June's Investigator 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 - 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 child?
Improve your child's hand eye co-ordination through rolling the paint in different directions. 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.
Craft - butterfly shape glider
These easy to assemble butterfly gliders are made of paper covered polystyrene and are perfect for decorating. Paint, or colour the butterfly then add on the geometric foam shapes to finish! Talk through the different shapes and colours with your child.
The research: How will this help my child?
This helps develop fine motor skills by sticking the different shapes onto the glider. This activity also helps them develop their problem solving skills as they work out what they can fit on the butterfly wings. Throwing the glider also helps develop their gross motor skills.
TickiT® Sensory Texture 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.