Exploring music in the kitchen with water and glasses

Do you remember that scene in the movie Miss Congeniality where Sandra Bullocks character is dressed like a Bavarian cream puff playing glasses filled with water? I was always fascinated by that scene. I would wonder 'Is that just a Hollywood trick or can you really play glasses filled with various amount of water like that?' While I don't have the musical skill to set up something as extravagant as what was in the movie, I did get to thinking about how we could try something similar but keeping it at a basic level. Something that would be easy for my 3 year old to understand and enjoy.












Here is what we ended up doing for our musical glasses experiment.


What we used
food colouring 4 various colours
a jug of water
4 glasses of the same size and shape
1 teaspoon
1 measuring syringe that you use for measuring 5ml of medicine for children.(usually comes in a box with Panadol or Nurophen 

  To start this musical experiment we started by using the syringe to fill the glasses with different amounts of water. By using a measuring tool we could record how much water made what sound. We could test how many more milliliters of water was needed to make a noticeable difference in sound between two glasses. If I has a guitar tuner I could measure small amounts of water in order to create specific notes, but unfortunately mine is in Australia.  Something that precise might also be better for older children to explore rather than my 3 year old.

Between filling the glasses with different amounts of water we would play the glasses to test the difference in sounds and if we were able to achieve different notes.  We found that there was not much difference between 25 mls and 50 mls but there was a noticeable difference between 25 mls and 100mls. In order to remember our findings we made a quick note about how many measuring syringes we used for every glass. This could be something older children could do themselves. 

 

Once we had our desired notes we coloured each glass with a different colour using food dye. The reason for doing this was this...

By having different colours you could write a piece of music, well not in a technical sense, but by following the colours your child would be able to play a simple song. Ours is for Mary Had a Little Lamb.

I think the beauty of this activity lies in its educational value. There is so much maths involved. 

• Counting out how many times you've squirted water in each glass.
• Comparing different amounts
• Following patterns
• Recognising colours

It is also a very lovely kitchen science experiment that costs close to nothing, just a bit of food dye. The experiment could be extended by using different materials to tap the glasses with. While I don't have a photo of it, we also used a wooden spoon to tap the glasses which gave us a totally different sound quality. Using different size or shaped glasses also affects the sounds produced, something for us to try and experiment next time.

Even if you are not interested in its educational potential this activity does seem to involve the two things toddlers and preschoolers love best. Water play and hitting things to make music. I know my daughter enjoyed herself immensely. I hope you get to try it too!

Until next time, happy playing.

Exploring shapes using the gigantic scrunchie or cooperation band

A while ago I posted a tutorial (here) on how to sew a giant scrunchie which could be used for the classic schoolyard game Elastics. In our household the gigantic scrunchie, which is also otherwise known as a co-operation band in the educational and sport's sector, has been used for more than just Elastics. In an earlier post (here),I showed how the children used it to play 'horse and carriage' as well as an obstacle to jump and tumble over.

Today I want to share with you another way we've been using our gigantic scrunchie. With this beautiful sunny weather we've been having in Germany, we've taken the scrunchie back outside to use it as a tool for making and exploring shapes.  With just my daughter and I playing, we we're able to make squares, rectangles and a range of polygons. In order to see what shape we had made we looked at the shadows we casted on the lawns.

I really liked using the scrunchie for making polygons. This also lead to a chat between my daughter and I  about  how we can find out the name of some shapes by counting how many sides they have. I also explained that if she could count to 10 in Greek it would be easy for her to work out the name of these shapes as they relate to the names of the Greek numbers.

For those of you who are interested, numbers 1 to 10 in Greek are...

Image from http://gogreece.about.com/od/greeklanguage/a/learn_to_count_in_greek.htm?utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=shareurlbuttons_nip

As you can see Pente is very close to PENTA gon. Exi is very close to HEXAgon. Epta is close to HEPTAgon. Octo is very much like OCTAgon. Ennea is probably the only one this is quite dissimilar with the shape name being NONAgon. Deka is again similar to DECAgon. The small differences are due to the way English speakers have translated some sounds. The letter E in Greek represented by H when translated or used in English. You might have seen t-shirts from Greece with HELLAS written on them. We pronounce the H but in Greek it is ELLAS.

Here we are attempting to make a hexagon. Unfortunately it was sometimes a bit tricky to get the shape just right but we could still count the sides and name the shape.

This was our attempt at a pentagon. We achieved 5 sides but not the typical pentagon shape we are so used to. My head kept getting in the way!

I can imagine this would be a great activity with more kids. Each child could create a corner and position themselves to make more regular shapes. With more children you could also attempt more complicated polygons and try to work out their names. You could learn to count beyond 10 in Greek to see how similar the names are to the Greek numbers.

