Page 18 – Playful Learning

Tinkering with TinkerLab: DIY Lava Lamp

By Mariah Bruehl, 30th June 2014

I am so happy to be a part of TinkerLab’s Blog Tour for Rachelle’s new book, Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors. I have been a big fan of the TinkerLab blog for many years and love the perspective that Rachelle Doorley brings to her work as a previous art and museum educator. All of the activities that she shares encourage open-ended discovery and experimentation.

In fact, I had the opportunity to meet her in person a couple of years ago during a visit to California (we share the same publisher) and can attest that she is just as inspiring in person as she is in her writing!

Being that my daughters think lava lamps are super cool, we decided to try making our own! The instructions were very clear, easy to follow, and included great facts about the chemical reactions that were taking place.

The girls loved creating their lava lamp concoction and returned again and again to experiment with it many times over the next couple of days.

To create your own lava lamp, follow the steps below…

Fill your bottle 3/4 of the way with oil.
Add water to your bottle leaving 1 to 2 inches of empty space up top. Wait until the water reaches the bottom of the bottle.
Add 3 to 4 drops of food coloring.
Cut the antacid tablet into 4 pieces and start out by adding 1/4 of a tablet at a time. Then get wild and crazy and add bigger pieces!

Bonus: For extra excitement you can place a LED light or a flashlight under or behind your bottle to see what happens…

For a great review on why oil and water don’t mix, click here.

For more details on this activity and many more, make sure to check out, Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors.

To get your own copy, simply visit your favorite book-seller:

Amazon.com

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Roost Books

Make sure to visit the other inspiring blogs on the TinkerLab Blog Tour…

June 10 – The Artful Parent

June 11 – Toddler Approved

June 12 – Creative with Kids

June 13 – Red Ted Art

June 16 – Not Just Cute

June 17 – Kids Activities Blog

June 18 – Rookie Moms

June 19 – Peanut Blossom

June 20 – Modern Parents, Messy Kids

June 23 – The Imagination Tree

June 24 – Babble Dabble Do

June 25 – Pink and Green Mama

June 26 – Make and Takes

June 30 – Playful Learning

July 3 – Imagine Childhood

July 4 – A Mom with a Lesson Plan

July 7 – Nurture Store

July 9 – Simple Kids

July 10 – Kids Stuff World

July 11 – Let’s Lasso the Moon

July 14 – Ain’t No Mom Jeans

July 15 – Fun at Home with Kids

TBD – Childhood 101

5 Things You Can Learn From Your Child

By Mariah Bruehl, 26th June 2014

Nuria from the The Adventures Archive is here today to share some insightful inspiration to all of the grown-ups of the world…

1. Let it go: If you have ever seen a fight in between siblings, you know that their level of emotions goes from 0 to 10 in a split second. Suddenly toys start flying, shouts fill the room, and they say things like “I don’t want to play with you ever again” with deep conviction. But give them half an hour and they will be best friends again like nothing happened. No resentment, no anger. Next time you have a big argument think about your child. You’ll be less reluctant to forgive and forget.

2. Keep your sense of wonder: If you could see the world through your child’s eyes you would see a wonderful, magical place. Kids appreciate the little things, they don’t rush around worrying and everything is exciting to them. When was the last time you stop to smell the roses? Don’t let responsibilities and housework kill your sense of wonder. Spend some time playing with your children and marvel with them at the simplest things.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask: Children have the ability to ask the questions no one else has thought of and to challenge the assumptions that we, adults, no longer question. Then we grow up and stop asking, because we don’t want to look dumb, or inadequate. However, the fear of “looking unknowledgeable” can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Remember, the biggest discoveries were done by adults who never stopped asking why.

4. Live like there’s no tomorrow: Every morning, kids jump out of bed and prepare to live the day to the fullest. When a child is having fun nothing else exists. They only know this moment; right here and now, and they seem to understand something that we adults have forgotten: that the present is what counts and that each day is a gift waiting to be discovered.

5. Be creative: When was the last time you tried something new? Do you stop yourself from doing things differently because you are afraid of other people’s opinions? Children are not. They love taking risks and don’t worry about looking foolish or different. Be like them and start exploring new options. Your creativity will thrive and you’ll have more and better ideas.

