DIY Colorful Autumn Leaves!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Sep 28, 2022 | STEM
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Young learners love to explore the wonders and surprises of science! Bring the spirit of October to life with this fun and engaging science experiment: Exploding Pumpkins! Kids of all ages will love to “dig deep” and watch the chemical reaction unfold before their eyes. But don’t blink, because you might miss it!
This experiment requires a few simple ingredients. You will probably already have a home. It’s easy to set up and clean up, which makes it mom and teacher approved!
First, add food coloring to the vinegar. Here I added about 10 drops, but you can adjust it as you see fit to obtain the desired color. Give it a mix and place it off to the side for now.
Next, carve the top portion of your pumpkin off. Before removing the seeds, this would be the perfect opportunity to pause and have your little learners use their senses to smell and touch the pumpkin pulp, strands and seeds. After, use a spoon to carve out the gooey middle. Be sure to scrape the strands off the edges. You can even bake the seeds as a tasty after science treat!
Have the littles make a prediction for what they think will happen once you add the two ingredients together. Use the eye droppers to transfer a few drops of the vinegar into the pumpkin. After, take some time to observe the chemical reaction. What do they hear, see, smell, etc is happening. Does it happen right away or after some time? They can record it in a “science notebook” and draw what they see and notice.
After using the eye droppers, make a “splash” with a large chemical reaction! Pour the remaining vinegar into the pumpkin and watch the results unfold! It will be tremendous fun. Consider filming their reaction so you can rewatch it again and again!
Don’t be afraid to pour the vinegar into the pumpkin quickly for best results. Also, consider choosing a food coloring color with enough of a contrast to the color of your pumpkin and tray.
The foam from the chemical reaction won’t last long so soak up all of the excitement while you can! This is the perfect way to ignite a love of learning and passion for science in your little learners. The Exploding Pumpkins experiment can even be adapted to fit other thematic seasons and holidays. You can even opt to use a plastic pumpkin, cauldron, etc.
Young learners love to explore the wonders and surprises of science! Bring the spirit of October to life with this fun and engaging science experiment: Exploding Pumpkins! Kids of all ages will love to “dig deep” and watch the chemical reaction unfold before their eyes. But don’t blink, because you might miss it!
This experiment requires a few simple ingredients. You will probably already have a home. It’s easy to set up and clean up, which makes it mom and teacher approved!
First, add food coloring to the vinegar. Here I added about 10 drops, but you can adjust it as you see fit to obtain the desired color. Give it a mix and place it off to the side for now.
Next, carve the top portion of your pumpkin off. Before removing the seeds, this would be the perfect opportunity to pause and have your little learners use their senses to smell and touch the pumpkin pulp, strands and seeds. After, use a spoon to carve out the gooey middle. Be sure to scrape the strands off the edges. You can even bake the seeds as a tasty after science treat!
Have the littles make a prediction for what they think will happen once you add the two ingredients together. Use the eye droppers to transfer a few drops of the vinegar into the pumpkin. After, take some time to observe the chemical reaction. What do they hear, see, smell, etc is happening. Does it happen right away or after some time? They can record it in a “science notebook” and draw what they see and notice.
After using the eye droppers, make a “splash” with a large chemical reaction! Pour the remaining vinegar into the pumpkin and watch the results unfold! It will be tremendous fun. Consider filming their reaction so you can rewatch it again and again!
Don’t be afraid to pour the vinegar into the pumpkin quickly for best results. Also, consider choosing a food coloring color with enough of a contrast to the color of your pumpkin and tray.
The foam from the chemical reaction won’t last long so soak up all of the excitement while you can! This is the perfect way to ignite a love of learning and passion for science in your little learners. The Exploding Pumpkins experiment can even be adapted to fit other thematic seasons and holidays. You can even opt to use a plastic pumpkin, cauldron, etc.