Doing it in this fashion the shape would not cast a shadow before the children but underneath the shape. You would have to look at the shape from above to see what it was. Here is an example of my little monkey and her cousins making a triangle.  As you can see there is still a shadow but just from underneath.

Well there you have it! Who would have thought I'd be posting about giant scrunchies, polygons and Greek numbers all in the same post? I sure as pie didn't see it coming.

Well until next time, happy learning and happy playing.

Bean bag races and numeracy, a workout for our bodies and our brains.

Races are my all time favourite way to get kids moving! I would hold races in my classroom daily to get students working key areas such as their vestibular and proprioceptive systems as well as their core muscles, all of which are vital to have developed before academic work and success could be achieved.

In a special educational needs classroom, races also were a great way to incorporate choice making and social connections between students. Before a race, a student would be chosen by the teacher and they would then choose who they wanted to race against and what type of race they were going to compete in. The other students who were not participating in the race would sit on the side lines shouting or signing out 'ready, set, go'. To add an element of numeracy we would tally the number of races won by each child, using our counting skills to work out who had won the most races.

While I may not have a class to teach at the moment, I do have a daughter and her cousins to take care of on occasions. The last time they came around I decided we needed to have a go at some of the races I used to set up for my students.

For these races, which are not all the types of races I used to conduct, we used

• small buckets
•  bean bags with a clear pocket. Find instructions on how to make some here.
• 
  

Running Race

Our first race was a simple running race to see who could collect the most amount of bean bags which had been scattered around the lawn. In one version of the race the children had to run and collect a bean bag and bring it back to their bucket which was at the finish line. In another version the children were allowed to take their buckets with them as they scrambled to get their bean bags. 

Rolling Race 

For this race the children had to roll along the lawn to get to the bean bags. In order to roll properly it would have been better for them to leave their buckets behind. Proper rolling, that really activates the core muscles, occurs when children lie straight with hands above their heads and their feet together. This way they need to use their stomach muscles to turn themselves over and not their hands or legs. Unfortunately this time the kids insisted that they take their buckets with them which meant they were not rolling by using their core muscles but rather their legs and elbows.

Crawling Races

For this race the children had to collect their bean bags by crawling around the lawn. Unfortunately this photos isn't the best for showing the kids crawling as they have both stopped to pick up a bean bag. Crawling is a fantastic activity to help children who may be restless as the pressure on the limbs from carrying the child's body weight can have a calming effect. It is also a form of cross crawling which gets kids right and left side of the brain working together.

Unfortunately these are the only photos I have of the races we ran that day. There were a few more sorts of races we did before the children had a snack break. Those races were...

Bunny Hop Races
Children hopped around on all fours like bunnies in order to collect their bean bags.

Seal or Commando Races
Lying on their stomachs, the children moved around by wiggling their bottoms and torsoes, using only their hands and elbows to pull them forward. The legs and feet stay together without helping. This is an awesome workout for the core muscles.

Races and Numeracy Skills

As I mentioned before, races where students are collecting something like bean bags are also a great opportunity for introducing or further developing numeracy skills. The winner of these races was not who got back to the finish line first but who collected the most bean bags. Therefore in order to know who won, every one's bean bags had to be counted and tallied.

For my niece who is older than the others and also more advanced with her numeracy skills, I increased the level of difficulty by placing 2 digit numbers in the clear pockets. Instead of counting out how many bean bags every one got, she had to add the numbers together to see who had the greatest total.

 
I hope that in the near future I can organise more races for these guys and do a better job of photographing them so I can show you more of my race ideas. If you are an educator, I hope this post has given you some ideas for incorporating physical activities with numeracy skills. I can assure you the children find it more appealing than sitting over counters and counting worksheets! Again if you are not familiar with the benefits of physical activities and academic achievement please have a look at my interview with Occupational Therapist Cara Sheekey who explains it very well. Here.

Until next time happy playing!

Bowling without a ball or pins, how do we do that?

We have had the most shocking weather this afternoon, gloomy and rainy, not that cold but still not the kind of weather you go out in. My daughter thought this was a great opportunity to beg her mother for a Disney film but we'd already watched one the day before, ok and the day before that. So not today kiddo!

So while she continued to nag and play the 'I'm tired, I need a quiet film' game I searched the house for stuff we could use to play a fun and inspiring game and specifically one that did not require us to sit on our bums.

So with a hoola hoop, some bean bags and a bunch of balloons we invented our own version of ten pin bowling, minus the ball and pins.

Just to let you know this kept the whole family entertained for around an hour and we only stopped because we had to sit down for dinner. Best thing about it, the nagging for a film instantly stopped!

So if you are wondering how balloons, a hoola hoop and bean bags become a game of bowling continue reading!

