We Play Pool Noodle Hockey

No correct equipment? No problem! All you need is a family with imagination!

That’s what we found one evening a few weeks back when warmer weather was finally breaking in our part of the world and our son wanted to play hockey outside.

Problem

The problem was that we have no hockey equipment.

Solution

And the solution? Looking at what we did have instead of what we didn’t and making it work anyway!

We had:

• a need for Luke to enjoy some heavy work as part of his sensory diet.
• a craving for us all to partake in some active, outdoor time (homeschool P.E.)
• a family with imagination

Bike helmets, Freecycle-scored roller skates, pool noodles, a wiffle ball and the game was on!

The Look of Determination

Teamwork

Concentration

Our former neighbor, who was visiting next door, even peeked out, saw us playing and came over to join in the fun.

Three-on-One

Evening Up the Teams

 Results

• Proprioceptive and vestibular input? Check!

Bend and Reach

Balance and Move

• Laughter and fitness together outside? Check! 

"Hockey is fun!"

Daddy-Son Face Off

• Creative problem-solving as a family? Check!

Game On

• Controled, good-natured rough play?  Check!

Fight!

Hugs

And, perhaps, most importantly: Safe, family fun? Check! (Luke wanted to use his and Nina’s metal rakes as sticks. For safety reasons, I suggested the noodles.)

How about you? What have you been playing with your kids? Has creativity or problem-solving been the impetus for any new versions of old games? Do share! And, if you happen to try pool noodle hockey, stop by here again to let us know how it went.

Aldo, stop be We Play at Childhood 101 to share.

A Sensory-Friendly St. Patrick’s Day Story and Play Time

As March hobbled in with continued cold, flues and pneumonia here at our home, I had hoped its winds would blow our health concerns away in time to allow us to host a St. Patrick’s Day play date.  No such luck.   Our St. Patty’s Day fun with friends, which we shared ideas for at 17 Ideas for Hosting a St. Patrick’s Day Play Date  at Catholic Mother’s Online, will have to wait for another year.

In the meantime, we are honoring St. Patrick by sprinkling activities in between appointments this week.  Yesterday, those activities took the form of a spontaneous Sensory-Friendly St. Patrick’s Day Story and Play Time outdoors. 

Want to enjoy such a time yourself?  It’s easy! 

Gather:

-          a bell (or a drum, since some stories have St. Patrick scaring snakes away with a bell and others with a drum)

-          a copy of St. Patrick and the Three Brace Mice by Joyce A. Stengel (or an alternate story that includes St. Patrick driving snakes away

-          imagination

Enjoy:

Sensory Input and Motor Control with Snake Freeze

One person plays St. Patrick and lies down next to a bell to “sleep”, making snoring sounds if possible (for that extra deep breathing, which can be so good!) 

The others are snakes.  They line up a ways away from St. Patrick and on their bellies or on their feet, move toward the sleeping St. Patrick, of course, being encouraged to make hissing sounds (for oral motor input) and waving slithery arms about (for some extra proprioceptive input). 

 When St. Patrick wishes, he reaches for the bell and rings it (auditory inut).  All snakes freeze.  (Motor control, here!)  They stay frozen for as long as St. Patrick rings the bell.  Then, St. Patrick goes back to sleep and snakes move forward again. 
Keep playing until a snake steals the bell or touches St. Patrick.  That person gets to be St. Patrick next.

Running with Delight with a Snake Drive

After playing Snake Freeze for a while, snakes practice darting their tongues in an out (for oral-motor input) and then gather near St. Patrick. St. Patrick clangs the the bell loudly.  The snakes run as fast and far as they can to get away from the bell.  (Pre-set boundaries, of course, so your kids don't try to run several houses down like mine did!)

Some Visual-Auditory Input with a Read-Aloud

Read St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice by Joyce A. Stengel aloud, really pausing to enjoy the pictures, retell parts of the story, make predictions about what will happen next, etc.

Creative Dramatics with the Three Blind Mice

Retell (or reread) St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice having children act it out.  If outside, be sure “Snake” gathers grass for tactile input.  Also encourage variations in levels (when slithering, sneaking up on one another, jumping up), speed (moving slowly to sneak and quickly to run in fear), facial expressions and vocal tones (sneaky, worried, scared, angry, relieved, etc.)

Letting the Children Lead with Their Own Discoveries and Ideas at Times

For example, my chidlren tried to find some longer grass to braid rope to pull the bell as the mice do in the story – not necessarily the most successful venture, but fun tactile, fine motor fun.

