Transcript Discovery Play

..supports our children to learn laugh and love.


Discovery play is another major
part of a child's life. The other part
is imaginative play.
Simply put, discovery play allows
children to learn about the world
and how it works (not just the
physical world either).

Play time at home has become
even more important in recent
years. In The Power of Play, David
Elkind notes that over the last two
decades, children have lost, on
average, 12 hours of free time per
week, including time for
unstructured play and outdoor
activities.
•Can be structured or non-structured.
What is important is that there are multiple
possible ways of doing something or for
something to happen.
•Can be topic focused . This isn't the same as
being structured. Structured refers to how the
learning is delivered while "topic focused" refers
to the scope of the discoveries.
•Some discovery toys have problem solving built
into them like a marble run .
•Another group of discovery toys are those that
are designed with one or two very specific
concepts in mind.
•An interesting thing about discovery toys is that
the toys that are seemingly 'elementary' or
'simplistic' offer some of the best fun for kids.
Take a magnifying glass for example.

These are so easy to make. All you need it
empty clear plastic bottles with lids, a glue
gun and whatever you can find to fill them
with.
Glycerine and glitter
- it is much more effective than it looks in the picture
and very relaxing (probably why I like it:))
Glitter in distilled water
Quick dramatic results when shook, that can be repeated
again soon after. I used glitter strands in this one
Giraffe in plastic bits
This one makes a lovely sound as you twist and
turn the bottle, trying to find the giraffe.
Animals in shredded paper
Lots of twisting and turning of the bottle
required to get the animals to appear.
Car in rice
We use this one to learn about the different parts of a
car. Can you see the wheels / windows / lights /
mirrors etc.
Coloured water and oil
I think I need a fish in this one! I stupidly said to my son the
other day 'look the two liquids don't mix together' to which he
responded by vigorously shaking the bottle until they did! After a
while they did separate again!
Flowers and oil
Encourages the use of other senses in exploring the
bottles. You could have a set of discovery boxes
that focus entirely on smells.
Food colouring. Dishwash and water
Shaking creates fantastic blue bubbles which
turn white before popping.
Hairgel and marbles
Good for comparing with the Marbles in Hair Gel, to see
the the different ways the marbles behave in each.
Paperclips and distilled water
to demonstrate that magnetism also works in
water.
Pipe cleaners and magnetic wand
Use magnetic wands to draw the pipe cleaners
up the side of the bottle.
Jumping beans and wand
again can be explored with a magnetic wand.
Sand and Perspex numbers
(The sand was coloured with grated green
chalk).
Shampoo and marbles
To compare with hair gel.
We don't have these out all the time but they
are always popular when we do
Shaking
Social skills
Twisting turning
Twisitng and comparing