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Collaborating with Nature

By Mariah Bruehl, 25th June 2014

Kate from An Everyday Story is with us today to share a fun way to bring together an appreciation of nature and our creative spirits…

It started with a stick, “Mummy wouldn’t this stick make a great tree house?…It’s a great shape, but it’s a bit small.” My five year old son wondered to himself how he could make this stick into a tree house… “What if we drew a tree house on top of the stick?” I suggested. He looked a little puzzled at first but then became very excited once I explained.

When you start looking around at all the differently shaped leaves, sticks and flowers in our yards, you can’t help but be inspired. A small round leaf could be a balloon, a long leaf could be a boat sailing on gentle seas or a snippet from a pine tree could be beautiful Christmas tree.

The tree house was just the beginning. Soon we had pages of pictures, as each different leaf or petal inspired different creations. We wanted to keep them but sadly the transient nature of petals and leaves means they will eventually wilt. For now we have pictures to remember them by.

A Playful Pen Pal Project

By Mariah Bruehl, 17th June 2014

Monique of Green Acorns is with us today with to share some great tips on getting our young writers started with Pen Pals.

Would you like a fun writing activity for your child to engage in during the summer (or anytime)? Whether you are trying to encourage a reluctant writer, nurture communication skills, or strengthen a sense of connection with a special person, having a pen pal is a great activity for kids of all ages.

If your child is comfortable writing about themselves and asking others questions about themselves in a letter form, that’s great! For some children, however, that can seem a bit overwhelming or perhaps they’re just not ready for it. If that’s the case then this playful pen pal project may be the perfect thing to get them started.

Here’s the idea… Begin by helping your child choose a pen pal. Starting with someone familiar may help reduce any anxiety and help build confidence. Print the provided template for your child to use to communicate back and forth with his or her pen pal. Finding out about a person’s likes is a good way to initially get better acquainted. An example has been provided for you to help get things underway. Your child should fill out the copy with the introductory letter to mail to the pen pal and enclose the blank version for the pen pal to fill out and mail back.
Pen Pal Project Template
Pen Pal Project Template – blank; editable version

The blank template is editable so that you and your child can create your own topics. Here are some ideas that you and your child can brainstorm five simple questions for:

A Day in the Life of My Pen Pal
My Pen Pal’s Family
My Pen Pal’s Home State/Town
My Pen Pal’s Fondest Memories

Creating “top 5” lists is another simple idea. Keep it fun and engaging to maintain your child’s motivation. If your child is only writing one or two word answers when responding, that’s okay. To nurture developing writing skills, work up to having him or her write out a complete sentence. And do encourage using the letter writing space as well. It’s perfect for additional ideas, comments, or questions and is a wonderful preface for longer letter writing when your child is ready.

Once your child has received the first response, it’s time to incorporate the playful twist. Cut out the circles with the pen pal’s responses and get crafty. Turn them into a garland that, when strung together, form a representation or story of who your child’s pen pal is. Every time your child looks at the display he or she will think of that person and feel a special connection. Don’t forget to encourage the pen pal to do the same!

Some benefits of having a pen pal:

Practice reading skills
Develop communication skills
Improve writing skills
Build sense connection and friendship
Incorporate geography
Encourage thoughtfulness
Practice patience
Make time to slow down

I hope your child will love having and being a special pen pal and that this project helps set the course for a life-time love of writing and connecting!

Story Cubes for Young Readers

By Mariah Bruehl, 12th June 2014

Rebecca from Thirteen Red Shoes is with us today to share a fun activity to share with the little readers in our lives…

Story cubes are such a wonderful way to engage children in a story and to check for comprehension. Often when children are beginning to read they are so focused on sounding out unfamiliar words that meaning is lost. Through working together with your little ones you can help them grasp the key concepts of a story in order to maintain comprehension.

The best part is that they are simple to create!

