Big Body Play

Big Body Play

Belinda @ Kids Matter

“STOP! Someone is going to get hurt!” “Don’t do that!” “Calm down!” “Don’t be so rough!” How many times have you said or heard those statements? If you have ever spent any time around two or more children you have probably heard those more times than you can count. True? Children love to get rough and physical in their play, it’s just a fact. But, what is big body play and is it necessary? Today, we take a look at Big Body Play written by Frances M. Carlson.

What is big body play? Carlson defines it as, “Rolling, running, climbing, chasing, pushing, banging, tagging, falling, tumbling, rough-and-tumble, rowdy, roughhousing, horseplay, and play-fighting. These are just some of the names that adults give to the boisterous, large motor, very physical activity that young children naturally seem to crave. All are forms of big body play—a play style that gives children the opportunities they need for optimum development across all domains from physical to cognitive and language to social and emotional.” So, there is actually a name and purpose for all that chaos. As you were watching two boys play fighting, did that thought ever occur to you? It sure didn’t to me, a mother of four boys and two girls.

Big body play is started before birth with rolling, kicking, and the waving of arms. This process advances with age into full blown wrestling in the yard. This form of play is utilized by animals as well as humans. Big body play can be done alone, with other children, or even with pets. The activities can include rules and guidelines for structured play or can be a free-for-all. Who doesn’t like a good game of tag outside on a beautiful summer day? When participating in big body play, endorphins are released that make us feel good. Play makes us happy. We all want to be happy. But, are there other benefits for supporting big body play?

There are numerous positive effects of physical play on health. A child’s gross motor skills develop during big body play. They develop body awareness and learn the limitations of their body. Their coordination is honed during this play time. They develop control of movement and balance. Relationships are formed. They become more fluid in their movements and less clumsy. The health of the child is also improved through physical activity. Social and emotional skills are developed. Verbal and non-verbal communication skills are developed. The lists of benefits go on and on.

“But I’m afraid of my child getting hurt,” says the concerned parent. Neither Carlson nor I recommend just allowing your child to have an unsupervised free-for-all. Children are still learning their physical limitations; so, of course, supervision is the key to a successful session of big body play. I found, in my children’s big body play that these fun times often ended when someone got hurt. The “hurt” was never serious and a few minutes later they were back at it again. The only difference during the later play is that they now knew what caused the hurt. Step up and lay ground rules, join in with the activity, oversee the fun times, and most importantly laugh and have fun. We are only kids once and big body play is where we found our greatest joy.

While big body play seems a scary thing, there are numerous benefits that allow your child to grow and learn which cannot be provided in a “sit down” learning environment. What big body play activities do you participate in with your child?

I Admit It… I’m An Addict

I Admit It… I’m An Addict

Belinda @ Kids Matter

Yes, I’m disgraced. I’m a broken woman, suffering the mortification of it all. I shamefully hide my face in embarrassment. How could I admit such a thing in a widely publicized format? Because, apparently, there are 46 million other addicts suffering the same addiction! Blast you Candy Crush Saga!! Has this sinfully teasing game cast its wretched net over you as well? Do you quickly burn through your five lives and spend the rest of the evening anxiously awaiting another addict’s gift of a free life? Do you curse the screen? The game maker? Scream in search of stress relief? Are you dreams filled with all those moves you could have or should have made? Do you lie awake for hours every night meticulously analyzing your next attempt at beating the demon that controls those tempting candies?

I have to say, I’m quite proud of myself thus far. I have made it all the way to level 86 and been stuck there for what seems like forever but I’ve never used a cheat or paid any money, whatsoever, to feed my addiction! I’m an honest and frugal addict! Yeah, that’s something to be proud of.  (Insert sarcasm there.) I do “woo-hoos” and “yeah babys” when I surpass a friend or family member. I’m just a tad bit competitive. Wink, wink! My heroes are those that have advanced far past me, into new and glorious territories of which I, apparently, can only dream.

According to Wikipedia, Candy Crush Saga was developed by King in April 2012, for those of us with yet another addiction… Facebook! Seven months later they found a new way to feed our addiction… the Candy Crush Saga smartphone app! Woo-hoo!! Thank you King, for helping us find a new stressor in our lives! Inside Social Games lists Candy Crush Saga as the number one Facebook game.

Rewind the clock 28 years… were you this hypnotized by Mario and Luigi when they debuted in 1985? How about 40 years back in the time traveler when Champion Ping Pong hit the world via Atari?  I have a hearty laugh now as I remember my Mom and Dad telling us to hush as they anxiously watched a slow moving white glip bounce across the TV screen while positioning their virtual paddle for a slow return. My, oh my, has the gaming world taken a huge leap in 40 years! One can only imagine where the next 40 years will take us, but I can bet you one thing… there will be many more addicts out there battling “gamer fever”!