Your soon-to-be-Kindergartener was built for summer! There’s so much to do, see, and explore, both inside and outdoors. If you’re looking for some fresh, fun ideas to help keep your rising Kindergartner engaged and learning for the rest of the summer, have we got the activities for you! Read on for three days’ worth of developmental, educational, and social-emotional activities – plus some bonus activities, just for fun. And don’t miss our summer minicamp activity ideas for three- and four-year-olds
Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.
Download this free, printable worksheet, grab some counters, and practice numbers and counting with your kiddo! Count the letters in their name (writing it out on a sheet of paper might help), their age, the number of siblings they have, and more!
You may have seen the pretty, painted rocks people are leaving around neighborhoods across the country as a symbol of kindness. You can do the same! Take a walk and find some medium-sized rocks with nice flat or rounded surfaces. Clean them off and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes – you can use the time to talk about things that make your kids happy as inspiration for what they might draw. Let the rocks cool just a bit, then use crayons to draw their ideas! When the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write caring messages like “Kindness”, “Love”, or “Joy”. Then place them in your neighbors’ gardens to brighten up their days! Find other kindness activities here.
End your first day of minicamp with another cool-down activity – making a snowstorm in a bottle! Gather a glass or see-through plastic jar, vegetable oil, white paint, glitter, and an Alka-Seltzer tab, and follow these instructions to make it snow inside!
Using the proper pencil grip is the key to legible writing. Help your kiddo practice this summer by providing a sheet of properly formed capital letters to trace using a variety of differently sized crayons, markers, and pencils. Around age five, kids should be able to manipulate a writing utensil with three fingers rather than move their wrists or arms. Learn more about proper pencil grasps here.
Brush up on those math skills with a scavenger hunt around the house! Print this list of things to look for and set off to find everyday math items, including number words, items of certain sizes and shapes, pairs of things, and more!
Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers? Draw a picture?
Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?
Stretchy, sticky, and squishy, you probably know that slime is awesome. But did you know that slime also helps builds fine motor skills? Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, and twisting are all great ways to strengthen hand muscles and build fine motor skills! Start your last day of minicamp off with some slime, using our favorite recipe.
Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row.
The forces of physics are all around us, and summer is a great time to see them in action. Floating in the pool, rolling a ball, and dropping an ice cream cone (oh NO!) are perfect examples of buoyancy, motion, and gravity. These simple activities will demonstrate some of the most fundamental properties of physics in a fun way – and you can follow up your lesson by making a simple machine (instructions included).
Print this free career worksheet, cut out the word cards and images, and match them up! Talk about each job, the responsibilities of each job, the qualities each requires, and which one interests your child the most (and the least).
Your soon-to-be-Kindergartener was built for summer! There’s so much to do, see, and explore, both inside and outdoors. If you’re looking for some fresh, fun ideas to help keep your rising Kindergartner engaged and learning for the rest of the summer, have we got the activities for you! Read on for three days’ worth of developmental, educational, and social-emotional activities – plus some bonus activities, just for fun. And don’t miss our summer minicamp activity ideas for three- and four-year-olds
Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.
Download this free, printable worksheet, grab some counters, and practice numbers and counting with your kiddo! Count the letters in their name (writing it out on a sheet of paper might help), their age, the number of siblings they have, and more!
You may have seen the pretty, painted rocks people are leaving around neighborhoods across the country as a symbol of kindness. You can do the same! Take a walk and find some medium-sized rocks with nice flat or rounded surfaces. Clean them off and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes – you can use the time to talk about things that make your kids happy as inspiration for what they might draw. Let the rocks cool just a bit, then use crayons to draw their ideas! When the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write caring messages like “Kindness”, “Love”, or “Joy”. Then place them in your neighbors’ gardens to brighten up their days! Find other kindness activities here.
End your first day of minicamp with another cool-down activity – making a snowstorm in a bottle! Gather a glass or see-through plastic jar, vegetable oil, white paint, glitter, and an Alka-Seltzer tab, and follow these instructions to make it snow inside!