Choose a familiar story and read it together or listen to your child read to you.
After you have read the story use the cube template download to create a story cube.
A cube has six sections and in each one there is enough room for a sentence focusing on the key components of the story. I chose to focus on the following six areas for a narrative text however you can make your focus what ever you wish.

square 1: title of the story
square 2: setting/ scene
square 3: characters
square 4: beginning
square 5: problem
square 6: resolution

Books to use initially as your children get used to the cubes could be familiar fairy tales such as:

As they become more familiar with this learning process you could introduce books that they are unfamiliar with in order to gather their level of comprehension. With older children you could focus on developing character cubes, one face of the cube for each character in the story or chapter book, or scenes from the text which were significant in the theme of the story. The possibilities are endless.

You can find the cube template here. There is also an online version in which you can direct children to create a story cube online!

An Invitation to Independently Explore

By Mariah Bruehl, 9th June 2014

Joey from Made by Joey is with us today to share some great tips on encouraging independent explorations with your children.

In an age where more and more of children’s play is based on following instructions, it is important to provide your child with lots of opportunities to lead their own play with independent exploration.

One thing that I loved doing for my kids when they were between 3-9 years old was to put together collections of materials for them to explore on their own first thing in the morning*. I remember waking up to hearing the squeals of delight whenever they discovered that I had left out a collection for them to explore on their own. Part of the thrill stemmed from the surprise of discovering it first thing in the morning!

*only include items that your child can use safely without adult supervision.

Putting together an invitation to independently explore is as simple as going through your home collecting items that have a common theme.

For example: for this little activity I paired up our wooden oranges, pears and apples from our play kitchen with the library book Orange Pear Apple Bear.

– A collection of shells, driftwood and plants that we found on the beach was artistically arranged on this tray.

– A collection of smooth gemstones and an identification book for older children.

The holidays are a great time to make up a basket of materials to be experimented with. The possibilities for playful learning are endless…

This was one of my favorite collections to leave out! Simple raw wood pieces and some colorful sheets of felt turned into some beautiful creations!

The idea behind this concept is that there are absolutely no expectations of the child. They are left alone to freely touch the items, read the book, create some art, play a game, or make their own discoveries. Other items may be brought into the play by the child – it’s a completely unstructured, child-led learning experience.

After you have enjoyed the extra quiet time in the morning(!) be prepared to be impressed by what your child decided to do with the items all by themselves. Take notes… you may learn a thing or two!

How to Kill Your Child’s Creativity

By Mariah Bruehl, 3rd June 2014

Kids are born creative geniuses. But unfortunately, by the time they reach the third or fourth grade, their creativity has sunk. With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect: each generation, scores go up about 10 points because enriched environments make kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has been identified: since 1990, creativity scores are falling. What are we doing wrong?

These are some of the most effective creativity killers:

Rewards: scientific research has demonstrated that rewards inhibit children’s exploration and imagination. A kid will put as much effort as it is needed to get the reward and he won’t push himself any further. Prizes and stickers eliminate the intrinsic pleasure of creative activities. We want engaged, motivated children, not just kids with their notebooks filled with stars.

Shadowing: always sitting by their side and micromanaging their projects is detrimental to their creativity. If kids are constantly being observed and we give them always some advice they won’t learn to take risks and they won’t experience the value of making mistakes as part of the process.

Limited choice: we put our children into a system that teaches them “there is only one right answer” Most toys come with instructions and we barely let them choose. However, exploring options is at the heart of lateral thinking. Creative kids feel free to propose alternative solutions and are keener to follow their curiosity.

Over scheduling: organized activities, workshops, social dates… children’s diaries have never been fuller. But we are so busy over-stimulating them that we forget to allocate time for the most important stimulus of all: boredom. Boredom feeds imagination and imagination feeds ideas and creativity. We often say “I need to just sit down and do nothing to recharge” and yet we don’t apply this to our kids. It is during times when we are doing “nothing” that our mind gets the best ideas.

Creativity flourishes when things are done for enjoyment. What matters is the pleasure, not the perfection. Let’s forget about the “getting it right” and let’s give our kids the opportunity to explore, to make mistakes and take risks and to feel the freedom to express all their wonderful ideas.

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Designing Spaces for Children: Sound

By Mariah Bruehl, 27th May 2014

What sounds do you associate with childhood? Is it the sound of an ice cream truck making its way through the neighborhood or the reverberating sound of a diving board as someone plunges into a swimming pool? Or maybe it’s a child exclaiming, “Ready or not, here I come!” For me, it’s the sound of a screen door closing when running inside after a long afternoon of play.

