32 Creative & Fun 1 Year Old Development Activities

Today, we have 32 creative & fun 1 year old development activities from all over the internet. From pretend play to help hand-eye coordination and cognitive skills to just plain fun activities for young toddlers and older children alike.

Image shows a grey background with circular images of 1 year old development activities from Kids Activities Blog — Let’s learn through play!

Providing 1 year olds a fun learning environment with the best ways to expand on new skills while building gross motor skills and cognitive development can be a struggle if you’re trying to maintain developmental milestones.

FAVORITE 1 year old development activities

All one-year-olds have different ways and different timelines to show their mastery of fine motor skills, language skills, first steps, and other toddler activities. It’s a good idea to encourage your child’s development with sensory play, reading nursery rhymes, and other easy activities. With your 1-year-old flying through important milestones, while quickly approaching their second year of life, simple activities are crucial to your baby’s development.

1-year-olds and development activities just go together!

That is one of the reasons why these 1-year-old development activities are so perfect. The best activities can have little hands finger painting or playing with older siblings in social play. Others use language development through daily activities as a great way to spur vocabulary by a child’s second birthday.

If these developmental and fun sensory activities look interesting for your 1-year-old but you don’t think you have enough knowledge of activity ideas don’t worry we’ll provide all the help you’ll need!

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Image shows a little boy building a tower with clear plastic cups from And Next Comes L. — Building is so much fun!

1. Building With Plastic Cups

And Next Comes L and this fun activity make STEM great! This developmental activities are so great because they explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but at a level that helps a 1 year old learn!

Image shows a baby in a white sleeper with a big metal bowl and a small ball inside from Learn With Play At Home. — Spin the bowl!

2. Roly Bowl-y!

Learn With Play At Home helps you engage your baby in fine motor activities. Engage your 1 year old with these development activities for your baby. Help them explore sounds, movement, as well as practice fine motor skills.

Image shows a baby putting pink, yellow, purple, and blue plastic Easter eggs in a bottle from Happily Ever Mom. — Let’s play egg drop!

3. Easy Baby Games With Plastic Eggs

Dropping eggs has never been so much fun from Happily Ever Mom! Dropping eggs is the perfect development 1 year old activity. It will help your baby explore colors as well as practice fine motor skills.

Image shows a baby dressed in pink play with yellow fabric sticking out of a wipes container from Hands On As We Grow. — Let’s pull it all out!

4. Fabric + Wipes Container

Hands On As We Grow repurposes a wipes container by refilling it with different textures of fabrics. This is a great developmental activity. Why? Because your baby can explore textures of the wipes, but also practice fine motor skills.

Picture shows a big clear tub of soapy water with yellow, blue, green, and red duplo blocks inside with a little boy playing with them from Mama Papa Bubba. — Soap-suds are so much fun!

5. DUPLO Wash Sensory Bin

Need to make toy cleaning more fun? Mama Papa Bubba has a soapy sensory bin to help. Want more sensory development activities for your 1 year old? We got you! This wash sensory activity let’s your little one play with bubbles, splash, scoop, wash! It’s so much fun!

Image shows green lids that cover different things to feel underneath from Baby Play Hacks. — What’s under the lids?

6. Sensory Board

What will you find to touch under the lids from Baby Play Hacks? We have even more sensory development activities! This sensory board is so easy to make and all you need is house hold items like wipe lids, pieces of cloth or anything textured, cardboard, and glue! Your baby can explore all the textures!

Image shows a white board full of activities like zipping, using a key, hooking a chain, and turning on a light switch among others from Something Turquoise! — So many activities to choose from!

7. Toddler Busy Boards

Something Turquoise created a busy board very similar to the old learn to tie board books. I love busy boards! This is one of my most favorite development activities. Not only can your baby explore textures, but they can practice fine motor skills and exploring other sense.

Image shows a child's hands on a DIY plastic coin jar from How We Montessori. — It’s so much fun to retrieve the tokens and start again.

8. DIY Coin Box

Use the directions from How We Montessori to make a token coin box. This developmental activity is great for 1, 2, and 3 year olds. It’s a great way to explore and practice fine motor skills!

Picture shows a little boy in a red and white striped shirt scooping yellow and red balls out of a clear bin of water from The Train Driver's Wife. — Can you catch all the balls?

9. Autumn Toddler Water Ball Scoop

Your one year old will have a blast scooping the balls out of the clear plastic containers with this activity from The Train Driver’s Wife. We have more water development activities! This water sensory bin is so much fun and a great way to let your little one play and splash.

