I love accidental learning, an activity that I didn’t go out of my way to plan, so its super easy, and it turns out to be a bountiful learning experience for my little ones.
Here are some fun activities we discovered whilst playing with a good old box of Otees:
What you will need:
- A box of Otees, or two boxes of different flavours or colours which you can mix.
- Pipe cleaners.
- String or wool.
- Some plastic cups.
Activities:
- Counting – use them as counters for counting, and for older children, grouping or halving.
- Sorting – sort them into colours. You could use Fruit Loops for this or you could by 2 or 3 different coloured boxes, mix them, and then get your toddler to sort them into colours. This can be done by placing them in coloured bowls, or placing them onto a pile on a coloured sheet of paper.
- Threading – this is great for fine motor and eye- hand coordination. Depending on the age of your little one, you could use all kinds of things to thread onto to make necklaces or bangles – string wool, pipe cleaners, skewer sticks, thin straws or ribbon.
- Pattern making – this one my son pointed out – “look mommy I made a pattern, 3 white ones, then 2 brown ones and then 3 whites ones again” – we tried all kinds of variety thereafter.
- Basic visual memory games – using three upside down cups, hide an Otee under one of them – see if your little one can remember where the Otee was. For older children, you can add and say which cup has 2 Otees underneath, or which cup has the brown Otee underneath.
- Make some auditory shakers – place some Otees in a Tupperware with a lid, or in a washed out water bottle. Have fun and shake the shaker to the rhythm of a nursery rhyme or to a song. Don’t forget to dance a long too and get those bodies moving.
- Get Creative – can you make a snake, can you make a bird feeder to hang in the trees outside?
Contributed by Victoria Bruigom of Clamber Club Toddlers – Olivedale
Tel: 074 116 5690
Email: olivedale@clamberclub.com
Website: www.clamberclub.com