeter-totter without someone on the other side. After the visit to the playground, help children list all of the motions they demonstrated while playing that day.

Spinning
Introducing toddlers to spinning motion can be a fun and engaging way to teach them about movement. Here are some age-appropriate activities to explore spinning motion with toddlers:

Spinning Toys: Provide toddlers with spinning tops, fidget spinners, or pinwheels. Show them how to spin the toys and encourage them to try it themselves. This simple activity introduces toddlers to the concept of spinning motion and allows them to observe the spinning action.
Dance and Twirl: Put on music and encourage toddlers to dance and twirl around. Demonstrate spinning in place and encourage them to imitate the motion. Dancing and twirling help toddlers experience spinning motion in a playful and natural way.
Spinning in Circles: Take toddlers to an open space and encourage them to spin in circles. Hold their hands for support if needed, and slowly spin together. This activity helps toddlers experience the sensation of spinning motion and develop balance and coordination.
Spinning Toys in Water: Fill a basin or tub with water and add floating toys that spin, such as plastic boats or whirligigs. Let toddlers play with the toys and observe how they spin in the water. This sensory activity combines water play with exploring spinning motion.
Gyroscope Toys: Introduce toddlers to simple gyroscope toys designed for young children. These toys demonstrate the principles of spinning motion and can provide hands-on exploration of how spinning objects behave.
Spinning Games: Play games with toddlers that involve spinning, such as "Spin and Stop" or "Spin and Catch." Encourage toddlers to spin a toy or themselves and then try to stop or catch it. This game helps toddlers practice controlling spinning motion and develops hand-eye coordination.
Spinning Tops Art: Dip spinning tops in paint and place them on paper to create spinning art. When the tops spin, they will leave colorful patterns on the paper. This creative activity combines spinning motion with artistic expression.
Sensory Bottles: Create sensory bottles filled with liquid and glitter or small objects. Seal the bottles tightly and let toddlers shake and spin them to watch the contents swirl and twirl inside. This activity provides visual stimulation and encourages exploration of spinning motion.
Spinning Storytime: Read storybooks that feature spinning motion, such as "The Spinny Icky Showdown" or "The Spinny Icky Smackdown" by Laurie Berkner. Encourage toddlers to act out spinning motions described in the story as you read together.
Outdoor Spinning Play Equipment: Take toddlers to a playground with spinning equipment, such as merry-go-rounds or spinning chairs. Supervise toddlers as they explore these spinning structures, providing support and ensuring their safety.

At Home: How many things spin in your home? What objects rotate around a fixed point? (For example, you may have in your home: toys with wheels or spinners, a microwave with turning plate, a blender or mixer, a washer or dryer, a fidget spinner, a doorknob . . . ). What spins fast? What spins slow? Why?

Around Town: How many different types of movement can you see as you walk around the neighborhood or play at the park? Look for up and down, side to side, rotating, fast and slow, jerky and smooth. Try to find fun, creative words to describe what you observe! Does a squirrel run, scamper, bolt, sprint? Does a bird fly, soar, dive? Do you notice something rolling or sliding?

What Moved it?
Help students understand that humans are not the only forces that can cause things to move. Provide students with pictures of a sailboat, a horse and buggy, a water wheel and a train and ask them to guess what makes it move. Create a class chart labeling the objects with the forces that move them.

Can you Move the Ball?
To teach children about invisible forces, place a lightweight ball, such as a craft foam ball, and a meter stick on the floor. Explain to the children that they have to move the ball to the end of the meter stick without using any hands or feet and ask if anyone has any ideas on how that can be done. Demonstrate how to blow on the ball to make it move. Have children practice blowing on the ball to make it move.

Classifying Objects
Present children with pictures of toys, vehicles and animals. On large pieces of chart paper, list motions such as roll, bounce, fly, slither, slide and swing. Help the children classify the pictures by how the object in the picture moves, gluing each picture to the appropriate piece of chart paper.