Using the proper pencil grip is the key to legible writing. Help your kiddo practice this summer by providing a sheet of properly formed capital letters to trace using a variety of differently sized crayons, markers, and pencils. Around age five, kids should be able to manipulate a writing utensil with three fingers rather than move their wrists or arms. Learn more about proper pencil grasps here.
Brush up on those math skills with a scavenger hunt around the house! Print this list of things to look for and set off to find everyday math items, including number words, items of certain sizes and shapes, pairs of things, and more!
Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers? Draw a picture?
Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?
Stretchy, sticky, and squishy, you probably know that slime is awesome. But did you know that slime also helps builds fine motor skills? Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, and twisting are all great ways to strengthen hand muscles and build fine motor skills! Start your last day of minicamp off with some slime, using our favorite recipe.
Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row.
The forces of physics are all around us, and summer is a great time to see them in action. Floating in the pool, rolling a ball, and dropping an ice cream cone (oh NO!) are perfect examples of buoyancy, motion, and gravity. These simple activities will demonstrate some of the most fundamental properties of physics in a fun way – and you can follow up your lesson by making a simple machine (instructions included).
Print this free career worksheet, cut out the word cards and images, and match them up! Talk about each job, the responsibilities of each job, the qualities each requires, and which one interests your child the most (and the least).
Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:
Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.
If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!
Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.
This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.
Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers? Draw a picture?
Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?
Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.
Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row.
Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:
Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.
If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!
Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.
This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.
Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers? Draw a picture?
Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?
Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.
Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row.
Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:
Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here.
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.
Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.
Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.
Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:
Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here.
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.
Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.
Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.
Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
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Keep Calm and Slime On
5 Surprising Benefits of Slime Play
Although slime may seem like an overnight sensation that came out of nowhere five years ago, the sticky, slippery, stretchy stuff kids can’t get enough of was actually first manufactured and sold by Mattel in 1976. Slime shot to superstardom a few years later as it first dripped, dropped, and covered the stars of Nickelodeon TV in the ‘80s. And who could forget the Slimer of Ghostbusters fame, the “focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm”? With decades of staying power under its ooey-gooey belt, slime is clearly here to stay. As much as many parents wish slime would slip out of their kids’ lives forever, there are some surprising reasons to stick with it, including:
1. Slime Increases Your Child’s Ability to Pay Attention
Sure, carefully mixing the right combination of ingredients to create the perfect batch of slime (not too sticky, just enough stretch) takes concentration. But squeezing, stretching, flattening, folding, and twisting slime can also improve your child’s focus. Research indicates that busying the hands allows the brain to concentrate on other things, including listening to instructions, stories, and lessons.
2. Slime Builds Fine Motor Skills
Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, twisting, and pressing are all amazing ways to strengthen the hand muscles and build fine motor skills.
3. Slime Introduces Basic Chemistry
Your kids know that mixing the correct amounts of contact lens solution, baking soda, and glue makes slime. You can explain that the reason those ingredients turn into slime when combined is a chemical reaction between the main ingredients – the polyvinyl alcohol in glue and the borate ion that’s created when they mix baking soda with contact lens solution. Together, these two ingredients create a non-Newtonian fluid. That’s another way of saying slime is neither a solid nor a liquid, has no shape, and can change elasticity to flow between your child’s fingers or bounce like a ball.
4. Slime Stimulates the Senses
The more senses involved when your child plays, the more connections their brains are making. Kids are obviously engaging their sense of touch while playing with slime, as well as sight, and sometimes hearing (hands up if your kids make fart sounds with their slime).
5. Slime Is Creative
Making and playing with slime requires creativity and imagination! Kids can add colors, glitter, beads and other elements to their recipes to create custom batches of slime and the way they play with their slime is entirely up to them! Will the twist it into ropes? Roll it flat and use cookie cutters to make shapes? Ball it up and bounce it? Create freeform shapes as they squeeze and stretch? Slime has no rules, so kids direct slime play their own way.
