Animal Rescue Transfer Activity

Table of Contents:

1. A Toddler Activity Inspired by Interests
2. How to Set Up an Animal Rescue Activity
3. What Is a Scoop and Transfer Activity?
4. Why I Loved This Activity
5. Tailoring This Activity to Your Toddler

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A Toddler Activity Inspired by Interests

My daughter has been an animal lover since day one. Her fascination with animals makes it easy (and fun) for me to create activities centered around her interests. For today’s toddler activity, I put together a simple animal rescue activity that she absolutely loved.

When planning activities for your child, my best advice is to tailor them to their interests. For my 23-month-old animal enthusiast, rescuing tiny animals was the perfect fit. If I were creating an activity for my son, it would look completely different because his interests are in other areas. The key is to follow their lead, find their currency, and hope they buy-in.

RELATED: Looking for more simple activities for young toddlers? Try my fantastic list of tailor-made ideas for littles.

How to Set Up an Animal Rescue Activity

Materials:

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• Tiny animals (we used these)
• Plastic containers
• Under the bed storage tub
• Blue food coloring
• Slotted spoon

The set up for animal rescue was simple! I filled a plastic container with blue dyed water and dropped in her tiny sea animals. I set that plastic container inside an under the bed storage tub (to keep the floor somewhat dry) and placed an empty container inside too.

I also set a ladle in the tub as the “scooping” device.

Setup:

1. Fill a plastic container with water dyed blue using food coloring.
2. Add tiny sea animals or other small toys to the water.
3. Place the container inside an under-the-bed storage tub to help contain any spills. Add an empty plastic container next to it.
4. Set a slotted spoon in the tub as the tool for scooping.

And that’s it! You’ve got an easy, low-mess scoop and transfer activity ready to go.

What Is a Scoop and Transfer Activity?

A scoop and transfer activity is exactly what it sounds like: the child uses a tool (like a ladle, spoon, or scoop) to pick up items and transfer them to another spot.

I love these activities because they’re simple to set up and provide so many developmental benefits. Plus, they’re incredibly versatile. You can see examples like my basic scoop and transfer activity or this rice scooping activity for inspiration.

This animal rescue scoop and transfer was my daughter’s first time using a slotted spoon. The magic of water draining from it while the solid objects stay inside was fascinating for her to explore.

Why I Loved This Activity

Because the animals sank to the bottom of the container, scooping them turned out to be a bit more challenging than I expected. But that’s okay! My daughter was up for the challenge. Watching her figure out different ways to scoop the animals was such a joy.

For younger toddlers, you might want to use items that float, like small balls or foam toys, to make the task easier. For my 23-month-old, this was the perfect level of difficulty to keep her engaged. She sat at the tub for 10 minutes straight, playing and repeating the activity.

Throughout the day, she kept coming back to it (I always like to leave activities out for a while).

Tailoring This Activity to Your Toddler

This activity is so versatile! You can easily adapt it to your toddler’s interests by switching out the toys. Here are a few ideas:

• LEGO Duplo Bricks: Rescue building blocks.
• Potato Head parts: Gather and “rescue” the pieces.
• Balls: Scoop floating balls for an easier variation.

The basic idea – scoop and transfer with a slotted spoon – is incredibly simple to customize, making it perfect for any toddler.

After playing this for a day, my daughter has already asked to “rescue the animals” again so I know this one is a hit. We plan on doing this often and I can’t wait to watch her scooping skills improve with age and practice.

Susie Allison, M. Ed

Owner, Creator

Susie Allison is the creator of Busy Toddler and has more than 2.3 million followers on Instagram. A former teacher and early childhood education advocate, Susie’s parenting book “Busy Toddler’s Guide to Actual Parenting” is available on Amazon.