Moving Toy Cars
Many students love to play with toy cars. Turn this simple activity into a lesson of force and motion by explaining to students how the cars move. Create ramps for the cars out of building blocks and have children explain what happens to the car when it goes down the ramp.

Moving with Magnets
While many young children will have difficulty understanding magnetic force, it is not too early to expose them to the concept. Create a fishing pole by attaching a piece of string to a stick and tying a magnet on the end. Have students fish for nuts and bolts or place magnets on the back of construction-paper fish so students can go "fishing."

Push + Pull
Children should understand that a force, such as pushing or pulling, can move an object. To teach students this concept, provide them with a variety of activities that allow them to practice pushing and pulling objects and share examples of objects in real life that are pushed or pulled.

As you investigate pushes and pulls with your child, introduce words — like stable, direction, balance and collide — that help them express what they are doing, noticing and thinking about. Individual children will be interested in exploring different things, so remember to follow your child’s lead!

Studying push and pull concepts in a motion investigation is important for toddlers for several reasons:

Understanding Cause and Effect: Learning about push and pull helps toddlers understand cause and effect relationships. They learn that pushing an object makes it move away, while pulling it brings it closer. This understanding lays the groundwork for their comprehension of how actions lead to specific outcomes, a crucial cognitive skill.
Physical Development: Engaging in push and pull activities promotes toddlers' physical development. These actions require the use of different muscle groups and coordination skills, contributing to the development of their gross motor skills. Pushing a toy car or pulling a wagon, for example, helps toddlers build strength and balance.
Spatial Awareness: Through push and pull activities, toddlers develop spatial awareness as they navigate objects through their environment. They learn to judge distances and angles when pushing or pulling objects, enhancing their understanding of space and spatial relationships.
Problem-Solving Skills: Exploring push and pull concepts encourages toddlers to experiment and problem-solve. They may encounter obstacles or challenges while pushing or pulling objects, requiring them to find solutions to overcome these barriers. This fosters their critical thinking skills and encourages them to persevere when faced with challenges.
Social and Emotional Development: Push and pull activities often involve collaboration and social interaction, providing opportunities for toddlers to engage with peers and caregivers. They learn to take turns, communicate their intentions, and cooperate with others, fostering their social and emotional development.
Introduction to Physics Concepts: Studying push and pull concepts lays the groundwork for understanding fundamental physics principles. Toddlers begin to grasp concepts such as force, motion, and inertia through their hands-on exploration of push and pull activities. These early experiences pave the way for further learning in science and related fields as they grow older.

Overall, studying push and pull concepts in a motion investigation provides toddlers with a rich and engaging learning experience that promotes their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. It lays a solid foundation for their understanding of how objects move and interact with their environment, setting the stage for lifelong learning and exploration.

Pushing + Pulling On the Playground
Take students outside on a playground to learn about the concept of pushing. Students can take turns pushing each other on the swings or down the slide and pulling up on monkey bars or climbing up a jungle gym. Point out other ways that students push and pull, such as opening or closing a gate at the playground. Or involve students in a game of tug-of-war to make the concepts even clearer.

Push + Pull Venn Diagram
Create a giant Venn diagram, or two intersecting circles, on chart paper. Label one circle "push," the other circle "pull" and the area where the circles intersect "both." Provide children with pictures of objects that are traditionally pushed or pulled. Allow students to take turns taping the pictures in the appropriate area of the Venn diagram.

Push to Move
Explain to students that pushing an object can help it move and the force of the push can change how fast and how far the object moves. Practice pushing toy cars across the floor. Ask children to push a toy car softly and see how far it moves. Then push the car with more force and note that it moves farther. Set up a ramp using a piece of wood or cardboard and show students that a car needs less of a push to move down the ramp at high speeds.

Try This!

Push and Pull Parade

Materials Needed:
Various toys and objects that toddlers can push and pull (e.g., toy cars, wagons, stuffed animals, empty boxes)
Open space for the parade (indoor or outdoor)

Instructions:
Gather Objects: Collect a variety of toys and objects that toddlers can push and pull. Ensure they are safe and age-appropriate for the toddlers participating in the activity.