The way we perceive sound has an incredible influence on our sense of time, place, and wellbeing. “Every cell in the body registers sound waves,” writes Anita Rui Olds, “We actually hear with our entire bodies, not simply with our ears.”

Unless you are a musician or sound engineer or happen to be undergoing a renovation or building a new space, you probably haven’t spent much time thinking about acoustics. Often we don’t think about the impact sound has on our experiences. We hear what we want or need and tune out the rest. So, what happens when we tune in to our spaces?

If you’ve spent any time in a preschool classroom or a children’s museum you can likely recall the sound of children playing. And it’s probably loud. Perhaps too loud. Spaces for children tend to focus on the bottom half of the room. This makes sense because young children spend a lot of time on or near the floor but when we’re thinking about acoustics it’s important to consider the entire space from floor to ceiling.

Hardwood floors reflect sound and high ceilings create echoes. Including absorbent materials like area rugs, soft pillows, curtains, and other textiles help minimize noise and add texture to your space. To distribute sound more evenly you can vary the ceiling and floor height using furniture like lofts and risers, which also provide children with different perspectives to view their surroundings. Hanging a shadow curtain or draping sheer fabric from the ceiling also helps diffuse sound and creates a “lowering of the ceiling effect” giving way to soft and cozy spaces below.

Sometimes simply opening a window will invite sound into your space. Wind chimes and plants like bamboo and tall grasses respond to the movement of air with sound. Birdhouses attract songbirds. Even incorporating circulating fountains and aquariums in your space will produce the soothing sound of water.

Children are naturally drawn to experimenting with sound and there are so many possibilities for exploring its properties. What does sound look like? Can you draw sound? How does sound feel? Seek out your local museums and parks for sound installations and sculptures. You might experiment with building a sound wall or take a sound walk with children. I just discovered there’s an app that turns footsteps into sounds while walking the High Line in New York City! Once children begin observing their surroundings, there’s no telling where it might lead…

What sounds do you notice in your spaces for children? What strategies help you manage sound? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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For more inspiration on creating spaces for children, check out our Playful Learning Spaces Workshop.

Start: November 4, 2014

End: November 21, 2014

To register, click here.

An Invitation to Learn About Birds

By Mariah Bruehl, 23rd May 2014

Today Emma from 95 Acres of Sky is with us to share some great resources and ideas for learning about birds with the little naturalists in our lives.

At this time of year, when winters grip finally seems behind us and the monochrome of winter is being replaced by full spring bloom, it seems like every moment not spent outside is a waste. But sometimes, just sometimes, nature does not cooperate with our wishes and so we must compromise by learning about outside; just until we can head out again of course.

This year I’ve tried to incorporate more Reggio Emilia learning strategies into our family life, this is an educational model that encourages open ended learning opportunities for children. It also encourages an inspiring environment that allows them to create and learn in a way that feels right to them. A way of setting up this kind of activity (and something I learned here on the Playful Learning site) is to create an invitation to learn, an open ended activity with no particular goal in mind but a clear focus with limited materials.

Our house is full of books, both fiction and informative, but I rarely see the boys reach for one of them unless their interest is sparked first. So by creating an invitation for them, I am drawing their attention to a specific subject but not telling them how they should interpret that information. For me this approach blends beautifully the guidance that children need with the freedom to create that helps them thrive.

For this invitation I laid out two books about birds that we have on our nature shelf, a fun quiz game and some drawing materials; I placed age appropriate materials for both of the boys so that they could interpret at their own level. I didn’t give them any guidance as to what they should do but allowed them to discover and be inspired. And inspired they were! My youngest son drew several pictures of birds and then used some miniature binoculars from our discovery basket to look for birds out of the window. My eldest son (now 8) decided to create his own book of drawings based on the bird encyclopedia.

I was so excited with how well the boys reacted to this spontaneous (yet thought out) invitation, and there was much bird talk in the house for hours after the activity too. My eldest son was so proud of the book he created he couldn’t wait to show it to Daddy as soon as he came home. Though I had thought they might focus on the identification aspect of the bird books, instead they interpreted the material in an artistic way, my son using it as an opportunity to develop his drawing skills and engaging me in an art lesson of sorts. It was lovely to support him as he strove to improve and refine his art work in a way I hadn’t seen before.

