Colour Posting with Wooden Cubes and Milk Bottles
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Repurpose milk bottles and wooden cubes to create a fun posting activity for your toddler.
Kids love putting objects into small spaces. Lost your remote lately? Check your toddler’s play space. My bet is it is in a little box or stashed in their play kitchen.
Creating a fun and educational activity for toddlers using coloured wooden cubes and recycled milk bottles guides this phase into an opportunity for learning and motor skill development.
Colour Posting with Wooden Cubes and Milk Bottles
Posting activities are super fun and hands-on!
Your toddler gets to insert objects into special openings or slots and show off their amazing skills.
It’s all about developing their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving abilities.
You can use all sorts of cool objects like big buttons, blocks, or balls too.
The best part is watching them figure out how to manipulate and place the objects through the openings.
There are containers or boards made just for this awesome activity. While these toys are great, there is nothing wrong with this simple DIY.
You’ll explore different ways to make those objects fit, trying out different sizes, angles, and orientations.
And guess what?
Posting activities do so much for your toddler’s development!
This hands-on activity makes their fine motor skills even better, helps them think and solve problems, let them explore cool textures and shapes, and improves their hand-eye coordination to top-notch.
Plus, they boost their concentration and independence. All this while practicing their language and communication skills with grown-ups and siblings who join in on the fun.
You can enjoy posting activities anywhere, whether it’s at home, preschool, or your awesome early childhood education center.
And the best part?
You can change things up to match their age, what they’re into, and how they like to play.
So get ready to have a blast with posting activities and show off those amazing skills!
What you need to set up a posting with wooden cubes and milk bottles activity
- Coloured wooden cubes
- Recycled milk bottles
- Electrical tape
Coloured wooden cubes can be purchased pre-coloured or you can colour them yourself.
You can also use other items you may already have around your home. Lego is a great alternative as are buttons.
We used electrical tape to assign a colour to each bottle.
You could also use paint, stickers, or coloured ribbon.
If you have just started introducing colours into your little ones play, stick with fewer colours.
Once they master these, add additional colours to build upon their knowledge.
How to set up a posting with wooden cubes and milk bottle activity
One of the great things about this activity is the simplicity of the setup.
There are no complicated steps.
It can be ready to play within minutes which is perfect to fill in a spare 20 minutes between appointments – or better yet, take it with you to your appointment!
- Decorate the bottle: You can decorate the recycled milk bottle to make it visually appealing for your toddler. Use your tape, child-safe paints, or stickers to assign colours to the bottle. Allow it to dry completely before proceeding to the next step.
- Introduce the cube and bottle: Sit down with the toddlers and show them the cube and the bottle. Explain that the goal is to put the coloured cube into the corresponding bottle.
- Demonstrate the activity: Show the toddlers how to hold the cube, manipulate it, and find the right orientation to fit it inside the bottle. Emphasize problem-solving and encourage them to explore different angles and approaches.
- Encourage independent exploration: Let each toddler have a turn to try fitting the cube into the bottle on their own. Offer gentle guidance and praise for their efforts. This activity helps develop their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving abilities.
- Variations and challenges: As toddlers become more familiar with the activity, you can introduce variations to make it more challenging. For example, you can ask them to find specific colors or match the cube with the color of the bottle.
- Supervision and safety: Always supervise toddlers during this activity to ensure their safety. Avoid leaving them unattended, especially with small objects like the cube.
Remember to adjust the activity according to the age and developmental level of the toddlers. It’s important to keep the activity engaging, fun, and safe for their exploration and learning.
Our Experience Posting with Wooden Cubes and Milk Bottles
I love incorporating open-ended loose parts into our play. Mr 15 months showed an interest in our wooden cubes when his sisters were using them for another project. Following his love of sorting and posting, we created this fun DIY posting activity.
Initially, he took to just posting the wooden cubes regardless of colour. As his play evolved, he started to sort by colour. The sound of the cube dropping to the bottom of the bottle was an instant reward. That is, along with the sound of the cubes rattling in the bottom when he shook the bottles too!
He spent ages posting the wooden cubes and tipping the bottles upside down to watch the cubes roll out again. Before too long he took to stacking the cubes too.
Open-ended tools for the win!
Why do toddlers like posting things?
The desire to place objects inside other objects is a developmental milestone that emerges in infants and young toddlers between 12 and 15 months of age.
It is driven by their innate curiosity and the exploration of their surrounding environment.
This behavior is part of their natural inclination to investigate, understand, and interact with the world around them.
As infants and toddlers develop their sensory and motor skills, they begin to grasp and manipulate objects with increasing coordination and dexterity.
They become fascinated with the cause-and-effect relationships they observe when objects fit into or interact with one another. Placing objects inside other objects allows them to observe and understand concepts such as containment, spatial relationships, and object manipulation.
