Toddler activities with pots and pans
9 activities in the library use pots and pans, for toddlers aged 12 to 34 months: 6 starting 12–17 months and 3 starting from 24 months. Saucepans, lids and a small frying pan from the low cupboard become drums, containers and pretend cookware. Real kitchen things invite the copying of adult jobs that toddlers love.
Updated
Pots and pans: 9 activities to try
Safety: Use only cold, clean pots, and play well away from the stove and oven.
9 activities
- Kitchen Pot Band 12–22 months · 3–8 min · Indoors · Active Your child bangs pots, a baking sheet and a wooden spoon to hear different sounds, then copies loud, soft and stop, early music and listening play.
- Stir the Pretend Soup 14–24 months · 5–10 min · Indoors · Calm While you cook or clean up the kitchen, your child stirs pretend soup in a cold pot, then offers you a taste, practicing an early pretend action.
- Tap Test: Pot, Box or Towel 14–22 months · 3–8 min · Indoors · Calm With a wooden spoon, your child taps a pot, a cardboard box and a folded towel and discovers that each one answers with a different sound, or none.
- Pot Drum Echo Turns 15–26 months · 4–8 min · Indoors · Active You tap a short beat on an upturned pot, pause, and your child answers on their own pot, building turn-taking, listening and rhythm through back-and-forth play.
- Stir the Pot Like Me 16–24 months · 5–15 min · Indoors · Calm While you cook, your child gets their own pot and wooden spoon on the floor and copies your stirring, lid lifting and tasting, practicing imitation of real chores.
- Stir the Big Pot 17–28 months · 5–10 min · Indoors · Calm Your child tips pre-measured cold ingredients into a big pot and stirs them with a wooden spoon, helping make a real snack the family eats.
- Drying-Rack Unbreakables Put-Away 24–34 months · 5–10 min · Indoors · Active Your child carries clean, unbreakable kitchen things from the drying rack to their low homes: wooden spoons in a jar, pots in the cupboard, cups nested.
- Potato Scrub at the Basin 24–34 months · 10–15 min · Indoors or out · Calm Your child scrubs potatoes or carrots in a basin of water with a sponge, then drops them into a colander, doing a real dinner job.
- Things That Go Together 25–33 months · 5–10 min · Indoors · Calm Your child pairs everyday objects by use (spoon with bowl, lid with pot, sock with shoe), showing they know what each thing is for.
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Pots and Pans at a glance
| Activities | 9, 4 on the low-prep menu |
|---|---|
| Ages covered (corrected) | 12–34 months |
| Focus time | 3–15 minutes |
| Main domains | 3 cognitive, 3 practical life, 2 creativity & pretend and 1 social-emotional |
| Where they happen | 8 indoors and 1 indoors or outdoors |
| Quickest start | Kitchen Pot Band, 3–8 minutes |
Every activity with pots and pans
Sorted by the first month each one fits (corrected age for children born early). Quick picks: for a calm moment, Tap Test: Pot, Box or Towel; to burn energy, Kitchen Pot Band; with no prep at all, Stir the Pretend Soup.
| Activity | Ages | Minutes | Domain | Prep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen Pot Band | 12–22 months | 3–8 | Creativity & pretend | None |
| Tap Test: Pot, Box or Towel | 14–22 months | 3–8 | Cognitive | None |
| Stir the Pretend Soup | 14–24 months | 5–10 | Creativity & pretend | None |
| Pot Drum Echo Turns | 15–26 months | 4–8 | Social-emotional | None |
| Stir the Pot Like Me | 16–24 months | 5–15 | Cognitive | None |
| Stir the Big Pot | 17–28 months | 5–10 | Practical life | 5 min |
| Drying-Rack Unbreakables Put-Away | 24–34 months | 5–10 | Practical life | 2 min |
| Potato Scrub at the Basin | 24–34 months | 10–15 | Practical life | 5 min |
| Things That Go Together | 25–33 months | 5–10 | Cognitive | 2 min |
How each activity uses pots and pans
- Kitchen Pot Band (making music, 3–8 minutes): Set the pots upside down on the floor with the baking sheet beside them.
- Tap Test: Pot, Box or Towel (cause and effect, 3–8 minutes): Set an upside-down pot, an empty box and a folded towel in a row on the floor.
- Stir the Pretend Soup (simple pretend play, 5–10 minutes): Sit your child on the floor in a safe corner of the kitchen, away from the stove, with the cold pot and spoon.
- Pot Drum Echo Turns (taking turns, 4–8 minutes): Sit facing your child with one upturned pot and one spoon each.
- Stir the Pot Like Me (imitating actions, 5–15 minutes): Set up your child's pot, spoon and a few large blocks on the floor where they can see you but cannot reach the stove.
- Stir the Big Pot (household helping, 5–10 minutes): Put the empty pot on a towel on the floor or a low table, well away from the stove.
- Drying-Rack Unbreakables Put-Away (household helping, 5–10 minutes): Small pots and lids.
- Potato Scrub at the Basin (household helping, 10–15 minutes): When it looks clean, let them drop it in the colander, then tip the colander into the pot together.
- Things That Go Together (using objects the right way, 5–10 minutes): Lay out one half of each pair (pot, bowl, shoe) in a row on the floor.
By age
12–17 months: 6 activities, 3–15 minutes. From 24 months: 3 activities, 5–15 minutes.
Starting 12–17 months
Starting from 24 months
Words that come up
Across these activities you will model “bang”, “loud”, “quiet”, “stop”, “tap tap”, “stir”, “soup”, “hot, blow”, “taste?”, “my turn”, “your turn” and “fast”. Say one at the moment it happens, then pause for your child's turn.
Safety with pots and pans
- Use only cold, clean pots, and play well away from the stove and oven.
- Skip heavy cast-iron pans and glass lids, which can crush toes or shatter.
Prep tips
- Offer two pots with lids and a wooden spoon, not the whole cupboard.
- Nest pots of different sizes for big-and-little talk.
- Spread a towel underneath if the noise on a hard floor is too much.
No pots and pans? Use instead
- Plastic mixing bowls.
- Large food containers.
- Upturned cardboard boxes as drums.
Combine it with
Pots and pans are most often paired with wooden spoon (7 activities), measuring cups (3 activities) and towel (2 activities). The skills practised most: household helping (4), imitating actions (4) and making music (3).
Often combined with
Skills practised
Frequently asked questions
What can a toddler do with pots and pans?
9 activities here use them, for example Kitchen Pot Band (12–22 months), Tap Test: Pot, Box or Towel (14–22 months) and Stir the Pretend Soup (14–24 months). 4 are on the low-prep menu: no prep and 10 minutes or less.
Are pots and pans safe for toddlers?
Use them only with an adult close by. Use only cold, clean pots, and play well away from the stove and oven. Skip heavy cast-iron pans and glass lids, which can crush toes or shatter.
What can I use instead of pots and pans?
Plastic mixing bowls, large food containers or upturned cardboard boxes as drums can stand in for most of these activities.
What ages are activities with pots and pans for?
They cover 12–34 months of corrected age: 6 starting 12–17 months and 3 starting from 24 months.
Related
Monitoring, not medical advice. Talk to your pediatrician about any concern. Our sources and method.