These engaging activities, inventive crafts, DIY projects, and sensory-based games are a fantastic way to develop gross and fine motor skills while strengthening cognitive abilities and extending attention spans.
Your one-year-old is sure to love playing with different textures, getting messy with paint, and crawling through obstacle courses and tunnels, all while developing fundamental preschool skills.
1. Stack Canned Food Blocks
Not only do canned food tins make an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic blogs, but they are also a great way for little hands to develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Learn more: Hands On As We Grow
2. Peek-A-Boo Puzzle Playtime
This peek-a-boo twist on traditional wooden puzzles creates an extra challenge to engage short attention spans.
Learn more: Happy Toddler Playtime
3. Clothespin Fine Motor Activity
All you need are clothespins and cardboard tubes for this fun toddler activity. It's a wonderful way to train them for more challenging motor activities such as writing or drawing.
Learn more: Days With Gray
4. Fill a Hide-and-Seek Bottle With Rice
This hide-and-seek bottle can be filled with rice and various objects such as crayons, marbles, and seashells. Your toddler will love rolling and shaking the bottle while searching for hidden mystery objects.
Learn more: The Activity Mom
5. Cotton Ball Line Up Game
Using only a piece of painter's tape and cotton balls, this captivating game will develop your toddler's hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Learn more: Hands On As We Grow
6. DIY Toddler Ball Pit
This portable ball pit is a great way to develop sensory skills, practice a game of catch or play a game of hide-and-seek with other toys.
7. Make a Magic Potion
Using some cold water and KoolAid, this magic potion will change color and flavor as the ice cubes melt, creating a neat, eye-catching effect that your young learner is sure to love.
Learn more: Mrs. Happy Home Maker
8. Spider Web Discovery Basket
All you need for this creative idea is a basket, some string or wool, and toys or discovery items. The challenge builds fine motor and sensory skills as toddlers have to reach their hands through the layers of string to reach the toys before the spider arrives.
Learn more: The Train Driver's Wife
9. Paint With Water
This simple and low prep activity requires only a bit of water, some paintbrushes, and a piece of paper. Let their imaginations run wild tracing different shapes and exploring the texture of the paintbrush bristles, knowing that clean-up will be a piece of cake.
Learn more: Tales of a Teacher Mom
10. Build Cognitive Skills with a Nursery Rhyme Singing Basket
Coordinating clean-up time with a nursery rhyme is an enjoyable way to develop early language and communication skills. It's a fun way to bring classic songs to life while developing hand-eye and motor coordination skills.
Learn more: The Imagination Tree
11. Make a Colorful Sensory Bottle
A creative sensory bottle can make for hours of entertainment for your curious toddler. You can fill them with anything from glitter to colored blocks to shapes, letters, and numbers to build basic numeracy and literacy skills.
Learn more: My Bored Toddler
12. Explore the Fun of Finger Painting
Finger painting is a terrific form of sensory play, giving toddlers an opportunity to experiment with textures, colors, shapes, and patterns, all while encouraging their creative self-expression.
Learn more: Raising Children
13. Get Creative With Colorful Bath Sponges
This fun sponge painting activity is a colorful and creative invitation to play and create. Try experimenting with different shapes to help develop shape recognition and build motor coordination skills.
Learn more: My Bored Toddler
14. Create a Cardboard Box Tunnel
What's simpler than turning a cardboard box on its head to create a fun crawl-through tunnel? You can hang some colorful objects for them to stretch and tug while they crawl.
Learn more: The Imagination Tree
15. Create an Obstacle Course
This obstacle course can be as easy or challenging as your toddler can handle. Why not throw in some pillows, stuffed animals, exercise mats, or musical instruments? It's an easy and entertaining way to build gross motor and sensory skills.
Learn more: Life With More Babies
16. Make Your Own Moon Sand
This texture-rich moon sand can be used for hours of construction fun to scoop, dig, transport, and stack objects.
Learn more: The Activity Mom
17. Have Fun With Stacking Toys
Stacking toys are a classic for a reason. There are so many types out there in various colors, textures, and shapes, making for an entertaining and easy way to develop cognitive and visual skills.
Learn more: Scary Mommy
18. Create a Washing Edible Play Station
The beloved children's book, Harry the Dirty Dog is the inspiration behind this dog washing sensory bin idea. No need to use real dirt as some chocolate pudding will do the trick nicely.
Learn more: View From a Step Stool
19. Practice Coloring and Drawing
1-year-olds may find coloring and drawing challenging, but it's an excellent way to develop their concentration ability, fine motor skills, creativity, and of course, turn their scribbles into lines.
Learn more: OT Holly
20. Create a Water Bead Bin
This twist on a classic sensory bin uses water beads and objects of various textures and materials to keep young learners engaged for hours of playtime.
Learn more: Keep Toddlers Busy
21. Sponge Bath Sensory Bath
Bath time is a fun sensory activity that can be enhanced with bubbles, scents, and colorful sponges of various shapes. You can even turn this activity into a science experiment by seeing if the sponges will sink or float.
Learn more: Frogs, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails
22. Star Sensory Water Play
Kids are sure to love using scoopers, tongs, and sand shovels to scoop up various shapes from this sensory soup. Cups can be added to the table to sort the stars into colors, while also practicing counting skills.
Learn more: Modern Preschool
23. Ocean Themed Art
Gather some blue tissue paper and a bit of cellophane and let your young learner decide where to place them on sticky contact paper. The results make for a beautiful and translucent seascape that they'll surely be proud of!
Learn more: Crafts on Sea
24. Make Some Chocolate Playdough
This quick and easy-to-make playdough smells amazing and can be combined with stamps and blocks to make for great letter, number, and shape practice.
Learn more: Crafts on Sea
25. Fun With Straws
This simple activity combines your choice of straws, pipe cleaners, coffee stirrers, pick-up sticks, or even pasta with a simple container to create a fun fine motor activity.
Learn more: Living Life and Learning
26. Postman Shoe Box
Toddlers love playing postman, and what better item for them to post than recycled jar lids? They are sure to delight in the clanging sound the lids make as they slip into the shoe box slot.
Learn more: Emma Owl
27. Muffin Tin Color Sorting
This fun game takes only a few minutes to pull together and helps young learners learn and sort their colors quickly and easily.
Learn more: Modern Preschool
28. Learn Spatial Sense with a Dolphin Coral Reef
While pretending to be dolphins swimming around a coral reef, kids will develop spatial sense, understanding location (in, out) position (first, next) distance (near, far), and movement (up, down).
Learn more: My Bright Firefly
29. Transform Toilet Paper Rolls into Blocks
What better way to turn dull brown rolls into colorful, fun blocks? They are easy to stack, roll, filled with rice or other items, and can even be used as bowling pins.
Learn more: Swoodson Says
30. Make Some DIY Bean Bags
This bean bag toss game can be made with some mismatched socks, dry rice, and a little dried lavender to add an extra element of sensory exploration.
Learn more: Views From a Step Stool
31. Make Your Own Window Paint
Why not make your own homemade window paint using a little water, cornstarch, and food dye? Kids will love using their new material to paint windows and glass surfaces and you'll be happy knowing the paint can easily be removed!
Learn more: Views From a Step Stool
32. Big Bottle Ball Drop
Kids are sure to love dropping pom poms into this large bottle. It's a simple kitchen craft that makes a great indoor or outdoor activity for developing hand-eye coordination.
Learn more: Kitchen Floor Crafts
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