Picture shows a stack of play dough patties in purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red from The Best Ideas For Kids. — Play dough is so much fun!

10. The BEST Playdough Recipe

Make The Best Ideas For Kids‘ play dough recipe for hours fun! Playdough is one of the best sensory activities. Babies will need supervision as it can be a choking hazard, but toddlers and preschoolers can benefit from playdough. Besides sensory, it can be used to promote pretend play as well which is great for cognitive development for toddlers.

Picture shows a black felt board leaning against a brown wall with square, circle, and triangle shapes of felt in red, yellow, blue, and green from Wait Til Your Father Gets Home. — Felt boards and shapes provide a lot of fun for babies.

11. DIY Felt Activity Board

Little things like this felt board from Wait Til Your Father Gets Home are quick and easy fun for your little one. This is a great development activity. Explore colors, textures, and shapes! Perfect for 1 year olds, 2 year olds, and even 3 year olds.

Picture shows a little boy playing with a black strainer with rainbow colored pipe cleaners from Raising Dragons. — Pipe cleaners are always so much fun!

12. Pipe Cleaner Strainer Activity * 2 and Under

Let Raising Dragons show you a great way to keep little ones entertained. Pipe cleaners are so useful. They seriously are. And this colander and pipe cleaner activity is such great fine motor skill practice, plus it allows your little one to explore colors as well.

Picture shows a baby on it's tummy in a blue onesie playing with red, yellow, blue, and green paint on a white sheet of paper in a plastic bag from Mama Papa Bubba. — Who says painting has to be messy!

13. Tummy Time Painting

Encourage your baby to be creative on a blank piece of paper from Mama Papa Bubba. I did this with my baby! It’s so much fun and they can explore colors. I love art projects for babies.

Picture shows a little girl holding a pink fluffy pom pom with a white wall and cardboard tubes painted pink on the wall behind her from Whirly Bobble. — Pom poms are so much fun!

14. DIY Pom Pom Drop For Toddlers

This activity uses an empty paper towel roll chute and an empty cardboard box for hours of fun from Whirly Bobble. Pom pom drop is great for babies and toddlers. They can explore shapes, sizes, textures, and practice fine motor skills practice with this game.

Picture shows a tray of rainbow colored rice from The Best Ideas For Kids. — Grab your paint, and let’s make some rainbow rice!

15. Rainbow Rice

Different colors of paint make this activity from The Best Ideas For Kids fun for even big kids. Another sensory bin! This is such a great development activity! Explore textures, colors, and explore with this colorful and rainbow rice sensory bin. Hide small toys within the rice to turn it into an I-Spy game!

Image shows rainbow colored spaghetti with letters and numbers mixed in , they are pink, green, and yellow from The Imagination Tree. — What colors will you use in your rainbow spaghetti?

16. Rainbow Alphabet Spaghetti

Sensory play dates have never been as much fun before The Imagination Tree‘s rainbow spaghetti! This is an edible sensory bin. Well, it is if you use food coloring. But it’s also a fun colorful and texture sensory bin which is a great development activity for babies and toddlers. Add colorful accessories like foam or magnet alphabet and numbers and you have an educational activity.

Picture shows a little girl in a red shirt dropping playing cards into a large oatmeal can through a slot in the lid from Busy toddler. — Playing cards are even fun for toddlers!

17. Card Slot Drop

This DIY game made of recycled materials from Busy Toddler will keep your toddler happy for hours. This is similar to pom pom drop or a disc drop game and will work your child’s fine motor skills. But this one is cheap! Use bins you already have and cards are about a dollar at the Dollar Tree.

18. Cheerios Fine Motor Snack for Toddlers

Cheerios are more than just drops of food with this fun way to play from Living Life and Learning. This developmental activity is fun and tasty! Let your baby take off or add Cheerios to a dowel rod!

Picture shows a little boy playing with toy animals taped to a cookie sheet with blue tape from Busy Toddler. — A little guy can have loads of fun with animal rescue!

19. Animal Tape Rescue Activity

Activity ideas like this one from Busy Toddler are a great way to play with tape and toys. I think this is so awesome. Not only is this a great way to keep your baby and toddler busy, but it is a great way to practice fine motor skills. Plus, it’s a great development activity that teaches kindness and empathy.

Picture shows a cardboard box covered in white and red paper with red, white, and blue poker chips and a child's hand dropping one in the slot from Happily Ever Mom. — Young children always have fun with boxes!

