Posts tagged ‘creative play’
Lots of Bubbles at Wisconsin PBS Kids Open House
They came; they made bubbles; they left.
I just went through 12 gallons of bubble juice at Wisconsin Public Television’s Open House at Vilas Hall in Madison, WI.
That’s a lot of bubbles.
That’s a lot of kids.
That’s a lot of fun.
About 1000 kids and parent showed up to make bubbles, see Mr. Steve and enjoy their favorite PBS Kids characters.
If you want me to come to your special event, just send me an email at getkidsoutside@gmail.com.
Bubbles are fun and even the smallest children can enjoy them.
Car Games: Getting outside without going crazy
Sometimes, the worst part of a trip is the van ride. If the kids act up it stresses me out before we even get there. Car games are a great way to occupy kids on long bus or car rides.
Tell me what you think of these games. Some of them are old classics and others are new to me. Have fun with them and add your own. Modify them to suit your own needs.
ANIMAL VEGETABLE OR MINERAL (20 QUESTIONS)
recommended age 8 and above
Someone thinks of an object that falls under the category of animal,
mineral, or vegetable and then tells the other players which group it is in. The players then take turns asking questions that can be answered with a YES or NO. For example, if the object is a marble its made from glass so its mineral, and the questions might go
…’Is it alive?’… ‘No’
‘Can I use it?’… ‘Yes’
‘Is it useful?’…’No’
‘is it small?’…’yes”
‘Can I play with it?’…’Yes’
‘Is it a marble?’ ‘Yes’
After 20 questions everyone has one last go and then its the next persons turn to choose something
Make up a Story
8 and up
Someone starts with a sentence about absolutely anything…ie. PLAYER 1 Charlie was walking along the street when out of the corner of his eye he saw something that made his blood freeze. PLAYER 2 He saw an ice cream van and ran to order a 99. The next person has to follow on with their own sentence that may or may not be what player one had intended. We have had huge fun with this game where one child has been determined to make the story a horror whereas another child has wanted to make it a humour / romance…let the battle commence!
Alphabet Game
Fine for all children who know their alphabet
This is a game of speed and observation. Everyone looks around them and has to find the letters of the alphabet from A-Z in order. Only one person can have any one letter (if there is a P on a signpost only one person can have it) so there is a lot of shouting to stake the claim! Letters can be found on number plates, billboards, road signs, place names etc. although the letter Q is very tricky (bus stops often have QUEUE THIS SIDE for those with eagle eyes!) The winner is the first to Z.
COUNTRIES
recommended age 8 and above
Someone starts by choosing a country ie. France. The next person must
name a country whose name begins with the last letter of the previously named country. In this case the last letter of France is E, so the next person must name a country beginning with E, ie England then Denmark until someone gives up. This game could work with any subject from animals to pop stars!
NAME GAME
recommended age 6 and above
Choose a subject such as girls names and everyone has to give the name of a girl in alphabetical order ie Alyson, Betty, Carol etc. When you get to Z go back to A again. Players drop out as they can’t think of anything and the winner is the last one in.
ALPHABET MEMORY GAME
recommended age 8 and above
The first person starts with the letter A and says ’A’ is for (choose a word beginning with A). Player 2 then says ‘A’ is for (names from first person said) B is for (choose a word beginning with B).
This continues down the alphabet until at Z the player needs to remember all the letters and the things attached to them from A-Z.
The winner is the last person to do it correctly.This is very good for your memory and you can make it more fun by using silly words like T is for mom’s temper.
COLORED CARS
recommended age 2 and above
Each person chooses a color and this is then written on a piece of paper next to your name. Mark 1 point next to your name each time you spot a car of your chosen color. The winner is the first to reach 25.
Colored cars helps small children with their colors and attention levels.
SEQUENCES
Each player chooses a number between ten and 99, then has to spot their number on a license plate. Whoever spots their number on a plate wins the game.
THE BONG GAME
One person has to answer questions about themselves from everyone else for a minute without stopping. But they’re not allowed to answer yes or no. If they do, they’re given the gong - ‘bong!’ - and they’re out.
