Loose Parts: Junk Drawer Bounty!

There are so many cool things that you can do with Loose Parts - all the little things that end up in your junk drawer or around the house. With only a discerning eye and some old odds and ends, you can put together a basket or box of small things to tempt your child's imagination! Playing with collections can enhance math and science skills, stimulate language development, encourage creativity, and give small motor skills a workout. And, it's fun!

First, check your junk drawers for old keys, buttons, and other little pieces that might make interesting additions to your collections box. Coins can also be cool for sorting, patterning, and making designs with. Nuts, bolts, screws, etc. might make the list - anything small hands can tinker with, while staying safe. We also found some old monopoly houses, dice, bottle caps, and ping pong balls, which were all of immediate interest to our small friends.

Next, set them out and watch the magic happen! All of these small objects can be examined,  sorted by many different attributes - size, color, shapes, etc. Piles, patterns, lines and arrays may happen. Counting and comparing will be a natural next step. Encourage one to one correspondence counting by touch-counting objects yourself. Some of our friends even made creative pictures with different small pieces, shaping flowers, people, houses ... watch out, imaginations may be sparked! Side by side play on the part of the adult is a great way to spur exploration, without direct instruction or direction.

When our friends discovered our classroom collections, buttons and keys were examined and sorted - conversations about where they came from and what they would do with them came next. Sorting mats were pulled out and magnifying glasses employed. Every child discovered their inner scientist :) Patterns were made, and attributes discussed, using comparative language! The balls were bounced and rolled and then raced on flat surfaces - and then  other small pieces were used to make an obstacle course - lots of basic physics tests followed. Different objects were even put together to make non-permanent art - very cool pictures and collages!

See what's in your junk drawer - and get started!

Have fun!

Host Your Own Kiddo Olympics!

With the Winter Olympics coming up, there are so many fun ideas to play with that are Olympics-related and that will inspire excitement in your children!! Check out the live feed from www.nbcolympics.com or get lots of info at www.olympic.org! Google "Olympics" for more sites ...

Even though your kiddos aren't in the real Olympics (yet!), you can still do some training and competition! It is so important for children to have lots of exercise and physical movement - get out there and make it happen! It's easy to put together a simple program of activities using items you may already have around the house or classroom. If you do a few games or exercises each day, you can stretch it out over a few days or a week - culminating in a Closing Ceremony of your choice!

Generate some interest in a "Kids Olympics" by asking your children what they already know about winter sports ... skiing, skating, hockey, snowboarding, etc. Build the conversation by sharing your own experiences with athletics or your memories of Olympic athletes (or other sports figures!). There are lots of clips available on Google, YouTube, etc. to help explain the concept of the Games to children - just be careful to preview all clips before sharing - titles do not always reflect content. Talk to your children about competing and taking pride in their accomplishments - stress the value of trying and training, and the concepts of winning and participating.

A trip to the great outdoors when there is snow on the ground or to the ice rink is a great option for those who are able. Any time you can fit in a little large motor activity, go for it! If you are looking to do a competition indoors or in a more controlled way, you can come up with your own games. Try putting together "Our Own Olympics" with fun and games for all! 

Here are some game suggestions that you can do at home or school with little preparation: 

(A punch card or sticker card is an easy way to keep it organized!)

Sock Skating: shoes off on a smooth surface and you can practice some twirls, figure eights or, in a big enough space, some speed skating! Great for the large motor stretching!

Balance Board: using a piece of 2x4 or some long wooden blocks, practice walking on the thin raised (just the depth of the blocks) platform to work on balance!

Olympic Ring Toss: use bean bags and some hula hoops or a piece of rope made into a circle to do some tossing for depth perception and eye-hand coordination.

Precision Racing: Plastic egg on a big spoon - find a friend and race up and down the room or outside - great exercise for coordination, balance and it's fun!

Tumbling - on a soft surface with supervision, rolling races (roll like a rolling pin!) are action-packed. (Or down a snow-covered hill!)

Keep going ...  inventing games is half the fun! Perhaps your athletes have some ideas, too!

For a related art project, trace children's hands on flame-colored tissue paper - red, orange, yellow - one set of each if you can! Wrap a paper roll with black paper or have them paint them black and then attach the hands to the top - now you have an Olympic torch!

Make some hand-made medals together, going over the five colors of the rings - every country participating, at the time the logo was developed, had at least one of these colors in its flag! The five rings represent the five continents (North and South America were considered together at the time, Europe, Africa, Asia and "Oceania") of the world - and the fact that they are all joined together for "unity" - kids understand that concept!

Crafts can be simple:

For olympic rings, you'll need paper, paint (representing each of the five colors) and small paper cups! Hold the cups upside down, dip in paint and print circles galore!

I like to finish off with individual photos of my Olympic athletes, standing in front of the flag, wearing their hard-earned medals - and huge smiles! They make a great keepsake - and, who knows, maybe it will be part of their own Olympic profile someday! :)


As always - have FUN with it!

(note: Parts of this post are taken or adapted from my previous posts on the Olympics.)