To gamer’s everywhere I say this… you are more than just five lives in a virtual world. You are a genius carefully manipulating, analyzing, positioning, and vindicating strategic movements in both the virtual world and reality. When the two worlds meet, you either win or lose but never concede. Always strive to learn and aspire to bigger and better things. If we are going to spend this much time strategizing over the virtual world just think of the grand things we can accomplish in the physical world. Yeah baby!!! Woo-hoo!!

Homemade Marble Maze

I made this activity for my son this week. It was easy to make and just difficult enough that he had to work on it.

Supplies:
Gallon size plastic bag
Duct tape
Dish washing liquid or Hair gel
Marble or Bead(s)

I opened the plastic bag well and then I cut 4 strips of duct tape. Do not make the strips too long, they have to sit horizontally in the bag.

Now, taking one strip at a time, fold the tape strips upon themselves so that there is sticky side out all around. Put the strips in the bag, alternating the bag edge. For example, the first strip goes one inch from the bottom of the back, lined up against the right side of the bag. The next strip is an inch above the first strip, lined up on the left hand side of the bag.

Repeat this until you have all of the strips in the bag. Once all of the strips are in the bag, apply pressure to the bag to seal the tape to the front and back of the bag.

Now squirt dish washing liquid into the bag, you will have to use your fingers on the outside of the bag to move the liquid along the tape strips to the bottom of the bag. Once you have the liquid in the bag, add in your marble, zip the top of the bag and apply a strip of tape over the zip top to keep prying hands form opening the bag back up and making a mess. I will say, prior to applying the tape along the top edge of our bag, we tried it out first. I could not find our marbles, so I used a pony bead. I then thought the bead was too small, so I added about 5-6 beads.

Now, hand the bag over to your child and let them use their fine motor skills to move the marble along the maze. Encourage finger isolation, by showing them how to use their pointer finger to move the bead along the slippery dish washing liquid. We then proceeded to do this activity, one finger at a time, until all fingers had been isolated.

Do the Valentine Hop

We played a fun game to work on our gross motor skills this week. I cut out several hearts from construction paper.

Next, we laid the hearts out down the hallway. First we laid them out in step formation to work on walking.

Next, we put them in a straight line and worked on jumping from one heart to another.

As we got better and better we advanced the game. We also set up the hearts in a random pattern. I would them call out a color near my son and he would find the color and jump to it.

This was a fun activity and we played with it for quite a time. Be sure to save the "stencils" that you made from cutting out the hearts. We used ours and will post that on Friday!

Super Hero Training (or Gross Motor Skill Lessons)

Recently, my son has been obsessed with Super Heroes. He is not particular about his heroes either, wear a cape or costume and you are his man/woman.

I decided to work on our gross motor skills by setting up a Super Hero Training Course in our hallway. What? Super heroes have to work out just like everyone else. I actually got this great idea from the blog, Chicken Babies. She set up a "Spy Training Course" for a birthday party and I knew my son would love it.

The object of our training course was to go through the hallway without touching the crepe paper "traps" that were hanging from the walls.

We had lots of fun with this but be forewarned, he will expect you to participate and it takes some finesse to do it as an adult!

Once we finished with the course I let him run through the "Finish Lines" just like a famous runner winning a big race! He also loved that!

Marshmallow Popper

You may have a popcorn popper in your house but do you have a marshmallow popper? I can not help you build the popcorn popper but I can assist with the marshmallow popper. This idea comes from Real Simple Magazine and equals cheap and fun entertainment!

Supplies:
Disposable cup
Scissors
Balloon
Rubber Band
Marshmallows

Use your scissors to cut the bottom off of your cup. I then put a strip of tape around that bottom as it was a but jagged and I did not want to risk my son getting hurt or the balloon getting ripped.

Stretch your balloon a few times and then tie up the end. You are not going to be blowing the balloon up. Once you have tied it off, cut the balloon about two inches below your knot. You are only keeping the knotted end.

Stretch the knotted end over the bottom of your cup, covering the tape. Now use your rubber band around stretch it around the balloon edges to keep it on the cup.

To use the popper you will put a marshmallow inside the cup and then pull down on the balloon knot.

Once you get accurate with your marshmallow popper, make some targets on the ground and make a game out of it. We used rope to lay out circles and assigned a point value to each circle.