BING WHO?
The children shout out a first name and the adults have to think of a famous person with that name. If they manage it, the adults get a point, but if they’re stumped, the kids get it.
CAR BASEBALL (Cricket)
recommended age 8 and above
I adapted this game from Cricket to Baseball (it’s from the UK). Give it a try and let me know if it works. Look out for Pubs and Restaurants, and look at what they are called. Take turns to ‘bat’ you score ‘runs’ by the number of “legs” in the title ie. the ‘Red Lobster’ would score 10 runs because lobster’s have 10 legs, and the ’Big Boy’ would score 2 because a big boy has two legs. Your inning is over when a pub/restaurant name has no legs for example ‘Subway’. The winner is whoever scores the most during their innings. This game works best when driving through towns. Click here for detailed instructions on how to play and then modify the rules to make them work.
CONNECTIONS
recommended age 4 and above
One person starts off with a single word eg. dog, the next person has to say the first word they think of related to dog eg. animal, the next person the first word they think of connected to animal eg donkey, and so on until you get completely stuck. You can also play this game by remembering the words that have gone before and if anyone repeats one they are out. This is very good for lateral thinking
CHANGE A LETTER
recommended age 8 and above
The first person starts off with a single word (this game is easiest if you write it down), the next person has to change one letter and make a different word, and so on until no more words can be made. (For example, “James, Games, Gates, Mates, Mites, Mines, Minus”)
SILLY MESSAGES
recommended age 6 and above
Take turns calling out five letters in any order, such as ‘E, H, A, S, and W.’ All players write them down. Then everyone gets a few minutes (or a few miles) to figure out a silly message about an animal using the letters to start words. For example, with the letters above you could write ‘Emus have a silly walk’. After you’ve taken turns reading your messages, another person calls out a new set of letters.
LIST AND LOOK
all ages because you work as a team
Take turns naming animals you think you might see in the next 20 miles (or longer if you are on a motorway). Everyone makes the same list. For example, you might put these on the list: baby in a car, bird of prey, a dragon on a pub sign, some cows, etc. The adult in the car decides if they are either too difficult or easy. The car then work together as a team and cross the animals off as you find them. Sometimes its easier for an adult to cross off the list especially with the under 5′s. The driver doesn’t help because he has to give each of the players a little treat for everything found on the list by the time you’ve covered in the given amount of miles.
WHEELS BASEBALL
recommended age 6 and above
Each player has an 9 innings (or less if you want). During your inning you have to spot vehicles and count the wheels on them adding up as you go along. For example, if a car passes, you get 4 points and if a bike passes, you get 2 points. If a vehicle with 6 or more wheels passes, your innings is over and the next player gets a go. The person with the most points at the end of all the innings wins.
‘I SPY’
recommended age 2 and above
The first player thinks of something they can see and says ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with…’ The winner is the first to guess correctly then its their turn. For smaller children it can be I spy a cat and the child looks for the cat. I spy some thing red and the child can find a red car.
CAR REGISTRATION NUMBERS
recommended age 6 and above
Make phrases with the car registration numbers e.g. WWW 435D could be Wierd Wooly Wombats.
CAR SNOOKER
recommended age 8 and above
I don’t get this game at all. Maybe you will. You will need a paper and pencil for this to keep track of the score, its probably best if one person scores and everyone else plays (to avoid arguments). Starting with the player behind the driver the game starts after the first silver car. The player has to put balls in order until the next silver car which ends his or her go. The winner is the person with the most points after the black has been spotted at the end of the whole sequence (see a black car) after ‘spotting’ all the other colours in order. (pink balls are a car with a caravan, brown balls are a white van)
The order of colors is: red 1 point, followed by any of the colors below (do this 15 times). yellow 2 points, green 3 points, brown 4 points, blue 5 points, pink 6 points, black 7 points. Hold on I haven’t finished yet! if you see two red cars behind each other, when you are doing the first bit of red followed by color, you loose 4 points and your go!