So if you’re looking for something fun to do today, why not whip up a batch of slime? Our favorite recipe is below:
1. Pour 5 ounces of Elmer’s white blue into a small bowl
2. Add ½ cup of water and mix (add a drop or two of food coloring here for colored slime)
3. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda and mix
4. Add 1 tablespoon of contact lens solution (make sure it contains boric acid) and stir until the slime lifts away from the sides of the bowl
5. Knead the slime with your hands, adding a dash of saline until you have the consistency you want
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Keep Calm and Slime On
5 Surprising Benefits of Slime Play
Although slime may seem like an overnight sensation that came out of nowhere five years ago, the sticky, slippery, stretchy stuff kids can’t get enough of was actually first manufactured and sold by Mattel in 1976. Slime shot to superstardom a few years later as it first dripped, dropped, and covered the stars of Nickelodeon TV in the ‘80s. And who could forget the Slimer of Ghostbusters fame, the “focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm”? With decades of staying power under its ooey-gooey belt, slime is clearly here to stay. As much as many parents wish slime would slip out of their kids’ lives forever, there are some surprising reasons to stick with it, including:
1. Slime Increases Your Child’s Ability to Pay Attention
Sure, carefully mixing the right combination of ingredients to create the perfect batch of slime (not too sticky, just enough stretch) takes concentration. But squeezing, stretching, flattening, folding, and twisting slime can also improve your child’s focus. Research indicates that busying the hands allows the brain to concentrate on other things, including listening to instructions, stories, and lessons.
2. Slime Builds Fine Motor Skills
Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, twisting, and pressing are all amazing ways to strengthen the hand muscles and build fine motor skills.
3. Slime Introduces Basic Chemistry
Your kids know that mixing the correct amounts of contact lens solution, baking soda, and glue makes slime. You can explain that the reason those ingredients turn into slime when combined is a chemical reaction between the main ingredients – the polyvinyl alcohol in glue and the borate ion that’s created when they mix baking soda with contact lens solution. Together, these two ingredients create a non-Newtonian fluid. That’s another way of saying slime is neither a solid nor a liquid, has no shape, and can change elasticity to flow between your child’s fingers or bounce like a ball.
4. Slime Stimulates the Senses
The more senses involved when your child plays, the more connections their brains are making. Kids are obviously engaging their sense of touch while playing with slime, as well as sight, and sometimes hearing (hands up if your kids make fart sounds with their slime).
5. Slime Is Creative
Making and playing with slime requires creativity and imagination! Kids can add colors, glitter, beads and other elements to their recipes to create custom batches of slime and the way they play with their slime is entirely up to them! Will the twist it into ropes? Roll it flat and use cookie cutters to make shapes? Ball it up and bounce it? Create freeform shapes as they squeeze and stretch? Slime has no rules, so kids direct slime play their own way.
So if you’re looking for something fun to do today, why not whip up a batch of slime? Our favorite recipe is below:
1. Pour 5 ounces of Elmer’s white blue into a small bowl
2. Add ½ cup of water and mix (add a drop or two of food coloring here for colored slime)
3. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda and mix
4. Add 1 tablespoon of contact lens solution (make sure it contains boric acid) and stir until the slime lifts away from the sides of the bowl
5. Knead the slime with your hands, adding a dash of saline until you have the consistency you want
The more varied your child’s play experiences are, the better off they’ll be! Enter, water, the most common substance found on Earth. Essential to all forms of life, it’s also an essential component of your toddler and preschooler’s playtime. Lifting, pouring, carrying, and splashing water build gross motor skills, while scooping and squeezing build fine motor skills. Water play also supports hand-eye coordination and balance, and, when done with friends, encourages cooperation, sharing, and turn taking. Water play with toys can build vocabulary, measurement, early science skills, and so more. Plus, water play activities can be adjusted to be either calming or energizing. Are you in? Make a splash, with one of our favorite wet n’ wild activities today:
1. Fill ‘Er Up! Set various plastic containers in a large plastic bin or tray. Include smaller cups, larger pitchers, and everything in between. Fill a few of the containers with water (food coloring makes water play extra fun) and watch as your child transfers water from one container to another. Turkey basters, eye droppers, wooden spoons, and swizzle sticks make for a fun challenge.
