Toddler Toy Rescue Wall Activity

Here on the blog, I have a habit of highlighting activities for preschool or school aged children instead of toddlers. I know a lot of you are looking for ways to keep you littlest ones entertained, so this one is for you.

I’ve done this toddler thing three times now and sometimes I worry my simple activities will be met with yawns... or crickets! After having a few 1-year-olds in this house, I have found that simple seems to be better. Better for them, better for me, maybe better for you as well.

Today’s activity really couldn’t get much simpler. Grab some toys and some painter’s tape and let’s get going! BONUS if the toys need to get picked up anyway- I literally just scooped up some toys from the floor. This corralled them and made it more approachable for the kids come clean up time.

Here’s what you need

• Toys. I’ll link some of the ones we used because they get played with a lot in all sorts of ways, but don’t shy away from using lids, scoops, pretend kitchen materials, or figurines. Posable dolls, ice cream cone teether, clothespins, teething tube, Little People set, sensory tubes, and wooden sensory bin tools.

• Painter’s tape. I buy this in a 3 pack because we use it for activities and crafts so often.

• A bin or basket if you want to be official about it and have a place for the kids to put the toys, but you can use a bowl or a kitchen towel if needed. Here is our favorite sensory bin that is used for so many activities.

Set up

2-4 minutes

1. Gather the toys you want to use. I was able to put up some heavier items, so don’t be afraid of selecting larger or bulkier objects.

2. Find a wall, window, cabinet, or door and tape up the toys. You could set this up during nap time or while your toddler is occupied with another activity.

Clean up

1 minute

1. The kids will take care of getting the toys down, but you might have to assist with putting the toys back where they belong, depending on the age of your child/children.

2. Throw away the tape.

I love that this activity can be as involved or low key as you want it to be. If you have multiple children wanting to participate, you can tape up a bunch of toys. Vaila is 3.5 right now and I was shocked at how much she enjoyed this. Ellette was slower to take the toys down and liked to chew on each and every one for a solid 30 seconds, so I had to ask Vaila to please leave some of the items on the wall. Otherwise, she would have taken everything down in 12 seconds!

A few other things I like about this rescue wall:

• The sensory experience of the tape

• Reaching and balance opportunities for new or pre-walkers You could set this up lower to the ground for babies that can sit but can’t stand yet.

• Allows practice gathering or cleaning

• I could be very hands off after the initial set up

• No mess

• Wonderful way to practice vocabulary (“Find the green spoon” or “Get the fish that is red”). You could even select all animals and ask for the animal that says “moo” or “quack” if you wanted to shake things up and be a little more involved.

• Fun and non-intimidating way to practice following simple directions such as “put it in the basket”.

In order to make clean up even easier, I asked the kids to put the tape on the side of our bin as they took it down. The tape then became a very interesting part of the activity and provided for a few more minutes of play. Ellette also thought it was funny to see some of her toys grouped together in such a random way. She was very eager to play with them after moving them about 10 feet from their spot on the floor and putting them into a bin, so I’ll call that a win.

This activity was so simple to set up and the kids loved it. It doesn’t require a ton of space or special materials. I might be doing this again when I try to squeeze a workout in later this week! I hope it brings you a few minutes of peace and fun for the kids.

Now that you know just how easy it is to create an activity that will be a hit for your toddler, be sure to save this idea or send it to a friend who might need just a few moments of having no one touching them. You can always create pins for Pinterest directly from the blog by hovering over a picture and clicking the “P” icon in the top left corner of each image.

Check back next week for more winter themed activities for the kids.

Yours truly,

Looking for other toddler friendly activities? Check these out:

• Toddler Sticky Wall

• Ultra-Easy Salt Sensory Bin

• Character Ice Bath

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