And, my son spotted “baby shamrocks” growing among the dead, dry grass on our lawn.  We picked one to examine and to play St. Patrick teaching the Irish about the three parts of God.

Whatever you do, savor the sunshine and fresh air if you can (no one says story times have to be held inside!) and Go mbeannai Dia duit (May God Bless You).


This post is being shared at Childhood 101's We Play.  Please click on the links there to enjoy other playful ideas.

Sensorimotor Fun for Ezra Jack Keat's The Snowy Day

How do you move from this:

 

to this:

And what is that anyway?

Let me share: Yesterday, after reading our read-aloud book of the week, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, I facilitated an adapted version of Jenny Clark Bracks’s wonderful Learn to Move, Move to Learn!: Sensorimotor Early Childhood Activity Themes Winter Snow lesson. First, Luke. Nina and I rolled “snowballs” on our bodies while singing an impromptu verse:

We roll the snowball on our (body part).

We roll it.

We roll it.

We roll the snowball on our (body part).

We roll it all around.

The “snowballs” were rolled up flexible ice packs for Luke and me and a rolled up burp cloth for Nina, who was not too keen on the cold of the ice packs. Rolling them on our bodies gave us some tactile input, while encouraging body awareness. Singing while doing it provided auditory and oral-motor input. Plus, perhaps more importantly, our “snowball” singing elicited lots of giggles as the kids took turns trying to outdo each other with which body part we should roll our snowballs on next.

Bodies warmed up (or, more literally, cooled off), we, then snuck in a bit of math while stimulating our vestibular senses with a bit of Snowman Freeze. How? We became snowmen by spinning in circles while counting until I called, “freeze”, at which point, we all froze at different levels as short, fat, tall or skinny snowmen. As per Jennie Clark Brack’s suggestion in the Winter Snow theme lesson, we only did this twice in each direction so as not to overload our vestibular sense. That worked for the kids, but not for Momma. I suffered a bit of being off-balance for the rest of the afternoon. So, other adults with aged systems, take not and beware: spinning may be best left to the kiddoes!

From there, it was time for some more vestibular input for the kids, along with a huge dose of proprioception as we jumped and dove into a “snowpile” (a bean bag chair), rolled our bodies into snowballs and rolled around the floor. The kids loved this so much, they have been attacking the snowpile at random moments ever since.

After that, it was time for some balance work, along with some motor planning and auditory input. This took the form of “skating” on styrofoam trays to the “Clap Your Hands” song from Baby Sing and Sign. Amazing how just the addition of the styrofoam trays made the skating activity so much more engaging for the kids than our usual sock-skating has become. (Thanks, Jennie!) And, how much more fun was it to try to skate the actions in the “Clap Your Hands” song. Good times!

Then, for the final guided portion of the “lesson”, we crumpled up sales flyers as “snowballs” to throw at a “snow bank” ( the beanbag chair). This led naturally into free exploratory child-led play. Thus, we did not go on to make any more of Jennie Clark Brack’s Winter Snow lesson our own.

Instead, the kids worked their fine motor and cooperation skills by teaming up to rip apart the styrofoam trays – which had broken a bit during our skating activity – in order to make more snow. Nina, then, went and got her real snow boots to stomp around in the snow, before deciding to play a little fill-and-dump, by making it snow with “different kinds of snow” (the paper and styrofoam) into her boots, dumping it and starting again. She also went and got her broom to practice some practical life skills through sweeping the snow into a pile.

Meanwhile Luke filled his high-need for proprioception by throwing around a giant snowball ( the beanbag) before – and here is where that picture from the top of the post comes in – building a snowman.

I cannot say enough about how “loose parts” inspire creativity (even when I would prefer some of the parts – like our lamp shade – not become “loose”.) and, if you are wondering, the base of the snowman is the beanbag chair. The next "ball" is a couch cushion and the face is made from an old keyboard as the mouth, the round broken knob of a little synthesizer as the nose and some hand weights as eyes, all topped off with a lampshade hat. Luke came up with this 100% on his own as I watched in wonder as to what he was creating -- and Nina liked the creation so much, she left her dump-and-full boot on the couch to come over to play with the snowman!

Together again, Luke and Nina used boppy pillows, a cradle mattress and a hand weight holder as sleds, sliding off couches and chairs and around the room -- another favorite activity they came up with all on their own and continue to do today.

And Jack? He was not so interested in all the snow. He preferred to explore his own sensorimotor world by busying himself with spinning round on his belly on a blanket to grasp toys and chew on nearby backpack straps.

How about you and your children? how have you been enjoying sensorimotor play this week? do share in a comment. And, to enjoy more play inspiration, check out the links at Childhood 101's We Play.