Introduction: Gather the toddlers together and introduce the concept of push and pull. Explain that when we push, we use force to make things move away from us, and when we pull, we use force to bring things closer to us.

Demonstration: Demonstrate how to push and pull different objects. Use simple language to describe what you're doing, such as "I'm pushing the toy car forward" or "I'm pulling the wagon toward me." Encourage the toddlers to watch and imitate your actions.

Parade Setup: Set up a designated parade route using cones, tape, or markers to create a path for the "Push and Pull Parade." Ensure there's enough space for the toddlers to maneuver their objects along the route.

Parade Time: Invite the toddlers to participate in the parade. Encourage them to choose an object to push or pull along the parade route. Cheer them on as they navigate the course, using their strength and coordination to move their chosen objects.

Obstacle Course: For added fun, create an obstacle course along the parade route. Include objects like pillows to crawl over, tunnels to crawl through, or hoops to push objects through. This adds an element of challenge and excitement to the activity.

Rotation: Encourage toddlers to take turns pushing and pulling different objects along the parade route. This promotes sharing and cooperation while giving each child a chance to explore the concept of push and pull.

Reflection: After the parade, gather the toddlers together to reflect on their experience. Ask open-ended questions like "What was your favorite part of the parade?" or "What did you learn about pushing and pulling?" Encourage them to share their thoughts and observations.

By organizing a "Push and Pull Parade," toddlers have the opportunity to engage in hands-on exploration of push and pull motion while also promoting their physical, cognitive, and social development. It's a playful and interactive way to introduce and reinforce the concept of push and pull in a fun and memorable way.

Questions/Discussion

What did you enjoy pushing or pulling during the parade? This question encourages toddlers to reflect on their favorite parts of the activity and express their preferences.
How did you make the object move when you pushed or pulled it? By asking this question, toddlers can think about the actions they took to move the objects and reinforce their understanding of push and pull.
Did you find it easier to push or pull the objects? Why? Encourage toddlers to think about their experiences and compare the differences between pushing and pulling objects. This promotes critical thinking and observation skills.
What obstacles did you encounter along the parade route? How did you overcome them? This question prompts toddlers to reflect on any challenges they faced during the activity and how they problem-solved to navigate the obstacles.
Did you notice any differences in how the objects moved on different surfaces? Encourage toddlers to think about how the surface they were pushing or pulling the objects on may have affected their movement. This promotes awareness of the environment and its impact on motion.
How did you feel during the parade? Allow toddlers to express their emotions and share their experiences. This helps them develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
What did you learn about pushing and pulling today? This open-ended question encourages toddlers to summarize their learning and articulate their understanding of the push and pull concepts.
Would you like to do the Push and Pull Parade again? Why or why not? Encourage toddlers to reflect on their overall experience and whether they would like to repeat the activity. This provides valuable feedback and insight into their engagement and enjoyment.
What other objects do you think we could include in our next parade? Stimulate toddlers' creativity and problem-solving skills by inviting them to brainstorm ideas for future parades. This encourages them to think critically and apply their knowledge of push and pull motion to new situations.
Who did you enjoy participating in the parade with? Encourage toddlers to share their experiences of interacting with their peers during the activity. This promotes social development and reinforces the importance of collaboration and teamwork.

Family Connection
To extend learning from the "Push and Pull Parade" activity that was done at school, families can engage in the following activities at home:

