Promoting Play with Every Day Objects

Rain Gutters are a great "every day" item that add hours
of fun and learning exploration to your day!

I'm sharing a bit more from the wonderful book Let Them Play An Early Learning (Un) Curriculum by Jeff A Johnson and Denita Dinger today. I cannot come up with enough great things to say about this book! It is so difficult to pick just a few highlights to share with you, because this book literally is jam packed with amazing information!

One of the tidbits I love, and I'm jumping all over the book.... comes from Chapter 7, Where they encourage you to take baby steps towards an (un)curriculum. Denita and Jeff encourage you to experiment, to add different every day activities, mixing up every day items with varying locations and actions. Try moving things from inside out, or outside in.... or try doing things under the table instead of on top! There are so many basic baby steps you can take to experiment and change things up a bit!

Toilet Paper, The Awesome Vaccum of Fun and
Oodles of children at the Family Fun Night for the UP Early Childhood Conference,
So much laughter, learning, and play!

We love to use all kinds of every day objects in our program. Having things that have no prescribed purpose, open ended loose parts really allow the children to explore, create, and use their imaginations to explore! I love how the book encourages you to extend those opportunities by making small changes like the location of an activity, thus allowing for further explorations and extensions!

Is there anything more engaging than a cardboard box?

If you missed the beginning post, in regard to my

extended book review and giveaway-

you will find it here:

Let Them Play! Giveaway ;).

Here is a list of the prizes:

There will be 3 Lucky Winners!

Lucky winner #1 will receive a copy of Let Them Play An Early Learning (Un) Curriculum
by Jeff A. Johnson and Denita Dinger (courtesy of Explorations Early Learning)

Lucky winner #2 will receive a gift package of natural wooden blocks handmade by B&B Blocks

(The winner will receive one set of blocks, not all of the options shown in the photo)

and

Lucky winner #3 will win a package of homemade finger puppets from Lori's Creative Delights!
(Actual finger puppet characters may vary from those shown in photo)

Now, for today, Here is your comment question:

What is your favorite every day object that you like to include in the environment for the children to explore?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Making Moon Mud!

We usually make our moon sand with cornstarch , sand, and baby oil. However a blog reader commented that when they make their moon sand- they use water instead of oil. So, of course, my first thought was- why make moon sand when you could make MOON MUD? And so you have it- our homemade moon mud! Basically, it ends up being a sandy- runny oobleck! It acts kind of like a solid- and kind of like a liquid..... Now, I'm sure I will get all kinds of questions on the exact recipe and proportions to make this stuff..... The truth is, we rarely measure. We just mix it up until it looks and feels about right! Today, we made ours with too much water. (It was an experiment.) So, we removed some off the top. After we were done playing in the mud- we let it sit. A little bit more of the water evaporated while we napped.... Then, this afternoon- It was perfect! Hard as a rock on the bottom, until you dig into grab it... Then....

Janis said…

I like to add clothespins. You never know what the children will find to clip them on to, hook together, hook to each other, use to pick up and move an object, etc. While they are doing all those things, the muscles in their hands are being strengthened for fine motor skills.

May 9, 2012 at 5:36 PM

Heather@Cultivated Lives said…

My favorite everyday object is bamboo skewers. My kids use them for all kinds of things!

May 16, 2012 at 10:12 PM

Adina said…

Rice. It's great and soothing for kids. You can also dye it and mix it up to learn about colors

May 17, 2012 at 10:09 AM