Reindeer Grooming

This is not Clifford the Big Red Dog.

And this is not a horse.

They are reindeer -- being groomed.

Complete with neck towel (the scarf) and push up chair (the mattress),just like at Auntie Jenn's people salon.

And with inspiration from one of our favorite Christmas videos, Snuffy the Elf Who Saved Christmas and Luke's favorite Christmas carol, Rudolph!

Oh, how I love the imagination and industry of preschoolers!  It makes the "love playing" part of our Rule of 7 so easy to abide by.

“Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

We Play Summer into Fall

Yesterday, I wrote about a wonderful sensorimotor resource we have come upon.  Today, I wanted to share how the activities we have been doing from it extended into an afternoon of kid-initiated outdoor fun one recent afternoon.

That afternoon, as we were saying "goodbye" to summer and "hello" to autumn by looking for “signs of fall” outside, we noticed that we still had summer items out – buckets, a kick board and some pool noodles.  Thus, the fun began:  a summer-into-fall “We Play” afternoon. 

Here’s how it unfolded:

Nina wanted to jump in the leaves.  So, we gathered a bunch together.

 

Then, when Luke started to help us, he noticed how leaves fell from his rake as he raised it up.  So, he decided to make his own trees. 

Yes, this is our boy purposefully putting leaves onto (not picking them from) a rake so he could raise the rake, calling it a tree, and shake the leaves down, thus making his own autumn.  What fun he and Nina had doing this.

Then, Nina and Luke asked me to help make an obstacle course.  We decided to make it “summer to fall”, with summer items at the beginning and a big leaf pile at the end.

With summer fun in mind, Luke insisted on setting up a kickboard as a diving/jumping board to launch into the leaves from.

And from there, the jumping, running and balancing began.

Run through...

after balance through...

after jump through...

we made of our course as it initially stood.

 Then, Luke decided he should tweak it.  He added a new element to it – the rake.  “You have to go around the hulahoop with the rake."

"Then, shuffle it across the balance board.” 

We followed his lead until...

He decided to include a kamikaze jump with rake-in-hand as an additional challenge.  At that point, Safety Mama suggested that the latest adaptation to our course might might get a bit dangerous.

Then, to avoid a possible "I-Wanna-Do-It-Anyway" meltdown, I opted for a bit of adult intervention.  Jack was laying on a towel, smiling at wind-blown leaves on the branches above his head.  A observed aloud, "Look!  Jack is laughing at the leaves."

It worked like a charm.  The rake was forgotten as the kids gathered different colors of leaves to wave in front of their little brother's face.  Then, with giggles, they tried to get him to hold one.

Since Jack is not quite at the grasping stage yet, they gave up after a few gleeful tries and went back to the course, which they decided it needed some rearranging.

I bit my lip as they tested whether the plank worked as well just leaning up and onto an upturned recycling bin as it did balanced on same-level buckets.

And, I was pleased when that test ended as a complete change of focus developed.  In deciding to adapt the course still further, they turned the recycling bin over.

They tried putting the plank across it a different way.  Then, added buckets and pool noodles into the fray.  At which point, Luke’s imagination began a tangent of play.  “Mixing.  Mixing.”  A noodle became his mixing spoon...

...then, his blender.  

Meanwhile, Nina added ingredients (leaves) to the blender jar (the recycling bin).

And soon enough, the two merrily went from making shakes to food processing pancakes.

Then, there was taste testing...

...and stirring together elephant enrichment.  (We’ve had a fascination with elephants here recently and recently had the privilege of helping to make a real elephant enrichment snack at our local zoo’s elephant day.)

After which, noodles, then one arm, then both hands became elephant trunks and the feast was on!

Before long, Luke Elephant turned the entire box of enrichment over his head to get the very last bites… 

 And, then, the refilling began anew...

What fun we had with our summer into fall spontaneous play and, upon reflecting on it, what skills and learning were reinforced, too!  From leaf piles (with the practical life  work of raking, the science of seasons and, of course, the gross motor fun of  jumping) to the obstacle course (with sensorimotor skills, practical life/following directions skills, problem-solving and creativity) to leaf-cooking (with dramatic play, engineering through talk about machines such as blenders and food processors and science through a recap of what elephants really eat as we put in leaf ingredients), the afternoon was full of some of the best of early ed here at Jammies School – playful learning and development.

What about you?  What have you and your kids been playing at?  And what kind of skills and learning are being reinforced naturally because of it?  Do share.  And, do check out the We Play links at Childhood 101 for ideas and inspiration.