2. Sort It Out! Fill a large plastic bin with water and add a set of colorful items – math counters, letter tiles, pom poms, etc. Provide a scooper, spoon, tongs, and bowls and see if your little one can find and sort the items into the bowls by color.
3. Soup’s Up! Walk the backyard with your child, looking for items to add to their “soup”. Choose leaves, rocks, flower petals, dirt… then drop the ingredients into a large plastic bowl and stir! See if your kiddo can scoop their soup into smaller plastic bowls.
4. Sink or Float? Fill your bin with water and collect a variety of items from around the house or the backyard. Ask your child to hypothesize, or make a guess, about which items will sink and which will float, then test their theories! Things to try: rocks, sheets of paper, paperclips, toy cars, plastic blocks…
5. Coffee Shop! Fill your bin with water and provide plastic cups, saucers, spoons, and scoopers. Place your order and watch as your child fills the cup with pebble or dirt “grounds”, stirs them, and pours you a cuppa.
6. Go Fish! Fill your tub with floating foam fish and see if your fisherman can “catch” them with a small net or spoon.
7. Car Wash! Muck up your kiddo’s trike or play car, then fill a bucket with sudsy water, large sponges, and rags, and watch as they spiff up their rides!
8. Bowl O Bubbles! Pour a bit of dish washing liquid into your bin, add water and a few drops of food coloring (different colors, please!), and let your little one loose with differently sized bubble wands.
9. Sponge Toss! Assign each child a sponge color, then drop them into a bowl of water and show them how to squeeze them dry. Practice dropping and squeezing, then add another (large) bin or bowl full of water and see if your child can toss their sponge in.
10. Color Lab! Use food coloring to color one cup each of red, yellow, and blue water. Show your colorful kiddo how to mix red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, green and blue to make light blue, green and red to make yellow. Then let them experiment, pouring and mixing their own custom colors.
Fun for all ages, there’s no end to the ways kids can play with water. So set up your bins and scoopers today and go get wet!
The more varied your child’s play experiences are, the better off they’ll be! Enter, water, the most common substance found on Earth. Essential to all forms of life, it’s also an essential component of your toddler and preschooler’s playtime. Lifting, pouring, carrying, and splashing water build gross motor skills, while scooping and squeezing build fine motor skills. Water play also supports hand-eye coordination and balance, and, when done with friends, encourages cooperation, sharing, and turn taking. Water play with toys can build vocabulary, measurement, early science skills, and so more. Plus, water play activities can be adjusted to be either calming or energizing. Are you in? Make a splash, with one of our favorite wet n’ wild activities today:
1. Fill ‘Er Up! Set various plastic containers in a large plastic bin or tray. Include smaller cups, larger pitchers, and everything in between. Fill a few of the containers with water (food coloring makes water play extra fun) and watch as your child transfers water from one container to another. Turkey basters, eye droppers, wooden spoons, and swizzle sticks make for a fun challenge.
2. Sort It Out! Fill a large plastic bin with water and add a set of colorful items – math counters, letter tiles, pom poms, etc. Provide a scooper, spoon, tongs, and bowls and see if your little one can find and sort the items into the bowls by color.
3. Soup’s Up! Walk the backyard with your child, looking for items to add to their “soup”. Choose leaves, rocks, flower petals, dirt… then drop the ingredients into a large plastic bowl and stir! See if your kiddo can scoop their soup into smaller plastic bowls.
