Tap Tap Box

You will need:

Box with a lid
Lots of objects that can fit into the box

The Activity:

Put 3 to 4 objects inside a box with a lid.
Tap your hands on the lid with an enthusiastic facial expression to build on excitement.
Open the box and find an object and name the object “Oh this is a ….”.
You may want to help your child to tap the box. They can also open the lid and get an object out themselves.
Young children will like to repeat this many times. As they get older they will hold and touch the object and babble about it.

How this supports your child's learning:

Using and repeating single words, babies will gradually link the word to its meaning. This will encourage babies 'sounds' and 'babbling' and help them to recognise everyday words.

Extending the activity:

As your child gets older they might want to explore what they do with the named object, e.g. ‘hairbrush – we brush our hair with it, and then brush their hair’.
Children might want to hide something in there for you to take out for them.
You could make up a story using the object that you have picked from the box.
You could help sort objects into colours and say the names of the colours as you put them into different categories.
Praise children when they try to copy the words you say and repeat the words back to them.