Monday Meanderings - Keeping Cool

I am not sure where you are, but here in KY the weather has been hot and humid! That means we need to find ways to keep cool so I thought I would go on a search to see how others are keeping cool this summer.

First we need a yummy dessert that does not require turning on the oven. Teaching with TLC really delivers with her amazing Ice Cream Cake. Doesn't it look delicious?

As much as would love to just eat dessert, I need some other nutrition too. Here is the  Katie Brown Blog with some great no cook recipes. I want to try the Gazpacho with Goat Cheese recipe that she links to from Real Simple Magazine. It looks delicious and the Farmer's Markets are bursting with fresh tomatoes!

If it is too hot to go outside where you are maybe you could do some of these activities.

The Line Game - Each person gets a piece of paper and they each draw a line on a piece of paper. It can be any kind of line: straight, angled, curvy or any other shape. Once the line is drawn, everyone switches paper. You now have to make a drawing from each other's line drawing. It is always fun to see what one person can make from another person's beginning.

Another great activity is Mad Libs. No need to always have the Mad Lib books, you can also make up your own stories. For Example:
Storyteller: There once was an animal. What kind of animal?
1st child: A Kangaroo!
Storyteller: There once was a kangaroo named_________.
2nd child: Star!
Storyteller: There once was a kangaroo named Star. Star liked to __________.
1st child: Wear socks!
Storyteller: There once was a kangaroo named Star. Star liked to wear socks.

The story can go on and on. You can also ask the kids to tell you the story. Once it gets some length to it (4-5 lines) ask them to repeat it to you. This will be fun and it will work on their attention and recall skills.

If you can go outside, try some of these ideas.

Come Together Kids Blog has a great Bubble Refill Station. The kids just go over and put more bubble solution in their containers. No worries! They also include a bubble mix to make at home.

Build a Kidwash! The kids can go through on foot or on bike. Keep cool is the name of the game. This post came from Discontinuity on Indestrucables.

Keep cool in this hot and humid weather!

Tuesday Teachings - Worms, Worms, Worms

This past Friday (July 15th) was Gummy Worm Day! My son's teacher was so kind and invited me into the classroom to do a special segment on worms/gummy worms. I had so much fun and I think the kids enjoyed it too. I am sorry I do not have action pictures of the kids participating in the activities but I did not want to put a bunch of kid's pictures on here with out parent approval first.

First, I purchased 2 inch petri dishes for the whole class. Once I received them, I washed and sanitized them well to make them food ready. I then laid a small gummy worm in each dish and made blueberry gelatin to surround them. Each child then had a gummy worm snack to eat. They really enjoyed this, as how often does anyone eat anything out of a petri dish?

Next we played a game of "Pick Up Worms". I cut up several pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and we used tweezers or ice tongs to pick them up. This was much like the game my son and I played picking up snakes, I just renamed it. To make it a bit more of a challenge, I put the "worms" in a container filled partway with colored rice.

We also played a rousing game of "Worm in the Apple". All of the kids stood in a line with their legs spread. They were the apples. The child at the end of the line was the worm and had to crawl and wiggle through every one's legs. When he reached the front, he also became an apple and the new last person was the worm until everyone had a chance to be the worm.

I also made up a little sheet for everyone to measure their worm. For this, they used a gummy worm. I taped a seamstress' measuring tape down to the table and we measured each worm a couple of ways. First we just laid the worm down and measured it. Next, we stretched it out as far as we could without breaking it and measured it. This turned into a discussion of elasticity and how even though we stretched the worms, they went right back to their original shape. In addition to measuring the worms in inches, we also had a pre-made measuring stick of "unifix cubes". The kids wrote each measurement on their sheet and at the bottom of the sheet was a box to draw a picture of their worms.

The last activity was probably one of the favorites. I actually bought a container of night crawlers. I put a few in larger petri dishes and gave the children magnifying glasses to investigate them. We wrote down all of the words that they used to explain and describe the worms. In the beginning several kids were hesitant to touch the worms but by the end everyone was letting worms hag out in their hands. At the end of the experiment, we went outside and released the night crawlers into the garden that they have. The classroom is growing tomatoes and marigolds. We explained how the night crawlers would crawl around in the soil and make it loose and easy for the roots of the plants to go down deep and allow the plants to grow happy.

Life Cycle of a Snake

We recently read another of our books in the Life Cycle Series that I purchased. This time we read

Green Snake (Life Cycles) by David M. Schwartz. I still highly recommend this Life Cycle series. We love that there are actual photographs in the books instead of just illustrations.

After reading the book we decided to do a few activities.

