I bought some glass beads a while ago. I wanted to give the children an opportunity to explore them in an extended way so I set them out as a provocation; an invitation to play. I decided I would leave them out for a week, presenting them in slightly different ways each day.
We started off with the glass beads in organza bags, and a mirror propped up to give them an additional perspective on their play. The children wasted no time in emptying the bags and then refilling them!
This video shows just how much learning was going on from such a simple activity. Lots and lots of mathematical language and collaboration too.
Later I added an empty chocolate box tray to see what they would do. They carefully pushed glass beads into each hole.
Next I set the beads up in plastic shot glasses, with the mirror lying flat.
Little Miss loved this provocation (as did Facebook – it got lots of shares!), she spent a long time emptying the beads onto the mirror, stacking the shot glasses and then refilling them. She was fascinated to look at the beads lying on the mirror and this is an activity she has repeated many times since. She also liked seeing herself in the mirror!
Little Man was particularly engaged in the next provocation: wooden bowls, muffin tins and sugar tongs. He spent ages transferring the beads to the muffin tin from his wooden bowl.
We revisited the beads and bags the following week at their request and it was really interesting to watch them consolidate and extend their play.
This was a perfect activity for my two. They play very differently, so it was open enough for them to approach in a way that best suited their learning styles. You can really see Little Man’s transporting schema, with his desire to keep transferring beads from one place to another. Little Miss has a tendency towards an enveloping schema; her focus was on putting the beads inside the bags and closing them, and stacking them into the shot glasses.
I’ve left the glass beads on the shelf for them to continue exploring as and when they want – I’m looking forward to seeing how their explorations progress.
Joining in with Tuesday Tots.
The post Exploring Glass Beads appeared first on Two of Everything.