Push and Pull Toy Exploration: Encourage families to gather toys and objects from around the house that toddlers can push and pull. Set up a designated play area where toddlers can continue exploring the concept of push and pull motion with different toys and objects. Families can observe and discuss together how various objects move when pushed or pulled.
Indoor Mini Parade: Families can recreate a mini version of the push and pull parade at home. Set up a small parade route using masking tape or string, and invite toddlers to choose objects from their toy collection to push or pull along the route. Encourage families to cheer on the toddlers as they navigate the parade route, and discuss the different movements they observe.
Push and Pull Story Time: Choose books from the library or online resources that feature characters or objects engaging in push and pull activities. Families can read these books together and discuss the push and pull motions depicted in the stories. After reading, families can act out scenes from the books or create their own push and pull stories.
DIY Push and Pull Toys: Families can engage in a creative craft activity by making their own push and pull toys at home. Using recycled materials like cardboard boxes, paper towel rolls, and string, families can work together to create simple toys that toddlers can push or pull around the house. Encourage families to experiment with different designs and materials.
Push and Pull Sensory Play: Set up a sensory bin filled with materials like rice, beans, or sand, along with small toys and objects for toddlers to push and pull through the sensory material. Encourage families to explore the different textures and movements as they push and pull objects through the sensory bin.
Push and Pull Nature Walk: Take a nature walk as a family and observe how various objects in nature are moved by forces like wind or water. Encourage toddlers to collect items like sticks, leaves, or pinecones and experiment with pushing and pulling them along the ground. Families can discuss together how these natural objects move in response to different forces.
Push and Pull Dance Party: Families can have a dance party at home where toddlers can dance and move around using push and pull motions. Play music with a lively beat and encourage families to dance freely, incorporating actions like pushing and pulling into their dance moves. Families can take turns leading the dance and exploring different movements together.

Family Connection

Obstacle Course Challenge: Encourage families to create a mini obstacle course at home using everyday items like pillows, cushions, and cardboard boxes. Toddlers can navigate through the course by pushing and pulling objects, developing their gross motor skills and problem-solving abilities.
Push and Pull Sorting Game: Families can gather various household items and sort them into categories of objects that are pushed or pulled. Toddlers can practice identifying and categorizing objects based on their movement, reinforcing their understanding of push and pull concepts.
DIY Push and Pull Toys: Encourage families to get creative and make their own push and pull toys using recycled materials such as cardboard, paper tubes, and bottle caps. Toddlers can participate in the crafting process and then enjoy playing with their homemade toys, fostering creativity and innovation.
Push and Pull Nature Walk: Families can go on a nature walk together and observe how different objects in nature are pushed or pulled by forces such as wind or gravity. Toddlers can collect items like leaves, twigs, or rocks and experiment with pushing and pulling them in different ways, connecting their outdoor experiences with the push and pull concepts they've learned.
Story Time: Families can read books together that feature characters or objects engaging in push and pull activities. After reading the stories, families can discuss the push and pull motions depicted in the book and relate them to their own experiences.
Push and Pull Dance Party: Families can turn on some music and have a dance party where toddlers can dance and move around using push and pull motions. Encourage families to get creative with their dance moves and incorporate actions like pushing and pulling into their routines.
Outdoor Play: Encourage families to spend time playing outdoors together and explore push and pull motion in their environment. Toddlers can play with outdoor toys like swings, slides, or ride-on toys that involve pushing and pulling actions, promoting physical activity and outdoor exploration.
Science Experiment: Families can conduct simple science experiments at home to explore push and pull forces. For example, they can fill a basin with water and experiment with different objects to see which ones sink or float based on their weight and buoyancy, introducing concepts of force and motion in a hands-on way.

More ideas to Discover Motion
Watch How Items Fall: You and the children can explore how things move by dropping a variety of objects one at a time off an elevated area, such as a deck or playground structure. Make sure nobody is standing below! Gather items like feathers, pennies, pebbles and pieces of newspaper and drop them one at a time. Talk about how feathers flutter down, pebbles drop down and how a penny or piece of paper falls quickly or slowly.

Move at the Playground: The playground is a great place for you to help children explore motion and develop his large muscle skills and balance at the same time! Encourage him to use slide, swings, bouncers and balance beams and draw his attention to how he is climbing, sliding, swinging, rocking and balancing. Introduce and use positional terms like You are climbing up so high/sliding down so fast/swinging back and forth/rocking side to side!

Observe How Things Move at the Market: Once you and your child start looking for things that move, it’s amazing what you can find! At the market, the wheels on the cart go around and around when you push it; the pan on the scale goes down and back up when you put vegetables in and take them out; and the conveyor belt at the register moves sideways with your groceries. What other moving things can we find at the market? Can we find more things that go around and around, up and down or sideways?

