Following on from the playful success of our Shiny Baby Treasure Basket Ideas I decided to create another purposeful collection of objects to encourage AJ’s hands-on exploration of a fascination I have recently observed. It’s a baby treasure basket for exploring sounds.
At fourteen months, I often see AJ exploring everyday objects to see what sounds and noises they make by shaking, tapping, banging and more. I got thinking about suitable sound activities for babies and decided a treasure basket would be a great place to start!
Sound Activities for Babies: Baby Treasure Basket Ideas for Exploring Sound
Into our sound activities treasure basket went…
Items to tap and bang:
- A soup spoon
- A wooden tapping stick from a commercial instrument
- Two pot lids from toy pots – one metal, one plastic
- One metal toy pot
- Two flat stones, large enough that they are not a chocking risk (AJ likes to tap stones together)
- One seashell
Items to shake to make noise:
- Two small, clear juice bottles – one with a small collection of buttons, the other a small amount of macaroni. The lids are fastened securely. If you are worried that your baby or toddler might be able to remove a lid be sure to glue it into place or to chose items that do not constitute a choking hazard.
- A wooden curtain ring with four bells securely attached with short lengths of ribbon (see below)
- A wooden curtain ring with four plastic shower curtain rings attached (see below)
- Two small plastic canisters with lids – one with a small amount of rice and the other with sand
When it came time to explore, the first items to capture her interest were the juice bottles. AJ would shake one and then the other, then return to the first. As she continued to explore the other objects in the basket she would return again and again to shaking these two bottles. They have quickly become much loved ‘toys’ and I will definitely be adding more with different objects inside that generate a broader range of sounds when shaken.
The curtain ring shakers were carefully examined.
The spoon used to bang the pot and the juice bottles. The wooden tapping stick was enthusiastically banged on many of the objects in the basket.
It was wonderful to watch her compare the noises made as she banged on one object and then another.
One thing I have enjoyed with this basket is watching Immy (who is now five years old) come along later to explore the basket herself, interacting with AJ and exposing her to even more ways to combine the objects to make noise (for example, banging the pot lids together). This basket has been lots of shaky, bangy, tappy, noisy fun!
Tell me what fascinates your baby or toddler right now.
For more sensory play for babies, check out these fun ideas;
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
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