What is Animal Tape Rescue?
Animal tape rescue is a great fine motor task for toddlers and preschoolers.
It involves putting tape on a toy and then giving children instructions of removing the tape to release the animals. It’s one of my favorite fine motor activities for 1 to 2 year olds.
Why is This Fun Activity so Important? – Benefits of Peeling Tape for Toddlers
One of the best things to do with 1 year olds that there are so many fun and easy things to do. Exploring new activities for 1 year olds has its own set of benefits.
The main purpose for kids is to remove both the animals and the tape and it is a very complex task for little children. Those little fingers actually have to work hard, even though it seems to be a simple activity.
By pulling off and removing the tape children are strengthening little muscles in their fingers and little hands.
Fine Motor Skills
Animal rescue tape is a fun, new way to work on your child’s fine motor skills. This fine motor activity game consists of a piece of tape with different animals and toys underneath it.
Kids have to use their fingers and thumb (pincer grip) to peel the animals off the tape. It’s a great way to improve dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
Animal rescue tape is perfect for kids who love animals and want to learn more about them.
Hand Eye Coordination
Little ones must use their hands and eyes to coordinate the movement of the tape so that they can grab the animals. This game enhances hand eye coordination and it is also a lot of fun.
Problem Solving
Babies and toddlers are constantly learning and exploring their environments. One way they learn is by figuring out how to solve problems.
While many problems are simple, such as figuring out how to remove a piece of tape from a surface, others can be more complicated.
Help your child generate a number of options and test these solutions during the activity. They have to be creative and find out how to pull off the tape when it’s stuck for example.
Always support your child by providing examples.
Vocabulary
This activity can help improve toddlers’ vocabulary because it provides them with many opportunities to learn new words. Providing opportunities for language development is important for toddlers.
They will learn the names of various animals, along with colors, and numbers if you talk about them. It will be quite easy to figure out how to keep a 1 year old busy, or even an older kid.
The activity can be played with any animal-themed toy, such as zoo animals, farm animals, dinosaurs, insects, or sea creatures.
It’s also a great opportunity that an animal activity for kids can teach toddlers and preschoolers about animal habitats. They can learn where those animals live and what they look like.
Open-ended questions can inspire your child to get out of their comfort zone and focus on the finer details, improve their vocabulary and instinctive understanding, and help them express themselves.
Supplies for the Animal Tape Rescue
- Tape (painters masking tape or Japanese masking tapes)
- Animals
- A flat surface to tape to (baking tray, tabletop)
Instructions for This Fun Fine Motor Activity
The main idea of this activity is to tape the animals on a flat surface for example a cookie sheet. It’s very simple but also very versatile at the same time.
The animal rescue game can be set up in a variety of ways that can be made dependent on what resources you have on hand and your child’s interest.
With the length of the tape, you can determine the level of difficulty. We used longer tapes in our playhouse.
Animal Tape Rescue Activity Ideas
Vertical Tape Animal Rescue
In this version of tape rescue, you will have to choose a flat surface too, but a vertical one.
Vertical tape rescue can be done on any furniture door, balcony door/window, wall, double-sided chalkboard, or art easel, it’s really up to you. The goal is the same, the tape has to be removed, and the animals have to be rescued.
Your toddler and preschooler will gain a little extra. Vertical tape rescue will also include larger motions by moving the arms over the head.
Hide and Seek
Let’s take this activity to a higher level and fill it with fun ideas!
Hide the taped animals outdoors in the garden on the slide, sandpit, or swing, around the house, or hide the animals indoors on the walls on rainy days.
It will make the animal tape rescue game more active. Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy finding the animals before saving them.
Hide and Seek Rescuing Animals Games with Matching Shadow Pictures
Guess what! Hide and seek animal tape rescue can be enhanced even more.
Once your kids find the animals and the tape is pulled off too, they can place them on the matching shadow picture.
How to prepare the shadow pictures for these rescuing animal games?
You’ll need:
- Cardboard (we used white)
- Acrylic Markers
The painting activity can be done together, so the children can be somewhat part of the game setup. This way zoo animals activities for toddlers can be combined, making it more entertaining.
Draw the animal rescue toy using their shadow as a guide. First, find a good spot to place your paper where the light is shining on the animal from behind.
Trace around the shadow with a pencil, and then color in the picture once you’re finished.
Tape Rescue Activity Variations
When preparing activities for 1 year olds, plan activities around your child’s interest. If your child prefers other rescue toys, like cars, princesses or dinosaurs, include them in the rescue play tape activity.
You can also choose a certain theme other than rescue animals and follow that line. For example, a mermaid theme can include mermaid toys, fish, and seashells. Our kids’ favorites are ice creams, so guess what:
These are fun things to do with 1 year olds and older too
Tape activities for toddlers can be more complex, involving more action just like our hide and seek tape play. Preschoolers can also work more independently, but bigger children can play even more difficult versions of tape rescue games.
Emma wanted to play this game as well, so we added some excitement to the classic tape rescue game by giving it a twist. This way a preschooler can play this game by adding in some literacy fun. We incorporated a dry erase board and a magnetic drawing board too.
Make them write down the names of the taped things one by one, Emma likes princesses so we used them. If the name is written correctly, they can remove the tape and free them.
This upgraded tape rescue activity will allow children to practice their writing skills while enjoying a fun game. They won’t even notice that they were practicing writing. So, it’s a win-win situation.
What other activities to do with 1 year olds?
One year olds are curious and learn about the world around them. There are many fun and DIY educational games for 1 year olds. These projects can help engage their minds and teach them new things.
The animal rescue game is great for learning about different animals and their babies. Have your child rescue the animals and their babies, then have them match the right baby animal to its parent.
Baby animal activities
If you are interested in more similar activities for 1 year olds, don’t forget to check our page to learn more.
Frozen Animal Rescue Activity
Toddlers will have a blast with this super easy frozen animal rescue activity.
Put some dinosaurs (or any other animal rescue toys) into balloons one by one, then fill the balloons with water and freeze them overnight. Once they are frozen, cut the balloons off.
Then let the little ones save the animals inside. Defrost the ice eggs with water or use a toy hammer to break the dinosaurs free from the ice.
It’s a fun way to learn about science and a great way to work on problem-solving skills.