Play With Push and Pull Toys: Lots of toys for two-year-olds are made for pushing and pulling — like dogs to pull by a string, doll strollers to push and toy trains to pull and push along a track. As your child plays, draw her attention to how these toys move as a result of her actions. Whoops! The dog fell over when you pulled it around the corner! or Your doll carriage is stuck in the doorway! How can you push it over the threshold? You can also support her learning about pushes and pulls by joining in her play with ramps, cars and blocks. The car rolled all the way down the ramp! How can you get it to go back up?

Pound Playdough: Explore how pushes and pulls can change the shape of some materials with store-bought or homemade playdough. Encourage children to pat, squeeze, tear and pound the dough and show her how to make balls, snakes and pancakes by rolling or flattening it with her hands or on the table. For more exploration, add some Popsicle sticks, spoons or shells and other objects to make impressions in the playdough.

Play Catch and Investigate Motion: You can explore motion with your child by playing catch with a large ball. Ball games also help children practice letting go of objects and sharing them. Throw, roll or bounce the ball back and forth with your child. As you play, talk about how far it is flying, rolling or bouncing. How can we make it go further? Play with other large balls like beach balls, basketballs, soccer balls and rubber balls. Which one is your favorite? Why do you like that one the best?

Explore How Block Structures Fall: Knocking block structures down — although it might annoy older siblings — is one way that two-year-olds investigate pushes and pulls. Help your child build a simple block tower and then invite her to knock it down. How do the blocks fall when you push on the tower hard? What about when you push it gently? Try pushing or pulling a block out from the top, middle or bottom of the tower. What happens? Remind her that it’s only okay to knock down her own towers!

Play a Balloon Game: Children can explore pushes and pulls by playing a fun balloon game — this is a great activity for a family party! Blow up and tie some balloons and invite your child to toss one in the air. Take turns tapping it to keep it afloat, counting your taps out loud. Keep it in the air as long as you can! How do you have to hit the balloon to keep it up? Try playing the balloon game outdoors. Is it easier or harder to keep the balloon in the air outside? Why do you think so?

Roll Balls on Playground Slides: When the playground is not too busy, you can help the children investigate how balls roll down slides. Encourage your child to drop a ball at the top of steeper and less steep slides. How does it roll down the different slides? How far does it fly off the end of each slide before falling to the ground? Try different types of balls, like bouncy balls and tennis balls. How do different balls roll the same? How do they roll differently? Roll the balls down a spiral slide if one is available. How do the balls move? Which way do they go when they leave the slide? Share your ideas about why balls roll differently on different slides.

Watch and Listen for What the Wind Blows: When you and children are out and about on a windy day, you can investigate wind and how it moves things. How does the wind feel and sound? What is the wind doing to your hair and your jacket? Encourage your child to look and listen for other signs of wind. What are the leaves on the trees doing? The leaves on the ground? What about flags? Suspended signs or traffic signals? Invite your child to move like he is being blown around by the wind. Introduce words like flapping, swaying, tumbling and tossing.

Use a Helium Balloon to Make Objects Fly: Do you ever buy helium balloons for family birthdays or other events? Once the party is over, use the balloons to help children investigate pushes and pulls! Gather some toy figures, blocks, rocks and other small objects of different weights and tie one to the end of each of the balloon strings. Which objects pull the balloons down? Which ones get lifted up by the balloons? Share ideas and help your child draw and write about your findings.

Sled and Roll Down Hills: Sledding in the snow is a fun way to investigate motion with the children ! Sled down a snowy hill together. How fast did you we go? Did we go faster at the top or the bottom? Experiment with sliding on cardboard, plastic bags and store-bought metal or plastic saucers. Which one makes us go faster and farther? Why do you think so? Visit the library and check out Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman, a book with some great movement vocabulary like whirled, flipped, muddled and bailed. If snow isn’t available, try rolling down a hill with your child. Once you get to the bottom, talk about the experience. Could you feel your body going faster and faster?