CATEGORIES
recommended age 6 and above
Decide on a category. Starting with the person behind the driver each player has to name something in that category. As each player can’t think of something new they drop out of the game. The winner is the last person left. Categories can include: trees, flowers, animals, colours, etc
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
recommended for 2 players age 5 and above
Players count to three then make their hands into the shape of a rock (clenched fist) paper (flat hand) or scissors (hands clenched with index and middle finger stretched out into the shape of scissors). Rock smothers scissors but is smothered by paper, Paper smothers rock but is cut by scissors and Scissors cut paper but are smothered by rock. Winner is the best of three
THE SILENT GAME
any age
See who can stay quiet for the longest…the winner (the last person to make a noise) gets a treat. A brilliant game for when things are getting fraut, if you’re lucky they might even fall asleep!!
Rhubarb Game
Any age
You must only answer rhubarb to any question you are asked…ie ‘what do you like taking to bed with you’…answer rhubarb’ but if you laugh your turns over. Time each go and the one who stays in the longest is the winner. This can be played using the word of your choice. My children like playing it with the word poo, giving hours of hilarity, but I’m sure your kids are far more sensible!!
YES! NO! BLACK AND WHITE
any age
A version of the game above but you’re only allowed to say yes, no, black or white
HORSE
3 upwards
Dish out some jelly sweets (or sweets that don’t melt) between the players. If you see a horse you must yell ‘sheep’. The last one to yell it gives one of their sweets to the person on their left…if they yell horse by mistake they give a sweet to the player on their right too. To make it more fun for older children, and adults! if you see a sheep you must yell ‘horse’ a caravan ‘bird’ a bird ‘caravan’ a police car ‘dog’ and a dog ‘police car’
COUNTING GAME
any age
Count a specific animal if in the country people, cats or dogs if you’re in the town that you see on your side of the car. If you pass an animal on your side of the car, you go back to zero, but only if the opposing team calls out “your (cows, sheep, men etc) are buried!”. This game gets interesting when distraction tactics are used to either cause your opponent to miss the thing they are counting on their side of the road or to miss a graveyard on your side of the road. A white horse can count as 10 bonus points and a postbox can cancel out a graveyard like a get out of gaol free card (for this it is probably a good idea to have a piece of paper that the adults can issue out when a post box has been seen and surrendered when used to stop the points being taken off because of a graveyard) The team with the most points wins.
References:
- Travel With Kids on About.com
- Are We There Yet? Favorite Car Games To Keep Families Sane!
Boys build things and play in the water
I let five boys play in “the pond” during after school on Friday. They got a little wet and dirty and they loved it. Imagine that.
“The pond” is a rain garden sandwiched between our parking lot and a cell phone tower. It’s a little bit of wild in an urban setting. It’s a place where chorus frogs sing, a pair of mallards nest and native plants grow.
It was fun to watch the boys create their own fun in this little spot of nature.
Arden, the thinker of the group, talked to the ducks and wondered what they were saying. Joe and John immediately started building a bridge across the pond with boards that were lying around. The other boys chipped in and added to the structure. They all enjoyed walking on the tipsy structure they built, trying hard not to fall in.
Joe was the ring leader and sloshed through the water – about one foot deep – to complete the bridge. A free spirit, he begged me to let him take his pants off. I smiled and said No! That didn’t keep him from asking again. It was fun to watch Joe plop the boards into place with a splash…with his pants on.
Kids don’t get many opportunities for this kind of play anymore. When I was a kid, we tramped around in the woods all the time. There was more freedom and open space available then and parents weren’t as concerned about their kids. Today, you can’t just go out and build a fort in the local woods anymore without getting into trouble.
That’s why it’s important to let kids play in unstructured environments as much as possible. They need permission to do this whenever and wherever possible. As summer approaches, I’ll be thinking of ways to build in time for unstructured play.
What are you doing to offer kids time to create in the outdoors.
You can find Diane Schwartz sloshing around with kids at the Goodman Community Center. Her next trip is April 16th to the UW-Arboretum where the kids will be picking garlic mustard and having a picnic. Thanks for reading. Be sure to “like it” and share it with your friends.
