As the weather recently has been wet then warm and wet again we have been keeping the children’s interest by playing lots of games – they just love them, don’t they?

The outside play didn’t last all that long on one of the wetter days, so we searched for something else to do inside that was active as the rain poured down.

We had some used and cleaned plastic milk bottles with the handle on one side, so chopped off the bottom and tipped them upside down.

Then the children threaded a big bead onto some fine elastic which was tied to the side of the bottle opposite the handle.

The objective was to swing the bead up and into the bottle.

Although we adults managed it quite well (we don’t like to miss out!), it was quite a challenge for the younger children …

but this little friend said “When things are hard I just have to keep on trying”!

And keep on trying she did …

Woohoo score!!!

We love home made games – cheap, available and our own rules!!!

We find that the children often want to revisit tattooed rocks. They just love doing it!

They tattooed some quite big ones recently and started playing games with them.

We were at Donna’s house where there is a staircase and they wanted to play a game incorporating the stairs – probably just an excuse to go up and down them!

We found some counters, wrote the numbers 1, 2 and 3 on them and popped them into a bag.

The children reached in, pulled out a counter and decided that whatever the number was …

that was how many stairs the rocks could go up …

until all the stairs had a rock on them.

The best part of the game was, all the rules were made up by them!

When they came back down the other way, whatever the number was, was how many rocks were put back into the bowl at the bottom.

Making up their own rules meant they could change them as they went along, but everyone was happy, including we adults who loved the number recognition and one to one correspondence which occurred naturally in their play.

Following on from this made up game the children pulled out a board game which we had picked up on a recent visit to Resource Rescue, but we hadn’t yet got around to reading the rules.

Once again though, they said they didn’t need the rules …

“We just want to play!”

Now we reckon there’s a lesson in that little statement for all of us!

Celebrating our Australian animals is always a great lead into celebrating other things Aussie.

Ellie V Pullin had a visit from Wild Action a little while back and we noticed that it was reflected in other parts of their play.

Animals in the sand …

a matching game …

with an Aboriginal theme.

Jigsaw puzzles…

photos on display …

and drawings.

Wild Action is a wonderful incursion which always gives the children a wonderful basis to extend their thinking, learning and creativity.

This post has been added to the “World Animal Day 2011 – Bloghop” over at Angelique Felix.com. Please be sure to pop on over and see other “Children & Animals at Play”.

We found this novel idea for a marble run from ‘Serving Pink Lemonade Blogspot’.

Take one of those foam noodles the children use in the swimming pool. Make sure it has a hole down the middle.

We cut our noodle in halves down the middle with a bread knife …

right down through the entire thing.

The children put the two halves side by side and had marble races. It was interesting for them to figure out that you could make your marble go faster by lifting it up at the end before letting your marble whizz down the noodle.

Then they joined them into one long run, all by themselves, with sticky tape  …

and had a ball zooming the marbles down as fast as they could.

If you want to join the tracks together side by side, simply use some toothpicks …

to hold them in place.

You can also use the same technique (instead of sticky tape) …

to make the track twice as long!

Donna popped back into Highvale Preschool this week were the children were very happy to show her what they were up to.

Three girls were sitting at a table playing a matching game called ‘Shopping List’ . Clarise invited Donna to join in.

Clarise explained it was a shopping game and you had to find, in the cards on the table, the items that matched the things on your shopping list and fill up your trolley.

The beauty of this game is, there could have been rules to follow …

like taking turns to choose a card …

or missing a turn if you picked an item that was not on your list.

Today however, there were no restricting rules. Today there was Donna and three little friends …

reading lists …

recognising and matching symbols …

on their own card and each others.

Just beautiful co-operatively play without competition.

We found a great warm weather activity at the ‘Handmade Beginnings’ blog - sculptures using a large block of ice and lots of small different shaped coloured ice blocks.

We set this activity up with a group of three year olds at St. John’s Anglican Kindergarten in Croydon. We were anticipating they would decorate the large ice blocks with the small ones but as so often happens, they took the activity off in their own direction and had a ball!

