June's Discoverer Box
Please remember: The items in My Little Play Box are for adult-supervised play only and children should never be left unattended at any time.
Messy play - pasta shapes
Our special rainbow pasta makes the perfect messy play activity to begin exploring shapes with your child. Watch them enjoy the tactile experience of running their fingers through and hide objects under the pasta for them to discover. This is also great for scooping and pouring. Put out two different bowls and encourage your child to move the pasta between the bowls. For older children, encourage them to sort by shape and colour! When you've finished playing, they can be stuck with glue for a craft activity or even thread onto string to make a rainbow pasta necklace!
The research: How will this help my baby?
Activities such as picking up pieces of pasta and moving them to a different bowl helps develop their fine motor skills. Part of the 24 month review asks whether your child can string small items such as pasta onto a string or shoelace so this activity is a great way to develop that skill.
Craft - paint and rollers
These easy to hold shape dabbers are perfect for little hands! Encourage your child to dip into the pre mixed paint and create shapes onto the matching paper provided. Talk through the shapes with your child and where else they can see that shape. Apart from pressing the dabber down they can also drag it across the paper to make a different kind of mark.
The research: How will this help my baby?
This activity shows cause and effect. Your baby will soon learn that by putting the dabbers in paint and pressing it onto paper they can create a mark. Mark making is crucial for a child's development.
Toy - TickiT® sensory balls
These exciting textured balls will provide your child with endless fun. Great for children to explore the different shapes or play throw and catch games with. They are the perfect size for small hands and the balls each have different textured surfaces making them interesting and tactile. Make sure you use plenty of describing words when they are holding each ball so they can associate those words with what they are holding.
The research: How will this help my baby?
Babies heavily rely on touch to understand the world and learning through touch and texture helps them with language acquisition. Holding the balls develops both their gross and fine motor skills.
Book - Baby, Find the Shapes:
Not only is this book indestructible (even when chewed) but this is a great book to learn shapes, colours and numbers.
Help your child find the different shapes and, for the older ones, encourage them to count how many they can find on the page. How many tomatoes does the little girl have in her bowl?
Each page is a different scene, so discuss the scene with your child and make it relevant to them.
Can your child find a purple rectangle or a black circle?
Can you find these shapes at home?
Book - Shapes by Roald Dahl
Various Roald Dahl characters feature on the pages as it goes through some of the classic shapes. If your child has already started reading Roald Dahl stories see if they can work out which book they appear in.
Encourage your child to feel the different textures featured throughout the book and lift the flap.
Can they find those shapes in everyday household objects?
What song do they know about stars?
Book - We're Going on a Bear Hunt - My First Shapes:
This book is all about following the finger trail so they can learn the shapes by feel as well as by visualisation. With this in mind, encourage your child to trace different shapes around the home and then move on to getting them to draw the shapes on paper. Perhaps they could find some shapes to draw around, once again tracing their finger around the shape.
This book also features many different animals so go through the pages pointing them out and seeing if they can find them.