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Discovery Play. ..supports our children to learn laugh and love. Discovery play is another major part of a child's life. The other part is imaginative play. Simply put, discovery play allows children to learn about the world and how it works (not just the physical world either). .
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Discovery Play ..supports our children to learn laugh and love.
Discovery play is another major part of a child's life. The other part is imaginative play. • Simply put, discovery play allows children to learn about the world and how it works (not just the physical world either).
Play time at home has become even more important in recent years. In The Power of Play, David Elkind notes that over the last two decades, children have lost, on average, 12 hours of free time per week, including time for unstructured play and outdoor activities.
Can be structured or non-structured. • What is important is that there are multiple possible ways of doing something or for something to happen. • Can be topic focused . This isn't the same as being structured. Structured refers to how the learning is delivered while "topic focused" refers to the scope of the discoveries. • Some discovery toys have problem solving built into them like a marble run .
Another group of discovery toys are those that are designed with one or two very specific concepts in mind. • An interesting thing about discovery toys is that the toys that are seemingly 'elementary' or 'simplistic' offer some of the best fun for kids. Take a magnifying glass for example.
Discovery Bottles • These are so easy to make. All you need it empty clear plastic bottles with lids, a glue gun and whatever you can find to fill them with.
Glycerine and glitter - it is much more effective than it looks in the picture and very relaxing (probably why I like it:))
Glitter in distilled water Quick dramatic results when shook, that can be repeated again soon after. I used glitter strands in this one
Giraffe in plastic bits This one makes a lovely sound as you twist and turn the bottle, trying to find the giraffe.
Animals in shredded paper Lots of twisting and turning of the bottle required to get the animals to appear.
Car in rice We use this one to learn about the different parts of a car. Can you see the wheels / windows / lights / mirrors etc.
Coloured water and oil I think I need a fish in this one! I stupidly said to my son the other day 'look the two liquids don't mix together' to which he responded by vigorously shaking the bottle until they did! After a while they did separate again!
Flowers and oil Encourages the use of other senses in exploring the bottles. You could have a set of discovery boxes that focus entirely on smells.
Food colouring. Dishwash and water Shaking creates fantastic blue bubbles which turn white before popping.
Hairgel and marbles Good for comparing with the Marbles in Hair Gel, to see the the different ways the marbles behave in each.
Paperclips and distilled water to demonstrate that magnetism also works in water.
Pipe cleaners and magnetic wand Use magnetic wands to draw the pipe cleaners up the side of the bottle.
Jumping beans and wand again can be explored with a magnetic wand.
Sand and Perspex numbers (The sand was coloured with grated green chalk).
Shampoo and marbles To compare with hair gel.
We don't have these out all the time but they are always popular when we do