First we talked about how most snake species lay eggs instead of giving live birth. We also discussed how snake eggs are not hard like a bird egg. They are more leathery feeling and have some give to them.

We then did an experiment to see how they feel. Since I do not care for snakes and have no desire to go on a snake hunt, we used a chicken egg. I hard boiled two regular chicken eggs. Once they were ready, I put one in the refrigerator and the other I put in a bowl and covered it with white vinegar. We let the eggs sit in their respective spots for 24 hours then we pulled them out to look at them again.

The egg that had been in the refrigerator looked and felt exactly the same as it had when we put it in there. The egg in the vinegar though, had taken on a new consistency. Instead of the shell being hard, it was more flexible. We could squeeze the shell without it cracking and it actually bent in under the pressure of our fingers. My son was fascinated by this.

Why this works: The eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and when the acid of the vinegar touches the calcium it causes a chemical reaction, which you witness with the bubbles coming from the egg in vinegar. The reaction will continue with the calcium turning into carbon dioxide (the bubbles) until the calcium is used up (about 24 hours). Now that you have this soft shelled egg, what do you do with it? Well, you can extend the experiment by leaving the same egg out on a table over night. The next day the eggshell will be hard again. The reason is that it stole the carbon dioxide that we breath out of the air.

The next thing we did was an exercise for fine motor skill development. I cut up numerous pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and put them in a container. My son had to use tweezers to pick up the "snakes". Once he picked them up, he used the tweezers to sort them a few different ways: by color and by size. He loved doing this and was quite adept at using the tweezers.

Once we had sorted the "snakes" we graphed them a few ways: Longest to shortest, color wise and then how many of each color we had.

Have a great time studying snakes at your house!

Family Game Night - Balloon Volleyball

This is one the least expensive games you can play and it will give you some exercise.

Supplies:
Balloon
Chair or Tape

Begin by blowing up the balloon and tying it off. Now you will clear a good area to play in. Once you have cleared you area of breakables and you have space to move around in you will need something to be the center line. You can place a small chair to divide the areas, or we just put a line of tape down on the floor.

The point is to volley the balloon back and forth without letting it touch the ground and without catching the balloon. It is fun and exciting and will get your heart pumping.

Another twist on the game is to let one person play it alone. They start on one side and volley the balloon to the other side, then they must run to the other side and volley it back before the balloon touches the floor.

Have a great Family Game Night and feel free to leave comments telling us some of your favorite family games.

B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his Name-O

Okay, every time we play bingo in my house it takes at least 2 days to get that song out of my head! Now you can sing along with me.

In my house we like to make our own bingo cards so I thought I would supply you with the links we use to make ours. It is fun to make cards and since it is pretty easy, you can customize them to match themes you are talking to your kids about; holidays, numbers, letters, etc.

Some of the links I have used:
Print Bingo
DLTK - great site since you can easily follow themes they have on the website.
Tools For Educators - Another great site since they have lots of themes pre-listed on the website.

I have also made us personal cards in Microsoft Publisher. It is a bit time consuming to go that route but sometimes it is worth it. My favorite card made in publisher is the one we use to work on our colors. It is loosely based on bingo. I call out a letter and a color, like B red and then my son has to go find an item that is red and show me before he can put a marker on his B red spot. As he gets better with letters he will have to find an item that is Red and starts with a B. You can download that bingo card.



A good game of Bingo is a fun way to teach a child. The more fun, the more memorable. Life is not just about teaching our kids, it is also about creating great memories.

Learning our Shapes - A felt board game

This is a felt board that I work on with my son. I cut this out at least 1.5 years ago so I do not remember the website I used as a model for my monster. If anyone knows, please comment so I can give proper credit. If you wanted to recreate this it would be easy to just cut out any style monster.

Once the monster was cut out, I then just cut out a variety of shapes in different colors of felt. The reason I used different colors was to also work on our color recognition. Since I took this picture though, I have also cut out all of the pictures in just yellow. This makes it a bit more difficult since I am not giving hints to my son by saying the monster wants to eat the green rectangle for lunch.

When we pull out this felt board set, I recite/sing this little song I made up to keep his attention:

"Yummy, Yummy put that green rectangle in Monster's tummy!" Once my son puts the rectangle on the monster's tummy, I remove it and say: "That was tasty but Monster is still hungry!" and then I pick the next shape and start the phrase over again. I have been considering cutting out all of the letters in capital and lowercase to use with the monster too. We really enjoy this felt board and hope you enjoy it too!

Gone Fishing Game

Another homemade game. This was quite easy also.

