Series of Themed Play - Ball (with Printable)

"Series of Themed Play" will teach your child about related vocabulary and actions that go along with each play scenario.  During play, your job as a parent is to clearly speak the vocabulary and demonstrate a sample action that goes along with the words. Then you will let your child try it out for a few minutes, until they get bored or lose interest. The "Series of Themed Play" activities are targeted to help your baby, toddler and/or preschool with their speech and language development. For this blog post we will be playing with a ball.

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Little kids squeal with delight while they are playing with a ball. It's always fun and gets your child moving. Here are some play and vocabulary-rich activities that you can delve into with your child:

Vocabulary Development - Sound out "B" letter words that are related to the word "Ball":

• Bouncy, big, blue, balloon, bubble, baseball, basketball, bat, beach ball, bowling ball, bulge. 

Adjectives/Action words that are related to playing Ball: 

• Roll/Rolling, Catch/Catching, Throw/Throwing, Bounce/Bouncing, Dribble/Dribbling, Kick/Kicking, Play/Playing, Serve/Serving, Strike/Striking (hit with a bat), and Down/Up.

Characteristics - Talk about the defining features of a Ball:

• Texture/Feel: soft, hard, smooth, rough, bumpy
• Size/How it looks: big, small, blue, red
• What is it made of/Materials: rubber, felt, plastic
• Sounds: bump, thud, clunk, ping

Playing with the ball (Say simple sentences like "Roll ball, throw ball, catch ball, ball up, or ball down"). Before we begin, it is probably safer to start with a large, soft and squishy ball for BEGINNER practice or during play with babies and toddlers. Here are some varied play ideas for ball play:

• Roll the ball back and forth to each other. Say "roll", "back", "forward", "ball".
• Another rolling activity that is similar to Bowling is also fun. You need a plastic ball and some stand-up toys like plastic figurines. Or you can clean up some plastic recycling bottles and use them as bowling pins. Set up the bottles at the far end of the room and then roll the ball towards the bottles to topple them over.

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• Tapping or dribbling the ball on a hard surface like a bouncy ball or a little basketball. Then aim to throw the ball in a store-bought hoop or old cardboard box. Say: "dribble", "bounce", "throw".
• Go to an open outdoor area to teach your child to catch and throw a ball. Say: "catch", "throw", "retrieve".
• Hang up a net in an open outdoor area. Stand on the opposite side of the net and serve or throw the ball on the other side. Once the ball reaches the other side, the receiving person will throw it back by hitting it with their hands (similar to Volleyball) over the net. Say: "serve", "throw", "over", "under".
• You can teach your child to swing a ball with a plastic bat (like baseball or cricket). You can take turns serving the ball or swinging/striking with the ball with a bat. Say: "swing", "strike", "ball", "serve".

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• Finally, the all-around kids' favorite game is Soccer or Kicking/Passing a ball. For this specific activity, I have bought a small foldable net that you can set up anywhere for scoring a goal or during soccer game. Teach your child to share by passing the ball to each or to other players of the game. If the game is played in an outdoor open area, mark the ends of two sides as the goals and then try to kick the ball to the opposing side to make a goal (like soccer). Say: "kick", "goal", "pass".

Here are some kids books that talk about the various types of balls, stories about playing ball & games that involve ball play:

• Where is Baby's Beach Ball? by Karen Katz
• A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka
• Balls by Michael J. Rosen (Non-Fiction about ball games and their histories)
• Elmo's World: Balls! by John E. Barrett
• Little Basketball, Little Soccer, Little Baseball, and Little Football (all 4 books by Brad Herzog).
• Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
• Toddler Storybook: Ball by Ros Asquith
• Play Ball! by Santiago Cohen
• What is Round like a Ball? by Lisa Campbell Ernst

So here you have it; "Ball Play". It is a free and exciting object that you can play with and does not require any batteries or technology. You can play any game with a ball whether it is an organized sports game or just for fun. Best of all, it's suitable for all ages!

Have fun playing,
Annie
(Encl. Printable Vocabulary Cards)