Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Rubber band Pull and Stretch


Have you ever purchased one of those big balls of rubber bands and thought to yourself, "What am I going to do with all of these?"  As a matter of fact, there is more than one purpose for rubber bands other than for office use.  Through the activity, children are able to use those extra rubber bands and also other objects that you find around the house that can help build their fine motor skills.




During this activity, children will develop:

  • Fine motor skills - for those future writers!!
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Math skills that help children recognize colors and sizes.
  • Patience!

What will you need to make this fun activity:
  • First and foremost, you must collect a variety of rubber bands to make this activity work.  As I mentioned before, I had one of those giant balls of colorful rubber bands sitting around my house that I rarely used.  All you need is a few rubber bands from the ball, I prefer some that are similar in size with maybe a few that vary in size.
 
    • Plastic lids of different sizes 
     

    Basically, there are no steps in making this activity.  You are able to engage in this activity with your child the moment you are able to gather the materials.  Just give your child the pile of rubber bands with the lids and encourage him or her to start stretching the rubber bands over the lids.  To make it easier, you can cut slits in the sides of the lids to help the rubber bands fit more securely, but WARNING - that may leave sharp edges!  In addition, discuss with your child the different colors of rubber bands as well as the different sizes.  Building their math vocabulary through this activity is an extra bonus!

    Extension Idea:

    Rubber bands can basically fit around anything, plus if you want to make the activity easier for younger children, you might want to find different objects.  Other great items to collect include plastic juice jugs, yogurt containers, cups, etc.  Again, these items are also very easy to collect, plus it puts your recyclables to great use!

    Any other ideas?  Please share! 

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012

    Plastic Egg Match-up

    This activity is basically similar to the last game I posted, but I wanted to give you a different variation of it.  Through this activity, you have a perfect use for all of those plastic Easter eggs that you find at this time of the year.  Plus, it helps children also identify with the theme of Easter.

    When using the plastic eggs for a matching game, children will acquire and learn:

    • Basic vocabulary 
    • Letter identification, number identification, or shape identification
    • Matching skills
    • Social skills such as turn taking and sharing
    • Color recognition
     
    To make your own egg matching game you will need:

    • Plastic eggs of various colors

    • Paper, marker, scissors, tape

    First, cut the paper into small 1/2 inch pieces.  Depending on what concept you want to teach, I chose letters, write the uppercase letter on once piece of paper and then the lowercase letter on a different piece of paper.  


    Then choose a plastic egg, top and bottom, of the same color and taped each letter onto it.  Repeat this step for each letter or for as many letters as you would like to use.  For younger children, keep each egg match, top and bottom, the same color to avoid confusion.  You can also use less letters to be more developmentally appropriate.  For older children, you can mix up the tops and bottoms to provide a little challenge and also provide them with more letters.

    Here is a picture if you decided to do a shape recognition game:


    This is a simple, yet educational game that you can do with your child.  It doesn't take a lot of time or effort, but it can be really fun depending on how you play it!



    Extension Idea:

    As pictured above, I just set the eggs out for the child to pick up and and look into to decide if it is a match or not.  If you want to change it up to make it more fun, hide the tops and bottoms around the house and go on an egg hunt.  When children collect the different egg halves in their basket, have them match up the ones that belong together. :-)

    What are some other educational uses that you have for plastic eggs?