Animal Themed Month

I was a teacher in a toddler room for several years before being a speech therapist. When my oldest was a toddler I'd do activities and made little lesson plans. I did the same when I nannied. So here I am again with a bit more focus on language. I like to include some silly/non-traditional holidays when possible.

This month we're doing Animals with a different group each week. We'll have some things out for the whole month and then special activities for each week. Each week will have a sensory play component. Sensory play can be so much fun, and usually a little messy. It can also encourage vocalizing and speech.

For the month I'll have out

- Puzzles

We've just started with puzzles so he's learning how to get them to fit right. I'll tell him "turn." We work on animal sounds, labeling, and identifying familiar items. This one is for the Farm week. It's been well-loved

-Books

We are obsessed with books in our house. I'm so glad I got to bring out some books I used when I did in-person therapy. I will share books over video now but it's just not the same. We're working on pointing to items in books.

Farm Animals

We're actually doing this for a little over a week since March started on Wednesday and I just started. Then I'll also do it for the first full week.

This is the one I used for in person therapy. We have a second one too.

- Little People Farm with animals, farmers, and tractors

We've been playing with it for months now since he got it for his first birthday. We work on animal sounds, labeling, identifying, and pretend play. My guy is 16 months old and makes the animals eat. You could work on the actions of walking and sleeping too. After this month I think we will actually be putting it away for a while and rotating in a new bigger toy.

Sensory Play-

-Muddy pigs with Chocolate pudding and pig toys. We already did it this week since March 1st was National Pig Day. My little guy enjoyed it. We will be doing it again even though it was messy. I think next time we may bring out the "sensory play blanket" I have and his small sensory table instead of his highchair. To me, it seemed like it was a bit confining.

Languaged used - pig, dirty, muddy, wash

Muddy Pig play

Zoo Animals

We have a Zoo playdate planned to end the second week. On the 16th it's National Panda Day which helped schedule this week a little.

-Zoo Animal Sounds

I will print out some animals from our zoo so we can work on those animal sounds for the animals like lions, monkeys, penguins, and zebras. Zebras yip in case you didn't know. I didn't until I looked it up for therapy one day. We're going to have elephants, even though our zoo doesn't have elephants anymore. At the zoo, we'll find the animals we had been learning about that week. We have been working on Farm animal sounds way more than other animals like zoo animals.

Sensory Play-

The 14th is National Children's Craft Day so our sensory play will be fingerpainting with Veggie Paints. He has fingerpainted a few times before and likes it. To make it Zoo animal related, he'll paint the lion mane. I'll be posting pictures on Instagram you can find me @SassySpeechy.

Ocean Animals

We have some bath toys that are Nemo characters that we will play with. We will work on the action word "swim". Ocean animals may be harder for a toddler to understand. We won't be able to get to an aquarium this week but it would be really fun if we could.

-Ocean Animal Matching

I will print up some ocean animal pictures and work on matching them. I will pick animals that are in his books like Sea turtles, seals, octopuses, and fish. I like real-life pictures personally.

Sensory Play-

- Blue jello with Sea Animals

I'll put some little sea animals in the jello. I wouldn't normally let him play with these animals but with supervision, I feel it is safe for him to dig out of the jello. We played with jello when he was little so it'll be interesting to see how he likes it now.

Pets

This week we will learn about animals that are typical pets like dogs, cats, goldfish, and guinea pigs. I have a specific puzzle for this week. This week has a few cute national holidays like Scribble Day, Children's Picture book day, and Crayon day.

- Children's Picture Book Day

The 28th is Children's Picture Book Day so of course we'll be looking at books and working on pointing to Pets in our books.

- What pets can we see on our walk?

The 30th is Take a walk in the Park Day. We do try to go for walks as often as possible. So I'll make sure to point out the pets even though they might be a lot of dogs.

Sensory Play-

We will try to play in my colored dried pasta bin. My friend took the time to color different shaped pasta and gave me a bin full. I never got to play with it with my clients because of Covid. I will hide the puzzle pieces in the pasta and have him dig them out and identify the animals.

I will post pictures on Facebook and Instagram of the activities we do. I'll update this post with pictures as we go as well. I am already working on our plan for April and hope to get it out before April begins.

I have a couple of posts about Farm activities and one on Ocean activities for a wider range of skills as well.

Let's have fun with Animals this month!