What you will need

• 5 bean bags
• 10 balloons 
• 1 hoola hoop
• Something to mark a line to throw from. 
• All breakables removed from the area. 

Just like bowling, the aim of the game is to throw something that will move ten items. This time you throw the bean bags to knock the balloons out of the hoop. Like in bowling you get a limited amount of shots to knock out the ten balloons. In the our version that we played ,we let each player have 5 shots.

Once you've had your shots you need to count how many you've knocked out and mark that down on a tally sheet

Note: If you have a preschooler or first grader you can easily use this game to introduce subtraction. Just count the balloons left in the hoop and subtract that number from ten!

Just like in regular bowling, you can play a round of 10 turns and at the end tally how many balloons you knocked out of the hoop to get your total score. Person with the highest score wins!

For anyone trying this with a non-verbal child, below are two aided language displays you can use with this game. One is specifically for this game and other other is a general numbers 0-10 that you can use with the game or for other games with numbers. Feel free to use for personal use only.

Note: If you don't know how to use aided language displays please see my post here for more details. 

I hope you get to try our version of bowling. If only I had video of my daughter playing. How she laughed every time she hit the balloons making them fly into the air! This is seriously some great family fun!

Happy bowling and happy playing! 

Snack Bingo

A long time ago I worked in after-school care and one of the games we played was Smarty Bingo. For those of you who are not familiar with Smarties they are candy coated chocolate buttons. It was a fun game where the children used Smarties to mark their Bingo sheets instead of the more typical plastic marker. At the end of the game the children got to eat the Smarties they used and the winner got a bonus handful of Smarties for winning. While it was a fun twist on a favorite game , I am not one who is comfortable giving kids sweets as part of a game and so Smarty Bingo has not been played in this household. 

What do we play instead? Snack Bingo, of course! (wasn't going to throw the baby out with the bath water, just make it a little more healthy!)

Instead of Smarties we use...

• Cherry tomatoes
• Pieces of fruits like apple, banana, pear and pineapple
• Mixed nuts, usually almonds
• Grapes and sultanas
• Cubes of cheese and cold meats like cabana
• slices of carrots and cucumbers 

As stated before the game is played like any regular game of bingo but we use food for markers. For our Bingo cards I just went over to Sparklebox on the Internet and searched Bingo cards. Just remember, because you are putting food on the cards you need to laminate them so you can wipe them clean.

Best part of this game is that before you know it the kids have had half an hour of fun, possibly learnt their numbers, colours, letters etc. and their bellies are full! What more could you ask for? It's portable and easy to take on a picnic.

 As you can see from the photo here, today's session was a success! 

Anyway I hope this has given you something to try around snack time. Maybe even encourage the children to try some new food? I also hope you are getting some awesome weather wherever you are in the world. We are just loving this sunny spring weather, think most snack times will be spent outside like this until this German weather throws us storms and rain at us again! It tends to do that!

From us here, happy playing!

How to sew a bean bag with clear pocket

Bean bags are an essential part of fun in our household. We love throwing them at each other, in baskets and behind furniture, unfortunately. For a long time now I've been thinking about bean bags with plastic pockets. This way I could use them as a learning tool as well as a source of fun. As a teacher I can't believe I didn't get my hands on some for my classroom. Imagine how much longer my students would have been focused and interested in learning the ABC's or numbers if we did so while throwing bean bags at each other while doing so. 

While I will save the 'how to use these bean bags as a teaching aid' in future posts, today I will explain how to make one.

What you will need

• Plastic film often used for table cloths (you can buy this at a fabric store or at the hardware store. It comes on a roll)
• Non-stretch fabric pieces
• Rice or wheat to fill bean bags
• Thread
• Sewing machine
• Sewing pins
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Ironing board and iron

 How to make

First iron and then cut out your fabric. For each bean bag you will need two pieces of fabric cut at 6 inches by 4 inches. Then cut out your plastic film at 5 inches by 4 inches.

 

Arrange the plastic piece so it is aligned with the bottom and sides of the bean bag fabric. There will be an inch gap at the top which you want. Once you have done that put the other fabric piece on top, right side facing in. Pin in place and sew the three sides together leaving the top open. Snip the corners and turn the bean bag inside out.

Note: When turning the bean bag inside out place your thumb on the plastic bringing it towards the side you want it to be on. For example with this bean bag I wanted the pocket on the non-print fabric side. If you do this the plastic pocket will always show up on the side you want it.

Once you have turned it right side out, poke the corners with something to bring them completely out. Pour in some filling and turn the open end of the fabric in half an inch. 

Sew together shut with the sewing machine or by hand and then you are finished! All you need to do now is print some pictures to put into the pockets, with which the possibilities are endless. Here I've put in some pictures of things so we can play an initial sound game.

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial and as always happy playing!