Activities for learning animals with toddlers

Parents wait with impatience when their beloved children will say their first words. Young children listen, acquire the language around them, and copy the sounds they hear. Basic names of the animals and the sounds they make seem the easiest start for learning. It takes hours of repetition and practice before you can see any results. This post offers 5 simple activities to encourage toddlers to learn new words and speak.

1. Mary had a little lamb. 

It's a very interesting version of a classic song from supersimplesongs.com.

This song is perfect for introducing animals and descriptive adjectives.  I am personally against demonstrating videos for very young kids. So I sang a song and showed corresponding animals. I rewrote the song a bit and added some animals to the existing ones:

a little lamb+ fleece was very white

a big giraffe+ his neck was very long

an elephant+his ears were very big

an angry bull+his horns were very sharp

a crocodile+he had so many teeth

2. Finger puppets with the song "When cows get up in the morning".

Finger puppets are more engaging than just toys and they help develop fine motor skills.

Put on a finger puppet and start singing:

When cows get up in the morning, 

they always say hello 

When cows get up in the morning,

 they always say hello

 And what do they say?  

Mooooooo 

And that is what they say. 

Verses: use any animals that you'd like

3. Who says woof, woof? 

Put 3 -5 rubber toys in front of a child. Ask the question "Who says woof, woof?" and encourage a young learner to repeat the sound and show the animal. Confirm:

"Yes, it's a doggy. Woof, woof."

4. Game "Who lives in the house?"

 In a little toy house made of cardboard or constructor put some toy animals. Draw your child's attention to the house and ask "Who lives in the house?". Take one toy and say who is it: "Oh, a mouse lives in the house".

5. Give me a horse.

Place some rubber toys in front of a child and ask him to give an animal you name.

I hope you will enjoy these activities and use them for teaching your toddlers.