Two Cool Things: Nature Hike made Easy
Looking for an easy Nature Hike?
Just ask the kids to find two cool things.
I did this with a small group of Kindergarten and First Graders and
was amazed by the results.
Joe immediately found a crack on the ground.
“Maybe there’s magma down there,” he said enthusiastically.
He then started to dig in the crack with a stick. He got excited when he
dug up a rock. Another child joined him. I watched as they poked around
in the dirt, digging up rocks and talking about them.
“This one’s sandstone,” John said.
They dug away at a large rock for about 20 minutes, trying to get it out of the
ground. They dug around it and they kicked it. They eventually got it out (with a little help).
Joe took it back to the classroom and showed his friends. He was proud of his efforts.
Nearby, Lily was collecting leaves… her cool things. She spent her time playing in the sand. I watched as she used a stick to make patterns in the sand. She also covered the leaves with sand and then let the sand roll off.
This kind of exploratory play is so important for kids. It teaches them to play with the simplest of things… cool things… and to entertain themselves. All they need is a stick, some dirt, some leaves, and a little imagination.
Try this out sometime and let me know how it goes.
Diane Schwartz is an Outdoor Education Teacher at Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. She is also the Site Coordinator at Schumacher Farm County Park in Waunakee. Register for this blog now and receive your free 11-page Bubble Activity Guide. Thank you!
The Beach: Engineer and Artist Training Ground
Next time you’re at the beach, notice the kids digging in the sand. Very likely, these kids are the next generation of engineers, geologists, road builders, artists and chefs.
Creative play flourishes at the beach.
Just watch.
The engineers, road builders and mechanics build elaborate river systems, dikes, canals and cities.
The geologists experiment with different kinds of sand.
The cooks and artists make mud pies, ice cream cakes and castles.
They all get sand in the hair, in the shorts, and up their noses.
And, they don’t care.
The Goodman Pool in Madison has a great sand area. They have three places to fill buckets with water and plenty of sand toys to move the sand around. There are always lots of kids playing together amicably. Most don’t know each other, but it’s not uncommon for schoolmates to see each other. It’s a happy, creative and diverse scene.
As I watched these kids play, I thought about all the learning taking place:
1) Share your toys.
2) Don’t mess with other people’s structures without asking.
3) Sand structures don’t last, but they’re fun while they last.
4) Water flows downhill.
5) Sand will eventually absorb the water.
6)Sand is fun, fun, fun. You can make anything with sand.
7) And, they’re role-playing. Pretending to excavate the land and make magic cake is a great way to practice new skills and explore ideas.
They don’t know they’re learning, but they are. Kids who play in the sand know that sand will not make a good foundation for a house. They know that a beach will not stay put in a rain storm. They may not use the words erosion or unstable, but they know what these words mean. They also know how to share and get along with others. They share their mud pie with others and work out their differences. These kids are learning skills that they’ll have forever–skills they can’t get while sitting inside.
What are your kids learning when they play in the sand? Do let me know.
You can find Diane Schwartz observing and guiding future generations of engineers and artists at the Goodman Pool on Monday afternoons during the summer. Like what you see here? Register for this blog and get a free 11-page Bubble Activity Guide. Just click on the home page and type in your email.
The Big Burn: Our Outdoor Heritage & Connection to Louv & Creativity
I just finished reading The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire that Saved America, by Timothy Egan.
It’s the first historical book I couldn’t put down.
It’s the riveting story of how Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot invented the radical notion of conservation and masterminded a new agency: the National Forest Service. It’s also the dramatic story of the first Forest Service employees and the massive fire they fought in August 1910. The Big Burn – 3 millions acres of scorched earth – secured the future of the Forest Service and the legacy of Roosevelt, Pinchot and the brave fire fighters who took on an impossible task.
