Activities for Toddlers

•    Encourage a toddler to play with and practice rolling a large, lightweight ball. Then, place a large cardboard box on its side, with the opening toward the child. Starting with the box very close, challenge the toddler to roll the ball so it goes into the box. Then, help him or move farther and farther away as he or she begins to master this activity.

•    Use an indoor or outdoor toddler-sized slide and position one toddler at the top and the other at the bottom. Ask the child at the top to roll a large, lightweight ball down the slide to the other child, who catches it, walks around the slide and returns the ball, and goes back to catch it again. After a while, the children can change places. To make the game more difficult, ask the child at the bottom to move farther away.

Activities for Preschoolers

•    Ask children to sit in a circle. Explain that the object of this game is to see how long they can hit a beach ball to each other without letting it touch the ground. As they master the game, add a few challenges, such as:  no one can hit the ball twice in a row, children can hit the ball only with the part of their body you call out (e.g., knees, head).

•    Collect clean cans or plastic bottles and label each with a different bright color. Help children stack the cans and then roll, throw or kick a fairly large ball at them. Have experience-chart paper and matching color markers nearby so you can help the children graph the colors and number of cans they knock down according to the technique they use.