Learn more...

Sample Motion Activities

For older children, see our investigation on Movement

PRESCHOOL MOVEMENT INVESTIGATION

Nature Walks: Take your family on nature walks and encourage your child to observe and mimic the movements of animals they see, such as birds flying, squirrels climbing, or insects crawling.
Outdoor Games: Organize outdoor games like Simon Says or Red Light, Green Light to engage your child in different types of movement and promote listening skills and coordination.
Water Play: Plan a water play day where you set up sprinklers, water tables, or kiddie pools for your child to splash and explore different water movements.
Visit a Playground: Take your child to a playground with swings, slides, and climbing structures to encourage them to explore different ways of moving their bodies.
DIY Sensory Bins: Create DIY sensory bins filled with materials like kinetic sand, rice, or dried beans and provide scoops, cups, and toy vehicles for your child to manipulate and experiment with different movements.
Gross Motor Games: Play simple gross motor games indoors, such as musical chairs, freeze dance, or balloon volleyball, to promote movement and coordination skills.
Yoga for Kids: Practice simple yoga poses together as a family to promote balance, flexibility, and body awareness in a fun and playful way.
Pretend Play: Encourage your child to engage in pretend play activities that involve movement, such as pretending to be animals, astronauts, or superheroes with special powers.
Dance Parties: Have regular dance parties at home where you and your child can move and groove to different types of music, experimenting with various dance styles and movements.
Sports Activities: Introduce your child to basic sports activities such as kicking a soccer ball, throwing and catching a ball, or dribbling a basketball to develop their coordination and teamwork skills.

Key Words

Cause: Something that gives rise to an action or condition
Effect: The result of a physical action
Force: The push or pull on an object that causes it to change velocity
Motion: Movement from one place to another
Position: The place where you are (if you change your place, you are moving)
Gravity: A force that attracts objects towards each other.
Magnetism: A force that pulls metal towards a magnet.
Move: Basic term for any action involving changing position or location.
Walk: Moving on foot with a slow and steady pace.
Run: Moving quickly on foot with a rapid pace.
Jump: Springing off the ground using both feet.
Crawl: Moving on hands and knees or belly.
Climb: Ascending upward by grasping or pulling with hands and feet.
Slide: Moving smoothly downward on a surface.
Roll: Moving by turning over and over, usually on the ground.
Push: Using force to move an object away from oneself.
Pull: Using force to move an object toward oneself.
Spin: Rotating around a central axis.
Twirl: Spinning around quickly, often while standing in one place.
Hop: Moving by jumping on one foot.
Skip: Moving by hopping or jumping on alternate feet in a skipping rhythm.
Gallop: Moving by taking a series of long steps followed by short hops, resembling a horse's gait.
Balance: Maintaining stability while standing or moving.
Stop: Ceasing movement or coming to a halt.
Turn: Changing direction or orientation.
Reach: Extending arms or hands to touch or grab something.
Stretch: Lengthening or extending the body, limbs, or muscles.
Bend: Curving or flexing a joint, such as the knees or elbows.
Wiggle: Moving with small, quick, back-and-forth motions.
Shake: Moving vigorously from side to side.
Tiptoe: Walking quietly and softly on the toes.
Fall: Losing balance and descending to the ground.

Concepts Related to Motion

If your class is interested in studying motion and you choose to facilitate a motion investigation, consider using any 3 or 4 concepts listed below. Choosing a limited number of concepts based on children's interests helps to narrow down the research required by teachers. It also helps teachers shape the investigation by diving deeper into the chosen content instead of feeling pressure to cover all concepts related to the topic. Choosing what's most relevant to the children in your class helps everyone get the most out of the investigation.

Movement of Body
Movement of Objects
Motion through Play
Push + Pull
Balance + Stability

Sink or Float
Dance + Movement
Ramps + Friction
Forces + Motion
Rotation + Trajectory

Cause + Effect
Speed: Fast + Slow
Direction: Up + Down, etc
Stop + Go