Tuesday 10 June 2014

Tots on a Tuesday {fun way to learn about shape and size}

I love it when my friends are an inspiration!  I had a post lined up for today, but my friend posted a picture on Facebook recently, with an idea that inspired a fun activity.  You know who you are, and thank you in advance!

This is a fun idea, which can be adapted in loads of different ways, to have a lot of fun and learn at the same time.

It involves a few, easily availble, household items.  Empty tubes and containers, and sellotape.  That's it!

Let me show you some pictures, to give you the idea.




We taped two empty containers onto the back of the door, both with each end "open". I chopped the bottom off a drinks carton, and cut the bottom off a Pringles tube.  They each had a similar sized "top", but different sized "bottoms".





Next, they got different little items, which I found around the house - toys and small objects of various origins - and they tried putting them down each "tube".



We popped a little bowl underneath each tube, to catch the objects in.   Simeon really loved this! He got so excited every time something fell down into the bowl below! 




As you can see here, they worked out, by trial and error, which items could fit down each tube! Elijah, on the most part, carefully eyed up each object, and correctly worked out which tube the item could fit down, ut some objects threw him, if they were unusually shaped!



Here are the results of their fun!

They really, truly, had a whole lot of fun doing this, and you can use anything you can lay your hands on, for the tubes, and for the objects you put down.

You can also make it as simple, or as "complicated" as you like. You can just give a very small child bigger, safe, items, and let them put them down there for a fun, hand-eye co-ordination activity.  Simeon participted more in this way.  He thought it was all GREAT fun! An even younger child could still easily accomplish this.  Just give them bigger tubes, at their height. 

An older child you can give a whole variety of tubes, with curves, angles and different shapes and sizes, and ask them first to guess if the object will go down, and ask them why they think that.  Then, get them to test their hypothesis.  It's getting them to think through reasoning, even at a young age. 

Other objects you could use are the inside of kitchen towel, toilet paper, tubes from foil and cling film, empty milk cartons, empty squash bottles, empty baking ingredient tins, and many more things, I'm sure!

You can stick them anywhere that tolerates tape being applied - doors, sides of bookcases and cupboards in the kitchen, to name a few. 

Between the tubes you can use, the places you can do it, and the items you can send down the tubes, you can have LOADS of fun with small people with this activity!

Needless to say, remember not to leave a small child with items which are a choking hazard. 

Have fun, and please share if you do try it for yourself! 



TheJoyfulKeeper
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1 comment :

  1. Josiah LOVED doing this - i thought it might be too old for him (age 1) but I did a simplified version with just one large bottle and gave him shapes to put in. He quickly adapted it though to put in his socks and his bib (which he was wearing at the time) - thank you and look forward to reading future tots posts :)

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