4. Sink or Float? Fill your bin with water and collect a variety of items from around the house or the backyard. Ask your child to hypothesize, or make a guess, about which items will sink and which will float, then test their theories! Things to try: rocks, sheets of paper, paperclips, toy cars, plastic blocks…
5. Coffee Shop! Fill your bin with water and provide plastic cups, saucers, spoons, and scoopers. Place your order and watch as your child fills the cup with pebble or dirt “grounds”, stirs them, and pours you a cuppa.
6. Go Fish! Fill your tub with floating foam fish and see if your fisherman can “catch” them with a small net or spoon.
7. Car Wash! Muck up your kiddo’s trike or play car, then fill a bucket with sudsy water, large sponges, and rags, and watch as they spiff up their rides!
8. Bowl O Bubbles! Pour a bit of dish washing liquid into your bin, add water and a few drops of food coloring (different colors, please!), and let your little one loose with differently sized bubble wands.
9. Sponge Toss! Assign each child a sponge color, then drop them into a bowl of water and show them how to squeeze them dry. Practice dropping and squeezing, then add another (large) bin or bowl full of water and see if your child can toss their sponge in.
10. Color Lab! Use food coloring to color one cup each of red, yellow, and blue water. Show your colorful kiddo how to mix red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, green and blue to make light blue, green and red to make yellow. Then let them experiment, pouring and mixing their own custom colors.
Fun for all ages, there’s no end to the ways kids can play with water. So set up your bins and scoopers today and go get wet!
My four-year-old and eight-year-old both love playing with the Gears! Gears! Gears!® Set we have at home. They play with the set in different ways but can engineer and build some impressive creations both in collaboration and independently. My eight-year-old loves trying to make more challenging creations, so I was excited to see that Learning Resources® has released a new TreadMobiles Set.
A great way to look at this particular product is as an expansion pack for when your child starts to want to build beyond the original Gears! Pieces. This is a 101-piece set, which includes regular gears and unique pieces such as chain links and rubber treads to go on wheels. It enables your gear creations to become more mobile, with the possibility also to twist and turn.
My eight-year-old always loves to be let loose with any building material before he attempts to follow directions for a specific build. He carefully tested out the newer style pieces, especially getting excited when he saw the wheels and treads. He liked the challenge of figuring out what each part did and how it could fit together with other pieces to cause motion. It is essential to give your child ample time to freely explore STEM toys as this is the prime opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills. It encourages trial and error, as well as creating a sense of perseverance. These are essential skills for little engineers!
After testing out the pieces, my son decided to try and build one of the suggested vehicles included in the guide provided. We worked together to find the pieces and put them together correctly, testing out that the gears were in motion along the way. The set is recommended for 5-10-year-olds, and I would say that those towards the lower end of the age recommendation may well need some help. My little engineer is way better at building these things than I am, so he was directing me on how to make the vehicle most of the time!
Once we had the basic frame of the vehicle put together, it was time to add the wheels and treads. This gave a whole new lease of life to the Gears product. There’s something so rewarding for children to be able to make builds that move. Even more, motion was added when the large chain wrapped around the entire vehicle. This took some problem-solving and patience until we got the chain on correctly, but it was great to see my son trying to work it out independently. Once the chain was fixed, we had a pretty cool TreadMobile!
Cue 4-year-old little sis joining in with the play. She enjoyed testing out all of the different parts of the vehicle which moved and even wanted to add a few more pieces. Adding the different pieces is a great way to develop fine motor skills, with the small hands and muscles having to work hard to manipulate and connect the pieces. It was fun to see little sis enjoying the set just as big bro.
I’m looking forward to seeing how my children explore this new set, with there being a real potential for lots of collaborative building. I like that there are new styles of pieces included and that these are all also compatible with the original Gears! Gears! Gears! sets, which will allow many opportunities to expand on builds in the future.
Writer’s Bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.
My four-year-old and eight-year-old both love playing with the Gears! Gears! Gears!® Set we have at home. They play with the set in different ways but can engineer and build some impressive creations both in collaboration and independently. My eight-year-old loves trying to make more challenging creations, so I was excited to see that Learning Resources® has released a new TreadMobiles Set.