This behavior also reflects their developing cognitive abilities.
As they engage in this type of play, they start to comprehend concepts like object permanence (the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight) and problem-solving skills.
By repeatedly exploring the act of posting objects, they learn about object properties, sizes, shapes, and how they interact with their surroundings.
The act of posting objects provides infants and young toddlers with a sense of autonomy and control over their environment.
It allows them to exercise their emerging independence by making choices and actively engaging in their play experiences.
This sense of empowerment contributes to their self-confidence and self-esteem as they master new skills and challenges.
The natural urge to place objects inside other objects in infants and young toddlers is a vital aspect of their cognitive, sensory, and motor development.
It serves as a foundation for learning and understanding the physical world, fostering their curiosity, problem-solving abilities, and sense of autonomy as they explore and interact with their surroundings.
Not bad for a few wooden cubes and empty milk bottles is it?
Posting Toys
Benefits of Posting Activities
Posting activities are also known as fine motor or manipulative activities.
Engaging posting activities offer numerous benefits for children’s overall development.
Here are some key advantages of engaging toddlers in posting activities:
Fine motor development
Posting activities require toddlers to use their small hand muscles and coordination skills.
Consequently, as they grasp, manipulate, and place objects through openings or slots, toddlers develop and strengthen their fine motor skills.
In addition to the benefits mentioned earlier, engaging in posting activities helps toddlers refine other important skills, such as hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
These skills play a crucial role in various tasks they will encounter later in life. For instance, as toddlers manipulate objects and align them with the openings, they improve their hand-eye coordination, which is essential for activities like writing, drawing, and engaging in self-care tasks.
By honing these skills through posting activities, toddlers are better prepared for the fine motor demands they will face as they grow and develop.
Cognitive development
Posting activities promote cognitive skills such as:
- problem-solving
- critical thinking
- object permanence
- spatial awareness
Toddlers learn to analyze the size, shape, and orientation of objects to successfully place them into designated spaces.
This activity allows toddlers to develop a deeper understanding of cause and effect as they experiment and explore different strategies to solve the posting challenges.
Sensory exploration
Many posting activities involve tactile and sensory experiences.
Toddlers engage their senses by touching and feeling different textures, shapes, and materials as they manipulate the objects.
This is just one of the reasons why we chose to use wooden cubes for this posting activity. The grain of wood and irregular textures hold loads of sensory input for developing brains.
This sensory exploration supports their sensory integration skills.
Sensory play allows children to make sense of sensory information in their environment.
Hand-eye coordination
Posting activities require toddlers to visually guide their hand movements and align the objects with the openings or slots.
By repeatedly practicing these actions, they enhance their hand-eye coordination.
Hand eye coordination is crucial for various tasks to be completed such as
- catching a ball
- pouring liquids
- using tools effectively
Concentration and focus
Engaging in posting activities encourages toddlers to concentrate and focus on the task at hand.
As they strive to fit objects through small openings or complete specific challenges, they develop their attention span and ability to stay engaged for longer periods.
This lays a foundation for better concentration and focus in future learning activities.
Language and communication skills
Posting activities provide opportunities for caregivers or educators to engage in meaningful conversations with toddlers.
Through verbal interactions, adults can introduce new vocabulary, describe shapes, colors, and sizes, and encourage toddlers to express their thoughts and observations.
This enhances language development and communication skills.
Independence and confidence
Posting activities allow toddlers to explore and engage in independent play.
As they successfully complete posting tasks, they develop a sense of accomplishment, boosting their self-confidence and self-esteem.
It also fosters their independence and encourages them to take the initiative in exploring and problem-solving.
Remember to choose posting activities that are age-appropriate and safe for toddlers. Supervision is necessary to ensure their well-being and to provide guidance and support as needed.
In conclusion, the natural urge of infants and young toddlers to place objects inside other objects is a fundamental part of their development.
It stems from their innate curiosity, exploration, and desire to interact with their environment.
Through this behavior, they develop sensory, motor, cognitive, and problem-solving skills.
By engaging in posting activities, infants and toddlers not only refine their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination but also explore cause-and-effect relationships and problem-solving strategies.
This type of play encourages their curiosity, fosters independence and control, and enhances their self-confidence as they master new challenges.
As caregivers and educators, recognizing and supporting this natural urge can provide opportunities for learning and development.
Activities such as posting wooden cubes into milk bottles does just this.
Providing appropriate materials and guidance for posting activities allows infants and young toddlers to explore and learn through hands-on experiences.
It helps lay the foundation for their cognitive, sensory, and motor skills while promoting their overall growth and confidence in their abilities to interact with the world around them.
