Sound Exploration Play for Toddlers

Jonathan is at a fun age right now because at 20 months old, he is starting to develop more interests besides just getting into mischief. His attention span has also increased – from 2 minutes to 10 minutes or more! If you have a toddler, I know you can relate… Anyway, I set up this sound exploration play opportunity for Jonathan the other day, and it kept him happily engaged for a long time!

The set up was simple. I taped a few pieces of PVC pipe to a cookie sheet and put it inside a plastic dishpan. Cardboard tubes would also work, but I liked the fact that the PVC pipe was narrow and Jonathan had to work to use two fingers to put in the beans.

I also put in:

• A muffin tin – $1.97 at Walmart. We use this muffin tin ALL the time for sidewalk chalk paint and sorting activities, etc.
• Dry lima beans – he does not put things in his mouth, but I still supervised him for the entire time.
• A small metal shovel
• A spoon
• A measuring cup
• A homemade open-ended rainstick. You can see how to make the rainstick here.

The beans made a very satisfying clinking sound when they hit the cookie sheet or the muffin tin. Jonathan also enjoyed the sound of banging the little shovel on the cookie sheet! 🙂

I taped the cookie sheet to the dish pan so that it would not slide around.

Jonathan kept wanting to put in a handful of beans, as that was the easiest way to pick them up. However, that didn’t work so well for the tubes! He had to work on using two fingers to drop the beans down the tubes. I love how he sticks his tongue out when he’s concentrating!

The rain stick makes a really different sound that the clinking of the beans on the metal items. In fact, rain sticks work the best with large beans like this because it takes them a while to travel down, and they make a very satisfying noise in the process.

Jonathan also enjoyed loading up the sections of the muffin tin with beans. He took the muffin tin out and put it on the floor. I was okay with that because the lima beans weren’t nearly as big a mess to clean up as our rice tub!

What does your one year old enjoy doing? I need some more ideas!