Supplies:

Fish Template
Sticky backed Felt in a variety of colors
Paperclips
Magnetic fishing pole (or dowel rod that has yarn/string on the end and a magnet glued to the end of the yarn)
Blue fabric for the water (optional)
Felt sticky backed numbers

I traced the fish template onto each color of felt twice. I then cut the shapes out. I peeled the paper off the back of one fish and laid a paperclip on the sticky side with 1/4 inch of the clip hanging over the side (see pic below). In order to make the same amount of paperclip stick out on all of my fish, I put the edge of the inside loop of the paperclip on the edge of the fish.

Once the paperclip is a adhered, peel the paper backing from the matching fish and stick them together. You will need to press them together well and be sure you stick them together well at the paperclip mouth section.
Repeat this process with all of your colors. Once I had all of mine completed, I decided to go back and put a number on one side of each fish. We could then catch the fish by colors or by number.

I already had a magnetic fishing pole from a puzzle that my son had but you can wrap and glue yarn to the end of a dowel rod or stick form the yard and then dangle the yarn down to floor length then hot glue the yarn between to circle magnets.

Next, you just go fishing!

Monday Meanderings - Math Lessons

With the new year come resolutions of financial freedom so why not get the preschoolers involved in learning about money. Most schools do not take enough action to teach about financial goals so the parents must pick up where they leave off. We all want fiscally responsible children so we need to start teaching now.

First up is Blog, she wrote with a great idea to get kids involved in sorting change in the house. If you have a preschooler that still puts things in her mouth, be extra diligent in watching.

Next up is Sensible Math Education with some great facts about using Thomas the Tank Engine to help your child be successful with math.

Next we have Quirky Momma with a game that you could make for the kids in less than five minutes.

In addition to these links, there are a number of ways to teach math skills at home. Singing the One, Two, Buckle My Shoe rhyme, using a timer to help kids understand the length of time you are discussing or using a reward chart.

Counting Game Boards

I am always on the lookout for a fun way to teach math. I say this because math has never been my favorite subject. I find it boring and tedious. Having said this, I realize that math is a necessity so I try to make it more pleasant for me.

For Christmas, I made these little game boards. The board is 36 inches long and really thin and I purchased it at Hobby Lobby for less than $3.00. It is so thin that I was able to cut it into two 18 inch board games with nothing but my craft knife. Once it was cut in half, I painted both halves (I used Lush Foliage Crafters Acrylic from DecoArt and love the color).

Once the painted had dried completely, I stuck ten foam glittery stars to each board. I used a gold star at the top and bottom to signify the start and win sections. The other item that will accompany these boards is a foam cube that came in a package of foam cubes from the Target Dollar Spot. I used a permanent marker to put the dice numbers on the sides. My son is probably old enough to use a regular dice safely, but better safe than sorry.

I am not supplying any figures for the games because we will just use the abundance of dinosaur and other plastic critters that are around our home. The object is obvious, roll the die and move your figure that number of spaces.

We can also use the boards for teaching A-B patterns and color recognition. I am sure he will enjoy them.

Homemade Gift - Memory Game

I was in Hobby Lobby recently and bought some stamps with a coupon I had. I decided to use the stamps to make my son a memory game for Christmas.

I stamped each picture on two different rounds discs. My discs are about 2 inches round. I just used black ink to keep them simple looking. It would also be easy to draw pictures in the discs. I drew on the sun and crescent moon.

I am pleased with how these turned out and they will make a very cute gift for my son. I went with a nature theme but it would be easy to make them with trucks or dolls. If you do not want to stamp the discs it would also be easy to put fabric or paper on one side of each disc. This game can be customized to match any interest your child may have.

Math with the Letter R

I decided that we needed more math skills in our home so as a way to continue the letter R lesson, I made us a Rabbit game.

Supplies:
Die
Construction Paper
Glue
Laminator (optional)

I cut out a large circle for the rabbits head and then I cut out pieces for the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. When I made the ears, I glued pink inside the white ears. I have regular dice in our home but they are a little small for my three year old. I decided to make a die that was a little bigger for him. We have some cube manipulatives that I purchased in the Target Dollar Spot so I used one of the cubes and a black marker to make the dots on the sides.

The last thing I made for the game was a sheet showing the die values next to the rabbit part that you get to put on for the game.

Now to play the game. Lay the rabbit's head on the table and Then child rolls the die. The child then counts the number that came up on the die and finds the same number on the sheet and then puts on the corresponding face part.

My son loved this game and we have played it numerous times. I am even going to make some more games up with different faces.