Learning with noodles

Oooodless of Noooodles

Every time I walk through our staff room I see a bunch of pool noodles that we never used over the summer. I jumped on pinterest to spark my nogin and get some inspiration and here is what we have been doing with a few of those pool noodles!

You can follow More Than ABC's and 123's board on pinterest HERE!

My first invitation to play. String and noodles.

Later that day we made pumpkin prints with the cut noodles.

For this next invitation I cut the noodle at about 6 inches and then cut the noodle in half long ways. I then cut a slit in the middle of each one and put out our new Alphabet Sticks and their name cards.

If your interested in these Alphabet sticks I got them here and I have been really happy with them! They have the uppercase letter on one side and the lowercase letter on the other side.

I wanted to see where my students were at with their number recognition skills so I took ten and numbered them on one side and dots on the other. During play time I observed a few kids say the numbers and were able to put them in the correct order, others counted the number of dots on the opposite side.

For a table time activity I cut up a hand full of the circles into little pieces and added golf tees.

and let their little imaginations go...

This activity is great for strengthening those fine motor muscles. Pushing the golf tees in as well as pulling them out!

Another day at table time I had 3 different color cut noodles and asked the kids to make a pattern. I liked how some kids made their pattern vertically and some made theirs horizontally.

 

We also made a marble run which a few kids decided to investigate how the cut noodles would roll down them.

  

The kids really liked the feel and texture of the cut noodles and played with them in a lot of different ways.

Next on the list: 

fill the sensory bin with water and all of the cut noodles!! 

Preschool skills

These chopstick helpers are AWESOME!!!!

Looking for a great way to strengthen those fine motor muscles?

Chopsticks, pom pom balls, and a tray. 

My kiddos love this and are getting really good at using the chopsticks and can now pick up the smaller pom pom balls!!!

 

I wanted to get an idea of where the kiddos in my class were with their letter recognition. I put out some letter cards and told the kids that we were going to go on a letter hunt. They were to look around the room and find letter and match them to the card. I was able to see which children may need more support and practice with letter recognition without having to test them with flashcards!!! 

They did so well! The found letters from puzzles, the magnet board and from the letter beads we have.

Then we got to put them all away! Great sorting activity! 

Another easy way to set up a sorting activity is to simply put out colored paper for the kids to match/sort. This is how I set up our independent table in our table time rotation.

PlayMobil and why we LOVE it!!

“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.” – Erik H. Erikson

What is playmobil? 

Playmobil brings out imagination and creativity and promotes open ended play. With playmobil, children can not only slip into many different roles, but also recreate and experience the world in miniature. 

Playmobil is more common in stores now then the past few years but they can still be hard to find so I have linked a lot sets for you, some we own, some I wish we owned lol but hopefully it will make your search a bit easier :D

My son loves to role play with his playmobil. It allows his to create a world and act out characters. He doesn't seem to do this with any of his other toys, even his action figures only hold his attention span for a short time. 

This school set I bought for my son when he first started preschool. It was so adorable to see him act out his experiences at school. He would sit all the kids in a circle and have the teacher sing the good morning song. He assigned each playmobil child to a classmates name and would say things like "John, do you want to play with me?" As a preschool teacher my self I was in awe of his perception of school and the interactions he would act out with his playmobil figures. Developmentally, it showed me where he was at in his development of play. As a mommy I just loved watching him play!!! 

My daughter is 2 and although they make  a younger version of playmobil for toddles she loves playing with her brothers, (however she is supervised and we take away all the small pieces!) I thought it was time I bought her a 'girly' set. Like I stated above, sometimes hard to find in stores and when I went they had such a limited selection so I bought 2 mystery girl packs and to my excitement....yes I say my lol we got a fairy in each one!!!! I mean I did try my hardest to use my x-ray vision and my spidey-sense to feel for 'wings' lol because honestly I didn't really want a Dracula queen or some of the other 'interesting ones' lol anyways super excited for the fairies!

I happen to have found this foam fairy garden kit awhile back it was just perfect for introducing open ended play to my daughter!!! 

  Here are some other adorable girly sets! 

And that fairy house below isn't playmobil but its on my wishlist....how adorable is that!!!! 

Okay....get excited!!!! Playmobil has Advent Calenders!!!! Growing up my mom always got us the box chocolate advent calendars which were tasty but over the last few years I've been trying to create our own family traditions and this one is a keeper!!! My son was 3 last Christmas and he loved it! The Advent Calenders come with a scene/backdrop and a box with 24 doors, behind each door is a playmobil piece to add to your play!!! It was so fun each night to see what was next. One day you might get a tree the next day woodland creatures or Santa!! They have many choices so you don't repeat the same each year. The best part about this set last year is that I packed it up with the Christmas decor and it will come out this Christmas to be played with throughout the holiday!!! 

Advent Calenders!!!

I think this year we might get our son the pirate one and our daughter the pony one!!!! 

So what do you think!? Do you love them as much as I do? Have you ever heard of playmobil?? Do your children enjoy open-ended play with them?

The first set we got was the first picture in this post the fire and police ones. I happen to get lucky and get a huge discount due to a damaged box. I have found good deals on amazon and purchased them and others have been gifts!! We are enjoying our little collection and play with them often! The thing I like the most is how durable playmobil is I feel like these will be one of the few things I save or (hoard lol...as my hubby would say) for the grand kids!!! Lol that's a looooonnnggg way away but how fun would that be!! 

 This is how we store ours

P.S. just so you know this is not sponsored or hosted by playmobil lol just a mommy who found a toy that her Kiddos love to play and be imaginative with! ;)