Roosevelt and Muir at Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park
If ever there was an outdoor President, it was Teddy Roosevelt. He thrived in the outdoors and it was his persona that inspired the movement to save vast tracks of land from clear-cutting. In addition to Pinchot, Roosevelt was friends John Muir. Muir’s prophetic voice was very influential to this story and fueled Roosevelt’s bold conservation initiatives which included designating the first National Monuments and congressional designation of Yosemite National Park.
After reading this book, I’m clear that America’s psyche was founded on wide open spaces. As a people, we constantly pushed toward open land until there was no more open land and resources left. All forested land would have been logged if Roosevelt hadn’t stepped in and made conservation a household word. Roosevelt, Muir and Pinchot loved the west and talk eloquently about the healing powers of nature, hiking, and the need to preserve places for desperate city dwellers. This remains even more true today. Cities are larger. Technology keeps us tied to computers and machines. Lives are moving faster than ever before and open spaces continue to shrink. In 1908, most people still lived on farms. Today, just a handful remain closely connected to the land. Kids have become increasingly removed from the very source of rejuvenation.
Richard Louv would likely take this one step further and say that without nature we are removed from a powerful source of creativity.
While Louv cites no study that proves this, it could be said that wilderness, or more broadly, outdoor adventure and exploration, fueled the invention and creativity that built this country. This does makes sense. Out of all the things that we have in America that no one else in the world has, it’s our wide open spaces and unsurpassed natural beauty and resources. We have Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, the Boundary Waters and many, many, more places. To be sure, there are beautiful places everywhere, but ours are so accessable. Furthermore, our outdoor legacy is our history. Good or bad, our history is full of adventure and outdoor exploration. Today, we have a parks system that makes visiting these places relatively easy and interpretive programs that make our visits meaningful. It makes sense that Roosevelt and Pinchot hatched the idea of conservation just as the frontier had closed. Could it be that in addition to saving something for future generations, Roosevelt didn’t want to lose what made us American? If we chopped down all the trees, perhaps we wouldn’t recognize ourselves or who know who we are. Would we still know how to think big thoughts or dream big dreams?
Louv writes in his book about how a young Benjamin Franklin and his friends created a water diversion system in their spare time, claiming that the land fueled his genius for invention.
It certainly can’t hurt. Where else, but in the outdoors, do all the senses become piqued. Who isn’t moved by the Grand Canyon and come away a slightly different person? I know I was. My visit makes me all the more hungry to return because I never know what magic will happen. There is a timelessness in huge places. A feeling of being small and of knowing your place against such a massive backdrop. I take heart in that knowledge because it keeps me humble knowing that I can’t change most of anything in the world. I am but a visitor.
I hope to give kids that feeling by getting them outside. We may not get to the Grand Canyon, but I can assure you that the landscape is no less healing and no less a place to hatch big ideas then it was in Roosevelt’s time. It’s certainly a place to start.
Last child in the woods: Part 2
I agree with Louv that we are making outdoor play more structured. In my work, all the activities are structured. We hike, we ski and we skate as a group. We are not just letting the kids go off and explore on their own. As a staff member working with other people’s kids, I do have to be sensible.
Regardless of this structure, I have observed that kids do act differently when they’re in the woods. Kids that are normally loud are quieter, though not all together quiet, while hiking. Kids are humble and more respectful of adults. I think they sense their smallness and vulnerability. Their senses are peaked. They look for things. They wonder about things.
On a recent hike, the water pump provided endless fascination. They showed great satisfaction and joy when pumping while pumping and especially when the water pour out. Just the act of pumping creates an awareness of the earth’s geology and where water comes from. I could see their brains ticking frantically after telling them that the water is stored between cracks in the rock. They thought there was a tank underground. My heart grew several sizes in that moment. I’ll never know what these kids will take home from these trips, but I doubt they are the same.
In today’s world, we do what we can to get kids outside, even if it’s structure. We can encourage outdoor play and creativity. I don’t see how I can do more.
Blue, Red and Green Snow: Colorful Outdoor Play
Give kids something unusual to play with and watch what happens.