A great way to look at this particular product is as an expansion pack for when your child starts to want to build beyond the original Gears! Pieces. This is a 101-piece set, which includes regular gears and unique pieces such as chain links and rubber treads to go on wheels. It enables your gear creations to become more mobile, with the possibility also to twist and turn.
My eight-year-old always loves to be let loose with any building material before he attempts to follow directions for a specific build. He carefully tested out the newer style pieces, especially getting excited when he saw the wheels and treads. He liked the challenge of figuring out what each part did and how it could fit together with other pieces to cause motion. It is essential to give your child ample time to freely explore STEM toys as this is the prime opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills. It encourages trial and error, as well as creating a sense of perseverance. These are essential skills for little engineers!
After testing out the pieces, my son decided to try and build one of the suggested vehicles included in the guide provided. We worked together to find the pieces and put them together correctly, testing out that the gears were in motion along the way. The set is recommended for 5-10-year-olds, and I would say that those towards the lower end of the age recommendation may well need some help. My little engineer is way better at building these things than I am, so he was directing me on how to make the vehicle most of the time!
Once we had the basic frame of the vehicle put together, it was time to add the wheels and treads. This gave a whole new lease of life to the Gears product. There’s something so rewarding for children to be able to make builds that move. Even more, motion was added when the large chain wrapped around the entire vehicle. This took some problem-solving and patience until we got the chain on correctly, but it was great to see my son trying to work it out independently. Once the chain was fixed, we had a pretty cool TreadMobile!
Cue 4-year-old little sis joining in with the play. She enjoyed testing out all of the different parts of the vehicle which moved and even wanted to add a few more pieces. Adding the different pieces is a great way to develop fine motor skills, with the small hands and muscles having to work hard to manipulate and connect the pieces. It was fun to see little sis enjoying the set just as big bro.
I’m looking forward to seeing how my children explore this new set, with there being a real potential for lots of collaborative building. I like that there are new styles of pieces included and that these are all also compatible with the original Gears! Gears! Gears! sets, which will allow many opportunities to expand on builds in the future.
Writer’s Bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.
Learning Resources do an excellent job at making STEM learning accessible to children of all ages. One of the reasons we love their products so much is because they have a natural ability to allow my two children to create and play together at a challenging level but not frustrating. The new STEM Explorers™ Marble Runners is an excellent example of this, and we’d love to share more about it with you in this blog.
What’s Included
This may seem like a very simple set on first inspection, and I’ll admit that I was hesitant about how long the play would last. I was so wrong! The set includes 13 track pieces, two balls, and a double-sided booklet with instructions and fun track suggestions. The track pieces are made from dense foam and have reusable self-adhesive backings, which means they can be stuck to windows, removed, and used again. If the pieces start to lose their stick, simply wet them with a damp cloth, and the stick factor is reactivated.
First Impressions
Initial impressions are always key when it comes to STEM toys. My four-year-old and eight-year-old showed genuine excitement when I got the box out. They’d never made a vertical marble run before, let alone one on our big glass door! The reason I say that first impressions are essential is because if the initial play is one of frustration or it lacks engagement, then it’s often the case that the toy will have a short life span with my kids. If, however, they are intrigued and can use the product with success, they are most definitely going to get lots of play from it. I loved how they could easily stick the pieces to the window, and they were so excited to build a track together.
Trial and Error All the Way
STEM products have a great ability to encourage children to work collaboratively and also to evoke a sense of trial and error. Sometimes the ‘error’ part can be challenging for children to overcome. They build the track, and it doesn’t work, but how do they respond? Do they give up? Or can they problem-solve to adjust the track accordingly. My four-year-old wanted it to work the first time, but my eight-year-old was so patient and did a great job gradually moving pieces to fix any problems. This is where getting them to work as a team paid off. My eight-year-old would adjust the pieces and say to his sister, ‘let’s test it now.’ She would drop the ball, and they would analyze where it went wrong. Then my eight-year-old would make the adjustments, and they would test it again. I loved watching them in action together.
