Today we made our own, simple Marble Run from cardboard tubes. 

It was great that such a simple and fun engineering activity could include so many different learning areas like learning about gravity, angles, construction, problem solving, fine motor skills, eye tracking, speed and more.

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What's an INVITATION TO PLAY?

An "Invitation to Play" is probably my favourite type of activity for children. Firstly, it is open ended. This means that there is no set outcome or end result that must be achieved. It also means that the child has the freedom to work at their own level and ability.

The most exciting thing about an invitation to play is not knowing exactly what the child is going to do. Obviously there are certain expectation you may have from the activity, such as practicing fine motor skills, demonstrating creativity, developing problem solving skills, language skills etc, but often the other areas of learning are unknown until the child is experiencing them... and children have a way of doing things that us as adults, never thought of or expected!

An "Invitation to Play"

Ages: 2-6+

(My 3 year old enjoyed this activity. See Tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs) (Just remember to supervise the use of the small beads with younger children)

Materials:  Playdough, pipe cleaners and beads

 I hadn't provided enough materials. Apparently a rolling pin is essential! (Well, for what she wanted to do anyway)

 "Look Mummy, I made YOU!" Don't I look lovely?

 Threading beads on pipe cleaners is a little fiddly

 

 You had to hold your hands and manipulate your fingers in so many different ways

 Proud of the threading she did

Ok, I admit I couldn't resist having a little play too

 Madeline, on the other hand, thought that making a "nest" to pour all the beads into was the way to go

 And the nest should have... a lid!

 Goodbye nest and beads! Where have they all gone?

Ah-ha! There they are :)

Time for some abstract art

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by using a larger size of bead so avoid choking hazards or to suit developing fine motor skills.

- Extend this activity by exploring letters, numbers, patterns and colours. Sort the pipe cleaners and beads into categories. Use them to create pictures. Use them to make letters or numbers in the playdough etc.

- Problem Solving. Make your child aware of the problem solving involved. "How are you going to find all the beads now?" "How will we get them all out?" "How can you keep the beads on the pipe cleaner?" etc

- Use a pipe cleaner or chopstick end to push the playdough out of the beads so they can be reused

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "threading." This will help with their language development.

- Supervise your child when using small items such as beads.

More Invitations to Play

Dried Playdough and Water

Boxes and Tools

Pipe cleaners, Craft sticks, Playdough and Animals

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Never underestimate the incredible learning that goes on through Imaginative Play. This is a chance for children to practice various skills, rehearse and use different and varied language and vocabulary as well as using their mind for problem solving, making assumptions and trying new things. (Plus heaps more!)
And, the best thing about imaginative play is that you need very little, (sometimes, if any) materials at all.

Today after reading some books on our flavour of the month, Pirates (!), we created the simplest Pirate Ship ever that you could also make at home.

You need a toy bucket/chest/container (hey, anything you can empty and fit a child in, they don't care!); a broom mast; a flag (we used a library bag) and supplies (We had pirate dress ups, a cardboard tube telescope and a skipping rope anchor(not pictured..this idea came after I'd put the camera away))

Imaginative play for children does not need to be fancy... remember, they are using their imagination too!

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by "making" a "Pirate Ship" yourself and then letting your child role play

- Extend this activity by making the parts for the ship with your child first. Eg, Make and design a flag, make a telescope, search for something appropriate for an anchor, make a pirate hat etc.

- The language development is an important part in imaginative play like this. Talking with your child and introducing new language that is relevant to the role play will increase the learning. Talk about some Pirate sayings or words and what they mean,eg. "Pillage," "Ahoy, me hearties" "Shiver me timbers" etc

- Make your activity more relevant by first reading and sharing books and stories about Pirates

Debs :)

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Ages: 2-6+

Materials: Pipecleaners, string/line

In order to further develop fine motor skills as well as working on problem solving and creativity, I rigged up a line between 2 chairs*, hung a couple of pipe cleaners from it and presented my daughter with a bunch of pipe cleaners of her own as an Invitation to Play.
*If using in a classroom setting or with children who might pull on the string and drag the chairs down, be sure to affix the line between 2 areas that can't easily move.

Would you believe this simple idea of hanging Pipe cleaners on a string could keep your little one occupied and learning for ages? Well, in this case, it did. I loved the open-endedness of this activity as well as the room for so much extension and other activities. See "Handy Tips" below the pictures for more ideas.

 Your child could create their own pipe cleaner sculpture using this method

 Practicing different loops and twists to make the pipe cleaners stay on the line while pulling the string down and closer to her body

 Having the rope/string at eye level present a different view and experience for the child. It dictates where their hands need to be

The hardest part for Madeline was when she decided to make a "swing" out of the pipe cleaners. Attaching a pipe cleaner across 2 hanging pipe cleaners presented her with a problem solving challenge and gave her hand eye coordination a good work out.

Handy Tips

- Simplify this activity by giving yonger children a much lower line or a small basket or collander to poke pipe cleaners in and wrap them around

- Extend this activity by hanging string at different heights or at different angles to present different challenges for children. Hang a few intersecting lines and add some extra materials like large threading beads or patty pans and watch their creativity 

- Use this activity to teach patterns, colours or numbers if you like. Just show/explain your focus to the child and provide the colours or amount of pipe cleaners required. 

For example:
- Instruct your child to hang/attach only Blue pipe cleaners etc,

- Have them hang them in a pattern (red, then blue, then green, then red, then blue, then green...what comes next? etc),

- Have them hang 5 pipe cleaners across and 3 pipe cleaners down etc. 

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

- Demonstrate some of the techniques that could be used to attach and hang pipe cleaners on one another if your child is struggling or asks for assistance

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Children love to replicate the behaviours of adults, especially if it involves water!

Here, with this fun pretend play activity, I got 3 things accomplished. 

1) I kept her entertained, 2) She was learning AND 3) the dirty toys and doll's clothes got clean! haha

Ages: 2+
(M was just 3 here. See the Handy Tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)

 The setup: An Invitation to Play. using a couple of towels on the floor I set up a washing station (bowl of soapy water for washing and bowl of clear water for rinsing) and a child-sized clothes line with pegs. We then collected toys from around the house that needed a wash

 Learning about order and process. First we wash and scrub in soapy water. Lots of fun pouring, swirling, scrubbing etc here

 Second we rinse all the soap off in clear, clean water

 We don't need to scrub the material the same way we would with plastic toys. Notice how the material absorbs the water

 Understanding order and process gets easier the more we practice

Wringing out the clothes to remove the excess water. This is trickier than it seems for little kids... especially ensuring all the material is OUT of the water before squeezing and that it doesn't go back in!

Pegging up the clothes to dry. This requires good fine motor skills and is fabulous for practicing coordination

 Swishing it round and round in the water... just like a washing machine does!

 Coordination required here! There was a lot of dropping the peg while trying to adjust the clothing to be hung. I was happy to see her demonstrating patience and keep trying

Whilst doing this activity she role-played being "mummy" and commentated her every move. 
Fabulous language practice!

Handy Tips:

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "process", "wringing out" etc. This will help with their language development.

- Simplify this activity for young toddlers who might not have the fine motor skills and coordination required to peg up clothes by just giving them some plastic toys or plastic plates etc, to wash

- Extend this activity by assigning your child a pretend role (mummy, daddy, Mr Washer etc) and allow them to get into character. This can add to the imaginative aspect of the activity and often promotes language development as they commentate their actions.

- We had to change the rinsing water at one point because it got too soapy.

- Demonstrate how or where to hold the clothing in order to peg it up if your child needs the assistance




Happy playing,
Debs :)

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