Infant Lesson Plans

Infant Lesson Plans for 6-18 months

Infant lesson plan ideas - baby playing on carpet

There are a multitude of ways for you to develop daycare infant lesson plans and early development activities for your little ones. The lessons plans for infants and activity ideas listed below are simply suggestions and types of play for babies ranging in age from 6 months old to 18 months old. These lesson activities help to introduce your baby to many new things to improve their early development by letting them discover new things using their different senses.

As teachers or parents there are also suggested areas of learning & ideas for planning out weekly lessons.

Creating an infant lesson plan involves activities that stimulate their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. Here are some ideas for parents & care givers/educators for a well-rounded lesson plan for infants:

 

1. Sensory Exploration

  • Touch and Feel: Introduce different textures using soft fabrics, rubber toys, and wooden blocks.
  • Visual Stimulation: Use high-contrast images and colorful toys to engage their vision.
  • Sound Exploration: Play gentle music, nature sounds, or use rattles to stimulate their hearing.

2. Tummy Time

  • Strength Building: Place the infant on their tummy to help strengthen neck and shoulder muscles.
  • Interactive Play: Encourage them to reach for toys placed slightly out of their reach to promote crawling and motor skills.

3. Social Interaction

  • Face-to-Face Play: Engage in playful conversations with exaggerated facial expressions.
  • Mirror Play: Let the baby see their reflection in a mirror to develop self-awareness.
  • Group Play: If possible, introduce the infant to other babies for social interaction.

4. Language Development

  • Reading Time: Read simple, colorful books with repetitive text and rhymes.
  • Sing Songs: Sing nursery rhymes and simple songs to promote language recognition.
  • Imitate Sounds: Encourage the baby to imitate simple sounds like “mama” or “dada.”

5. Motor Skills Development

  • Grasping Objects: Provide small, safe objects for the infant to grasp and hold, enhancing their fine motor skills.
  • Rolling Over Practice: Encourage rolling over by gently guiding the baby from their back to their tummy and vice versa.
  • Reaching and Grabbing: Hang soft toys above their crib or play area to encourage reaching and grabbing.

6. Emotional Development

  • Cuddle Time: Provide lots of physical affection to help the baby feel secure and loved.
  • Soothing Techniques: Practice gentle rocking, swaddling, and calming voices to soothe the baby when they’re upset.
  • Respond to Cues: Pay attention to the baby’s cues (e.g., crying, cooing) and respond promptly to build trust and emotional security.

7. Music and Movement

  • Dance Time: Gently move with the baby to the rhythm of soft music.
  • Clap Along: Help the baby clap their hands to simple rhythms or songs.
  • Play with Instruments: Introduce simple instruments like a tambourine or maracas for them to shake and explore sound.

8. Outdoor Exploration

  • Nature Walks: Take the baby for a walk in a stroller, pointing out trees, birds, and other natural elements.
  • Fresh Air Time: Allow supervised tummy time or playtime on a blanket outside.
  • Bubble Play: Blow bubbles for the baby to watch and try to reach.

These activities can be adjusted based on the baby’s age, interest, and developmental stage. The key is to provide a safe, nurturing environment where the infant feels encouraged to explore and learn at their own pace.

 

Infant Lesson Plans & Areas of Learning and Development

  • Language (Listening & Talking)
  • Motor Skills (Fine & Gross Motor Skills)
  • Creative
  • Sensory & Science (Learning from the World around Us)

Infant Learning Activities

Pick 1 related learning activity for each of the above Areas of Learning for each day of the week. Examples of lesson plan ideas for infants could be as follows.

Monday:

Language: Itsy Bitsy Spider Song

Motor Skills: Grasping Objects

Creative: Finger painting

Sensory/Science: Make a Happy Face (smile)

You would then continue to create more daily lessons for each day of the week using new related activities for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

*Infant Lesson Plan Calendar Download>

Monthly/Weekly Theme Based Lesson Plan for Infants

Keep in mind that each month can have a specific theme. (ex.) August could be a Summer theme. October could be a Fall theme. The video below shows a simple way to set up your monthly themes. You can then have each week be a different theme as well.

If you want to keep things simple, each monthly lesson plan could be based solely around 1 particular theme for the entire month (ex.) Bugs, Circus, Farm animals, ABCs & 123’s etc.

Heuristic Play for Infants Development

Heuristic play is a type of play meaning “the discovery of the properties of various objects”. It is a child psychologist created term and form of play.

Keeping young infant children entertained with simple items is usually pretty easy to do. How many times have you seen a child more interested in playing with an empty box than the item itself.

Many babies and little ones are more interested in playing with and crinkling the wrapping paper or playing with the bright colorful bows than the gift inside. Even something like bubble wrap, kids and adults are obsessed with and love bubble wrap. These items are unique, have different textures, make noise, are colorful etc. They stimulate different senses and simple discovery.

Make Discovery Baskets for Infants

Infant discovery baskets for 6-18months help with developmentThese play ideas should be used once your infant is able to sit up. You can make simple discovery baskets full of various types of items. You can use a simple shallow wicker gift basket, a plastic basket or even a sturdy cardboard box for these baskets.

Items placed inside the boxes should make up a wide range of properties like, different textures, different shapes, natural and man-made items, colorful, shiny and dull, flexible and solid.

These types of items will stimulate the senses and provide exciting new areas of discovery and exploration for your baby.

*Use Non Toxic Items Only **DO NOT USE SMALL OBJECTS THAT COULD POSE A CHOKING THREAT! (babies love to put things in their mouth as we all know)

** ALWAYS SUPERVISE your baby while playing with these discovery baskets

 

Types Of Discovery Baskets to Create as a Part of An Infant Lesson Plan

Sound or Noisy Discovery Basket

Place items that make noise or sound when moved or shaken, tipped etc.

Items such as:

  • Rattles or simple homemade rattles (*use a small plastic bottle fill it with uncooked rice or popcorn kernels, soybeans or something similar. Use glue gun and reattach cap back on bottle. You now have a fun homemade rattle)
  • Music shakers *see above
  • Bell (make sure no small loose parts)
  • tambourine
  • Small toy drum etc..

Fabric & Textiles Discovery Basket

Place a series of items that have different textures and different properties for tactile development etc.

  • Small clean wash cloth
  • Bath sponge
  • Felt
  • Silky or shiny fabric like silk or satin
  • Crocheted item or doily
  • Knitted sock or hat
  • Large feather
  • Bubble wrap
  • Tooling (mesh netting)

Natural/Wood Discovery Basket

  • Wooden spoon
  • Wooden bowl
  • Wooden toy
  • Large seashell
  • Larger smooth stone
  • Pine cone
  • Walnut

Reflective/Shiny Discovery Basket

  • Small plastic mirror
  • Old CD
  • Small Pot lid or Toy pot lid
  • Metal spatula
  • Shiny serving spoon
  • Shiny (safe-plastic) ornament
  • Shiny shell
  • Shiny piece of jewelry (not too small-think bracelet) etc.

These discovery boxes are great activities for infant lesson plans for your 6-18 month old baby to play with and discover the difference between various objects and their properties. These will keep curious babies busy for hours.