Their idea of fun was to swoosh the large blocks of ice to and fro across the table top.

As the coloured blocks soon melted, coloured water was flying everywhere!

The children very happily helped us blot up the excess coloured water, then they went for it again.

It ended up being, not only heaps of fun swishing the blocks to each other, but a simple way for the children to get to know each others’ names.

They have just started kinder together and don’t know each other very well. This was perfect – “Swoosh the ice to Alistair, now to Aurora, over to Rachel ….”

It proved to be a wonderful social, sensory game of ice block hockey …

and the children LOVED it!

We have found a really simple and fun yo-yo that the children can make themselves (with a little bit of help).

It is particularly good on a hot day!

Fill a balloon up with water. It is better to do it from a tap or hose as it needs a bit of pressure – it doesn’t fill up and become heavy enough if you pour in water out of a jug.

Tie it tightly – This is where you may need to help!

We used some extra thick elastic bands cut to form a long strip for the ‘string’, but a piece of elastic would do the trick too.

Tie that onto the top and there you have it - a balloon yo-yo.

What fun!

And if it bursts – extra fun!

This post has been featured as a ‘high five!’ on the delightful ‘hands on: as we grow blog‘. Be sure to pop on over and see what other ideas Henry and Jamie are featuring this week!

A really simple game which the children can make themselves is a homemade version of quoits. We filled up large used drink bottles with coloured water. You could use sand or rice or whatever.

Then we cut out the middle out of two plastic plates, glued them together and added coins to give the quoit a bit more weight.

This a a great game for one or more children. Start up close and move back a step each time you get it over the bottle. See how far back you can be and still get the ring over the bottles.

It whizzes like a frisby through the air with those weights on it!

Success! And we didn’t set this up!

Ball games are a great way to get the children to interact with each other as they are getting to know one another other and forming new friendship groups.

With cricket right in our faces at the moment (what happened, Aussies?) it is a good time of year to get out the cricket bats and balls.

If one wicket keeper is good, many MUST be better (hmmm … maybe that’s where Australia went wrong!)

We also like to have a tennis ball in a stocking hanging from a branch to hit with a bat. This is good for one person or more.

Basketball is also fun on your own, or in a group …

and we like to utilize the basketball ring poles to support a net for volleyball or badminton.

Sometimes we set up some nets as goals for soccer, while at other times the children simply make their own with the wooden blocks.

Of course regardless of the season, Aussie rules football is always an ever popular ball game …

and good old fashion ten pin bowling is always fun by yourself or with a few friends too.

You can find this set at Australian Geographic stores or make your own with sandfilled plastic bottles and a basketball.

Children who play sports reap physical and mental benefits. It can directly effect a child’s development of self-esteem and self worth so let’s get our children outside as much as we can in theses early days of school and preschool. Whether they’re playing or keeping score, it’s a great way to get them interacting in a larger group!

Like everyone, we have a delightful bunch of boys who have way too much energy! They love to be very active playing footy, soccer, volleyball etc…

Sometimes they just want to run, which is fine but at times can be a bit aimless and can get a little silly, so that’s where we teachers step in and head them in a more purposeful direction.

As we all know, boys LOVE a competition, so races are perfect for them – using their energy for a reason!

We have a container of flour which we use for marking the grass for such things as the footy goals, or in this case, the start and finish lines for races.

One beautiful, sunny Spring day last week out came the flour and the races were on – running, hopping, going backwards etc…

Two boys were the starters and the judges – throwing up their hands to declare the winner – a very important and powerful job!

After a while the boys brought out the wheelbarrows …

and added blocks for a bit more of a challenge …

and if that wasn’t challenge enough …

there were always the ‘bucket stilts’ to race on!

Then we introduced them to three legged races using elastic to hold their middle legs together.

They had a ball and soon mastered the concept of working together to get the most efficient way of walking …

then running.

Great team work and also incidental maths concepts happened – inside, outside, together, three …