It’s Day 8 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series and today’s activity was Little Sister’s favorite one yet. I had planned to do a different activity today, but randomly thought of this Bath Time for Toy Animals idea and knew it would be something she would enjoy!
The great thing about this activity is that it is cleaning disguised as fun water play! Our toys could use a good wash and this was a fun way to involve both Little Sister (22 months) and Little Brother (6 years) who loved it every bit as much as she did!
This activity also offers the opportunity to review animal names and their sounds. I firmly believe that learning animal sounds is extremely beneficial for a child’s language development. I would actually go as far as to say that it is a precursor to reading…as children learn to associate an object/animal with a sound (which is what they will eventually do with symbols).
Now that I’ve explained why this simple activity is fun, productive, and educational…check out our fun pictures. :)
Here’s what you’ll need:
-A large container
-Water
-A tiny bit of soap
-Washcloth
–A shower curtain liner (to keep water off your floor)
-Plastic animals.
We have several animals from the Little People Farm and the Little People Noah’s Ark sets as well as a few more realistic-looking plastic animals as well.
1. Fill your “tub” with water.
2. Add your plastic animals.
…and even a little bit of soap (this is a bath, after all).
3. Let your little one get started giving those dirty animals a bath!
Scrub-a-Dub-Dub…
…there’s a lion in the tub!
Once you are finished, lay the animals out on a towel to dry. The Little People animals have small holes in the bottom of them. Be sure to squeeze any remaining water out and set them upright on the towel so that water doesn’t get stuck inside.
Check out more indoor fun for toddlers here:
My youngest son is only a few days younger than little sister and he loved this activity as well. The only thing I did differently is I let him give his animals a bath in our large farmhouse sink. He likes to stand at the sink and play in the water anyway. Plus, my kitchen sink got a good cleaning too.
Thank you so much for your blog! It has helped me be more purposeful with the things that I do with and for my 3 boys.
Great ideas! Where did you get the large blue container?
I think I got it from Target…but it has been a few years!
What a fun activity! I used to have car baths with my oldest but he would always end up making a huge mess. I love the idea of a shower line. I -obviously- never thought of this but it’s a great idea!!!