Toddler Lesson Plans

STEM Lesson Plans

Sensory Lesson Plans

Clear Tambourines

Lesson Plan:

​Activity:

Clear Tambourines

Lesson plan developed by Aurora Tollestrup, BS Ed

Age Group:

• Young Infant
• Mobile Infant
• Toddler

Objectives:  

Children will:

• explore sound and sight with provided materials.

CDA Competency Standard:   

II.4.3a

• Activities and materials encourage children to develop their senses.
  • ​​a) Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch experiences are encouraged through a variety of developmentally appropriate materials and activities

Materials: 

• hot glue gun
• clear plastic plates (we used 2 clear plastic container lids instead)
• dried beans
• beads
• cut straws
• corn meal

Procedure: 

To prepare materials:

• Place materials inside of a plastic plate and hot glue the other plate face down.
  
• Do this for each filler material.

For the activity:

• Invite children to shake and play with the tambourines.
  
• For young infants a teacher should shake them and let them explore the sight of the different materials inside the plates as well as the sounds.

Assessment: 

• Observe and record the children’s reaction to the provided materials. Did older children compare the sounds of different tambourines? Did infants react differently to the different tambourines? Record visual responses as well!

Note: Please provide appropriate supervision to the children in your care when completing all activities. You will need to decide what types of activities are safe for the children in your care. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when providing art and sensory experiences for children. Toddlers require special caution, only use non-toxic materials, and do not allow toddlers to put things in their mouths that are a choking hazard. ​​​

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STEM Play for Infants and Toddlers

STEM is curriculum focusing on Science, Technology,Engineering, and Math.  ​STEM focused classrooms intertwine the subjects of STEM curriculum with other disciplines such as literacy and art.

The goal of STEM instruction is for students to become comfortable and more knowledgeable with science, technology, engineering, and math concepts to benefit them and the world that they are a part of.

​Infants and toddlers are constantly experiencing STEM concepts in their daily lives by playing and discovering the world around them. It is important to be mindful of this daily STEM play and support it as much as possible.

​Many school-age teachers and classrooms have an existing STEM curriculum that aims to teach children the fundamentals of science, technology, and math, but early childhood classrooms tend to shift their focus away from STEM. A typical early childhood classroom will focus on social, emotional and foundational skills such as early literacy and early math concepts. These are very important early childhood skills to teach and can be developed further when combined with STEM concepts. This has the potential to create a very well-rounded approach to learning certain concepts and can be applied to infant and toddler programs as well.