Wednesday 28 May 2014

Discovery Basket: threading


A very similar basket as the circular and ring things one I put together a few months ago now has a totally new meaning and a new learning and play opportunity. 

L was recently the subject to an "on a mission dad". He wanted to teach her how to thread onto a counting frame we have had for a while and purchased from Sainsburys. He succeeded and L mastered the skill in a day and would happily sit and concentrate on her threading task. 

On a particularly snoozy and lazy day I managed to cobble together by chance an extended threading activity using avaliable toys and things from our sensory play basket. I was rather pleased with it and so was L!


Our counting tower is joined by the plastic stacking rings toy and the wooden kitchen roll holder. 


In our discovery basket we have the wooden flat beads, the rings, some bangles from my jewelry box and hair rollers from the pound shop. 





It was interesting to watch L figure out that some of the things didn't fit on particular sticks and then change the order of her threading to suit her wants. 





L spent some time putting on and taking off the rollers and bangles and changing the order of then. She watched as the larger bangle went over the holder and the rollers because it was larger. 



L used the counting frame for the rollers as well as the beads. 

L also discovered that the different sized rollers fitted into each other.

This activity is great for hand eye coordination and motor skills. It's a very precise action and the varying sizes of objects to be threaded challenge L to begin thinking of spacial awareness in its most basic and emerging levels. L also began exploring how the rollers threaded inside each other and how the shapes slotted together of the different objects. There was also lots of rich language talk, on, in, on top, inside, small, long, thin, big, fit and thread. 

I was chuffed that on a day fueled by chocolate and caffeine I actually came up with something pretty worthwhile to extend L's play and learning. Also proof that it doesn't take more than five minutes to do something different for your littles ones.  




1 comment:

  1. This is a great idea, we have some smaller beads and shoelaces now for my two year old as the next step, I love the look of concentration on their faces!

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