On Friday, I filled up a bunch of spray bottles with colored water, grabbed some bubble wands and bubble juice and went outside with 6 kids. They immediately got creative. Each kid picked a different color and started squirting the snow different colors. Then each child gave themselves a name and marked off their territory in the snow. They picked tornado, storm and wolverine. I think they got these names from the Fantastic Four or from watching other super hero movies. They gave me the name “Bubble Monster.” I would blow bubbles and they’d squirt them from the sky. Then, they’d retreat to their territory for protection.
This was a lot of fun and the temperature was perfect. The spray bottles didn’t freeze up like they had on other adventures. Kids love this activity and are fascinated by the different colors. They also like watching the water freeze on surfaces and change the texture of the snow. Their creative play was an added bonus. It was fun watching these very different kids play together so well.
The Polar Express: Creative Play at Lake Farm Park
What do you call a fishing pier that’s on land for the winter? The Polar Express, a ship, and a ferry. On a trip to Lake Farm Park, I thought that most of the Kindergarten and first graders would have rushed to the water. But, they didn’t. Instead, they immediately jumped on a massive pier, in three pieces, now setting on land for the winter.
Continue Reading November 13, 2009 at 12:42 am Leave a comment
Leaf Safari
It’s fall and no matter how many times I’ve done this, it’s still exciting to take kids on a leaf safari. On a glorious October day, me and my co-teacher Zach took about 11 Kindergarten and first-graders on a leaf safari. They were REALLY excited about this, especially when they saw that they got to use their own bag with their name on it. The purpose of this adventure was to explore different colors and shapes of leaves and then make art with them.
To start, we read a book called “Fall Leaves Fall” by Zoe Hall. This book has lots of great ideas for leaf fun. We read this book and then got our bags. Outside, the kids quickly filled up their bags with leaves. We found yellow leaves, red leaves and purple leaves. I tried to sneak in some leaf classification by asking, “Does that leaf have pointy end or round ends? Does it have fingers or no fingers?” Jean picked up a maple leaf and I asked her if she knew the tree that the leaf came from, thinking that she may have talked about the state tree in school. I wish I could remember what she thought it was because it was pretty funny. This kindergartner was not impressed to learn that it was a maple leaf.
We stopped at a Purple Ash and enjoyed the bright purple leaves on the ground. Then, one child spotted an evergreen and wanted to go check for pine cones. This was unexpected and delightful as this child was clearly observing his surroundings. Quickly, they all picked up pine cones.
Another child found an apple on the ground and we stopped to ponder how that got there. The tree standing by the apple wasn’t an apple tree so we left puzzled (I found the apple tree the next day). Then, John solved everything by picking up the apple and throwing it hard. So much for that conversation.
We found some huge basswood leaves that fascinated the kids. Of course, they all wanted one. By now, each child had more than enough leaves in their bags and one child had no leaves at all. His bag contained rocks, sticks and dirt. I guess leaves didn’t fascinate him. Some kids picked small flowers like chicory and Black-Eyed Susan. During fall, I’m less concerned about kids picking plants because soon they’ll be dead, but overall, I discourage kids from picking things.
We marched back into the classroom armed with our leaves and ready to make some art. Again, the simplest thing like leaf rubbing was totally new for these kids. Most had never done it before. They took great care in their work and created colorful rubbings. Then, they made animals out of leaves and added googly eyes. Their creativity was amazing. The kids with pine cones used ink pads to make pine cone prints. I really do need to put their art work on line. The child that collected the rocks and sticks made a pumpkin mask. Apparently, he wanted to continue the pumpkin activity from the previous day. This was fine too.
The hardest part about after school teaching is that the kids get picked up at different times. Therefore, some kids didn’t get to finish their project’s today. The next day, their leaves with dried out, so they needed to pick more. This would have been fine, but it was raining. Flexibility is key. There’s always room for improvement. The next time I go on a leaf safari I might suggest that kids pick 20 leaves, rather than stuff their bags with as many as possible. Then we could have added some math into the project. As it was, we combined literacy (read aloud), science (leaf identification and classification) and just plain good outside fun on a gorgeous autumn day.