The fact that the pieces are easy to remove and put back on the glass was a huge bonus. The design also means that there are so many fantastic combinations of tracks that you can build. My son always wants to create his own, which I love about him. We also had fun testing out some of the suggested tracks on the instruction booklet. I like how they gradually increase in difficulty, and the images are clear and easy to follow.
Teamwork for the Win
This is an awesome product for siblings or friends to use together, as well as it is perfect for classroom play. We had little sis inside moving the pieces and big bro outside looking at the set-up from the other side of the glass. They thought this was pretty cool and loved following the ball together through the glass. Collaborative learning has so much to offer in terms of developing communication skills and helping children improve skills such as patience and empathy. It would be a blast to have two sets of Marble Runners and work side by side doing marble races!
Learning resources have done it again with another quality STEM product ideal for collaborative play and learning! Be sure to share your Marble Runners track ideas on social media for us to test out.
Writer’s Bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.
Learning Resources do an excellent job at making STEM learning accessible to children of all ages. One of the reasons we love their products so much is because they have a natural ability to allow my two children to create and play together at a challenging level but not frustrating. The new STEM Explorers™ Marble Runners is an excellent example of this, and we’d love to share more about it with you in this blog.
What’s Included
This may seem like a very simple set on first inspection, and I’ll admit that I was hesitant about how long the play would last. I was so wrong! The set includes 13 track pieces, two balls, and a double-sided booklet with instructions and fun track suggestions. The track pieces are made from dense foam and have reusable self-adhesive backings, which means they can be stuck to windows, removed, and used again. If the pieces start to lose their stick, simply wet them with a damp cloth, and the stick factor is reactivated.
First Impressions
Initial impressions are always key when it comes to STEM toys. My four-year-old and eight-year-old showed genuine excitement when I got the box out. They’d never made a vertical marble run before, let alone one on our big glass door! The reason I say that first impressions are essential is because if the initial play is one of frustration or it lacks engagement, then it’s often the case that the toy will have a short life span with my kids. If, however, they are intrigued and can use the product with success, they are most definitely going to get lots of play from it. I loved how they could easily stick the pieces to the window, and they were so excited to build a track together.
Trial and Error All the Way
STEM products have a great ability to encourage children to work collaboratively and also to evoke a sense of trial and error. Sometimes the ‘error’ part can be challenging for children to overcome. They build the track, and it doesn’t work, but how do they respond? Do they give up? Or can they problem-solve to adjust the track accordingly. My four-year-old wanted it to work the first time, but my eight-year-old was so patient and did a great job gradually moving pieces to fix any problems. This is where getting them to work as a team paid off. My eight-year-old would adjust the pieces and say to his sister, ‘let’s test it now.’ She would drop the ball, and they would analyze where it went wrong. Then my eight-year-old would make the adjustments, and they would test it again. I loved watching them in action together.
The fact that the pieces are easy to remove and put back on the glass was a huge bonus. The design also means that there are so many fantastic combinations of tracks that you can build. My son always wants to create his own, which I love about him. We also had fun testing out some of the suggested tracks on the instruction booklet. I like how they gradually increase in difficulty, and the images are clear and easy to follow.
Teamwork for the Win
This is an awesome product for siblings or friends to use together, as well as it is perfect for classroom play. We had little sis inside moving the pieces and big bro outside looking at the set-up from the other side of the glass. They thought this was pretty cool and loved following the ball together through the glass. Collaborative learning has so much to offer in terms of developing communication skills and helping children improve skills such as patience and empathy. It would be a blast to have two sets of Marble Runners and work side by side doing marble races!
Learning resources have done it again with another quality STEM product ideal for collaborative play and learning! Be sure to share your Marble Runners track ideas on social media for us to test out.
Writer’s Bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.