If you’d like to lay out a similar invitation for your children, here are some suggestions for what you might like to include:

Bird field or identification guides such as the Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher or the wonderful book Bird Songs 250 North American Birds in Song, which actually includes recordings of each bird’s sound, a truly exceptional identification tool.

For games like the one shown in our invitation look for Professor Noggin’s Bird’s of North America. There are many other in the series covering all sorts of subjects and a great way to improve everyone’s knowledge. There are easier and harder questions that allow younger children to enjoy too. These Fundana games also look wonderful and is something I’m dying to try out this summer! Or this wooden matching game would be lovely for younger children.

Imagination Childhood also has a lovely range of field guides and inspiring nature books, covering everything from birds to beetles. They also stock beautiful bird posters a great reference guide to have on the wall at all times.

And if you’d like to introduce a little technology, there are of course bird watching apps such as iBird Pro and the Peterson’s Birds field guide ,which is full of beautiful and inspiring illustrations that are sure to engage anyone’s imagination.

The great joy of this kind of learning is that it is only a jumping off point, the materials should be carefully chosen but don’t have to be new or expensive. A great field guide from the library and the art materials you already own will quickly become a gateway to a new learning adventure; and the fun thing is, you really don’t know where you’ll end up!

Dandelions: A Playful Activity For Bringing Them To Life

By Mariah Bruehl, 21st May 2014

Monique of Green Acorns is with us today with to share some dandelion inspiration on this lovely spring day!

Dandelions – they seem to spring up overnight to decorate our yards with bright sunshiny-yellow polka dots. They’re cheerful, hardy, and tenacious. They provide magical experiences for many children who are amazed at how quickly they turn into puff balls and who find great amusement at blowing their seeds away and watching them head off on an adventure clinging to their tiny parachutes.

Recently while my children were happily playing with the dandelions strewn throughout our own yard, they were thrilled to find some who had put their “hats” on. They excitedly called me over to see. Hats? My oldest daughter went on to tell a brief story about the dandelions not being too sure about how they feel about losing their golden color and turning white so they put hats on to hide the change taking place. They then decide that they look just as beautiful and let their hats fall off to reveal their new look.

I loved this little story!

We went on to do a spontaneous dandelion study and recorded everything in our nature journals. They are really fascinating plants and we all learned something new about them. Did you know that the flower head is made of lots of individual florets, not just petals? The “hats” are the florets that have gone by and closed up. They eventually fall off to reveal the fuzzies. Did you know that those white fuzzies are called pappi (plural form) from the Latin pappus meaning “old man”? Makes sense. And there are so many fun things that you can do with dandelions. It occurred to me later that evening, however, that my daughter had opened the door to another engaging way to explore this flower. By bringing it to life in a different way. By personifying it. What a fun twist to their playful learning experiences.

Here’s what we did:
After making and recording our observations of a dandelion, my children filled out a printable that I created (you can download it here). They could choose to either place a sample of any part the plant in the detail box or draw a picture of it. They then added as many adjectives and descriptive phrases about the detail as they could. I encouraged them to use figurative as well as literal descriptions. Next we read several story books about dandelions. Here are some to check out:

Dandelion Adventures by Patricia Kite
The Dandelion’s Tale by Kevin Sheehan
The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony
A Dandelion’s Life by John Himmelman
Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada

After reading each one we pointed out and discussed the various examples of personification and simile. The kids then brainstormed some of their own. You could choose to stop here and have the children write a simple sentence or two using personification (“With all her petals reaching out like the rays of the sun, Miss Dandelion greeted me warmly”) or even a short poem like a haiku. If your child would like to go on to write a short story, help him or her develop some personality traits and identify a dilemma to build on (seeds being nervous about where they’ll land, pointy leaves scaring off other plants, etc). Then let their imaginations bring new life to the dandelion!

Note: This activity is most appropriate for 3rd graders and older. My almost six-year-old was able to make comparisons with prompting and record a simple sentence. She also enjoyed using these flower cut outs for some imaginative play – an engaging way for younger children to personify an object.