::: It started out as a cotton ball race … but …
The children very much enjoyed last week’s ping pong ball painting, moving the balls with straws, but if you remember …
they struggled to blow them when covered in paint. So we decided to let them have some blowing practice combined with some healthy competition.
We set up a table (the old faithful with the edge around it) with a race track, straws and cottonwool balls. The idea was to race the balls to the end only using blowing power.
Mostly two children would wander over and have a go … rarely did one want to have a shot by themselves.
A couple of children were keen to race ping pong balls but they kept crossing over into each others lane, so we set up some blocks to divide the table.
Now that was a lot of fun … and very challenging!
Then, the children moved the blocks around to make an obstacle course … more challenging still!
Three boys moved the blocks to create their own game which involved bouncing a ping pong ball over the blocks to score goals by landing in Joshua’s hat …
and score goals they did … nice shot Ben!
Next we used Teacher Tom‘s idea and set up a maze.
The wonderful shapes of the blocks meant we could create walls, gates and arches for the balls to travel through.
Some children used straws to blow the balls through the course as well as using them like mini golf clubs …
while others scavenged small pieces of dowel from the invention table to use as mini bats.
The children challenge each other to move the balls all the way through the course to the black ‘finish’ dot!
By the end of the day however …
the maze had … run it’s course … and taken a new direction altogether!
We noticed the balls still featured in the new play … then again with all those lovely round shapes to play with why would they not!
When our pre-kinder children arrived the next morning we set up a simpler maze for them to follow…
and using the dowel rods as bats, they had just as much fun and enjoyed the challenge as much as the older children did.
And like the older children, they too enjoying moving the blocks around to create new paths to follow!
::: This very simple activity provided many wonderful opportunities to lay down the foundations for some very important and valuable life skills for our children today … it’s true … it did! Apart from physical development these included: verbal and physical communication, sharing (space, time and equipment), turn taking, teamwork, co-operation, negotiating skills, hand eye co-ordination, patience, language (including positional language) and imagination all the while covering maths, science and literature … all through play … and all in kindergarten!
So next time your child comes home empty handed, don’t say “didn’t you do anything today” because chances are, they did a heap, but all they know is that they played … they don’t yet realize how much they learned while they played … they simply played. And that is how it is … and that is how it should be … and that is play based learning!
Be sure to visit Teacher Tom at http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com or through his link on the left hand side of the page.
Tags: cottonwool, maze, obstacle course, ping pong balls, race, straws, wooden blocks
What a fun, engaging, and evolving activity! Just think about all that science they learned while playing. That maze they built was amazing! (No pun intended…well, maybe a little intended.)
You’re right Scott, it was amazing pun … oops sorry we mean FUN!
Love it! You mentioned retrieving dowels from your “invention table”–I’m intrigued. Could you share a photo of the invention table sometime?
Love your blog! Thank you!
I love this idea. We have played cotton ball soccer before, but I will purchase some ping pong balls as I think my preschooler would love it. Thanks for sharing such wonderful ideas.
The invention table is the center of so much of our children’s creativity. Just type ‘invention table’ into the search on our home page and you’ll find lots of photos and information there. Thanks for visiting
Love it! I love how it progressed and evolved as well. It reminded me of a putt putt golf course
Those blocks – feeling the love for those blocks as well (oh, and the table with the edge). I think I might have to steal this idea as well!
Thanks for giving me credit for an idea I’d forgotten I had!
A friend once scoffed, “Ideas are cheap. They’re laying all over the ground. You can hardly walk without stumbling over an idea. The problem with most people is that they are either too stupid or too lazy to bend down and pick them up. The geniuses are the ones to pick them up.”
You guys are the geniuses. As far as I’m concerned, I’m now going to steal this idea from YOU! =)
Oh my goodness! What a wise friend you have there Tom … never in a million years would we have realized how … (gulp) … ‘genius‘ WE WERE for stealing YOUR IDEA! If that’s how you become a genius these days we must steal more!!!!
Thanks Tom
I love the look of the ping pong ball painting – so vibrant. It reminds me of an artwork you would see hanging in an art gallery.
Adding blocks to the ping pong blowing activity made for a super fun, challenging game. It’s always fun to combine resources and come up with a whole new game.
I am fascinated by the notion that people want to see tangible evidence at the end of a day as proof of what learning took place. Hours and hours of play is so much more than having fun – skills are developed, lessons are learnt and memories are made.
It’s great how you use so many photographs to provide a brilliant insight into the children’s chain of thought. It’s super to see how you used the child initiated learning to create another challenge for the younger kids. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Caroline, the idea behind our blog was to present a much information as we could with photos. Glad you’re enjoying it!
I am treating myself to a good browse through your site, and loved this idea – we’ve done something similar with fans and folded paper etc but only in a straight line – the blowing adds so many dimensions – and loved the maze idea – and also love your very interesting blocks – are they old or newish – would love to be able to source some. Also your table with the edge – nice and long – was it adapted to kinder or bought purpose built?
i will be recycling some of your ideas when the opportunity arises – so nice to have people like you and Teacher Tom to “borrow” from ….
Hi Louise welcome aboard! The blocks you like so much are a couple of years old. We purchased them from a company called “Mahkupu” and, although we heard they had changed their name to “Block Play”, we have had no luck in finding them since! Our table with the edge is something we designed and had made. It is a removable tray top which fits on top of one of our existing tables … it’s brilliant, we wouldn’t be without it! Please fell free to borrow as many ideas as you want. We will visit your site now and take a look around. It will be nice to see what a country Victorian kinder is up too! Cheers
Love this idea – so much fun and so much learning going on!
::: Thanks Book Chook … it’s always a lot of fun to do!
