Ideas for ball activities for an obsessed 2 year old

[thinkfun]

Can anyone help?

I look after a little boy who has just turned 2 and is obsessed with balls. The first thing he says to me when he arrives in the morning is balls, with a huge smile on his face and insists we have the ball pit out every time he is here. But I’m struggling to think of different things to do with him and his favourite toy other than the following.

Ball pit (Throwing, catching, rolling and kicking games), painting with balls, comparing size, counting and sorting balls into groups

Any ideas for activities linked to EYFS would be very much welcomed.

[jumpinjen]

A basket with tubes of different widths and different sized balls to see which one will fit down which tube?

he may be interested in other things that roll (search for schemas on other threads), so you could try to include other actvities to do with things that roll, guttering and planks at different angles is good to make balls roll faster and slower.

ball shaped fruits.... tasting and smelling and painting?

Jenni:)

[jumpinjen]

have thought of some more:

putting balls with the playdough and enveloping them in dough.
rolling them to knock overr small bottles filled with water...skittles!
go on a walk and take pics of all the ball shapes that you spot on top of railings etc etc
sink and float....what types/materials of balls float and sink and why...ask the child whether they think it will float or sink then driop it in!
Which bounces the highest?


Hope some of that helps!!

jen:)

[sal123]

You could try painting with marbles - cover some marbles with paint in a small bowl and then either roll them around a shallow tray lined with paper or shake them inside a pringles type tube with paper lined inside (and with the lid firmly in place!) These produce great results, especially if you build up layers of different colours.

I also have a ball obsessed mindee and as well as different sized balls also built up a collection of different weight balls - eg large heavy string ball, light beach ball etc for him to explore and diversified by providing hoops as well,

[thinkfun]

thanks for the ball activity ideas, you were a great help:clapping:

[singingcactus]

My kids suggested this:

http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/5254/Name/Sphereing_for_One_Special_Offer

[thinkfun]

Don’t think my garden is quite big enough for one of them, although I’m sure the kids would like it.

[singlewiththree]

I had a mindee like this, I also used paper balls (scrunched up different colour pieces of paper) and also part filled balloons with a mixture of different things like shaving foam or if like me you find it all a bit too much just air :laughing: but only a tiny bit and he loved those as an alternative to balls.