20. Simple Baby Games

Play these games with an empty cardboard box and babies from Happily Ever Mom. This simple baby game is a great way to keep your little one busy. All you need is a box and a couple items your baby will want to play with.

Picture shows a little boy and an orange sheet of paper taped to a wall with blue tape from Busy Toddler. — Stickers and babies just go together!

21. Taby Dot Sticker Wall

Create a safe place with colored construction paper for your little one to play with stickers from Busy Toddler. My toddler loved this art activity. It’s fun, creative, a great way to explore textures, colors, shapes. There are so many cool stickers to choose from! Just make sure you let them know the stickers stay on the colored paper!

22. Pipe Cleaner Activity

Who knew pipe cleaners could be so exciting from Hello Wonderful? We have another pipe cleaner development activity. Practice fine motor skills and explore colors!

Picture shows a little boy with an orange shirt playing with clothes pins and toilet paper rolls on a tan rug from Days With Grey. — Clothes pins make little hands stronger!

23. Toddler Clothespin Activity

Days With Grey helps fine motor skills with this cute clothes pin activity. Clothespin activities are so underrated. These are great for fine motor skills, just be careful no one gets pinched.

Picture shows a little child with a blue and white striped shirt pulling purple, blue, and yellow duct tape off a clear bin sitting on the floor from Mama Papa Bubba. — Pulling tape is tough!

24. Tape Pull Fine Motor Activity

Make this simple tape activity with an empty bin and tape from Mama Papa Bubba. There are so many different types and colors of tape. Let your little one rip the tape off the containers and put it back to practice their gross motor skills.

Picture shows a little baby dropping a red pom pom into a toilet paper roll taped to the wall from Hands On As We Grow. — Pom poms are our favorite!

25. Pom Pom Drop Busy Activity for Toddlers

Toilet paper rolls and pom poms are great developmental tools from Hands On As We Grow. Pom poms are a great way to work on textures and fine motor skills. This pom pom drop game uses things you have around the house. Educational and budget-friendly!

Image shows a little baby pulling assorted colors of ribbon and pipe cleaners out of a white cardboard box. — Let’s pull the ribbon!

26. DIY Tugging Box

Children can test their strength with this activity from Laughing Kids Learn. Grab a cardboard box and ribbon for this development activity! Let your child pull the ribbons and practice their fine motor skills!

Picture Shows a baby sticking rainbow colored pipe cleaners into a crate from Hello Wonderful. — Pipe cleaners are so versatile!

27. Pipe Cleaner Pick Up Sticks

It’s the little things like pick-up sticks that excites parents and babies from Toddler Approved. Pick up sticks another one of our great development activities. Pick up sticks teaches fine motor skills as well as cleaning skills.

Picture shows a little boy pushing various small toys into a blue wipes container for Busy Toddler. — Babies love to push things into containers!

28. Simple Toy Push Activity

Busy Toddler does it again with this simple activity your baby is sure to love! This isn’t a wipe activity. Rather this development activity doesn’t require any pulling, instead it teaches push!

Picture show a little ones hands pushing cut pieces of pipe cleaners into a large sprinkles bottle. — Sprinkles anyone?

29. Pipe Cleaner Sprinkles

These pipe cleaner sprinkles are so cute from Hands On As We Grow. Another one of the development activities that uses items you have at home! How creative! I would have never thought of using a cheese can in that matter.

Picture shows a child dressed in pink holding a canister with yellow, blue, green, and red sections with velcro square blocks attached of the same color from School Time Snippets. — Little ones love the different sounds of velcro!

30. DIY Color Sorting Activity

Give your child hours of amusement with this activity from School Time Snippets. This is so cute! It’s not only a great development activity to practice fine motor skills, but it is also a great cognitive development activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Figure out where all the colorful blocks need to go!

Picture shows bottle tops in yellow, green, brown, red, and blue with corresponding ones glued top to top lying in rows on a white background from Teach Me Mommy. — Let’s match the bottle tops!

31. Bottle Top Toddler Toy

Sorting is more fun with this game from Teach Me Mommy. Keep your bottle caps to create this cognitive development activity for toddlers. They will have to work on fine motor skills, matching, and colors with this activity.

Image shows a box covered in yellow paper with red, purple, and blue stars from Bambini Travel. — Let’s have an obstacle course!

32. Obstacle Course For Toddlers

Bambini Travel makes obstacle courses for your little kid so much fun! Obstacle courses not only explores fine motor skills, but hand eye coordination too! Also gets rid of some excess energy.