Enabling environments birth to threes: Ball play

WHAT YOU NEED

A collection of squishy, tangled and spiky balls

POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learns by interacting with others

Listens to rhythmic patterns

Develops hand-eye co-ordination

Uses movement to connect with immediate environment

RHYME TIME

Make up simple rhymes to say when exploring the resources with the children, such as:

Drop the ball, bounce around,

Roll the ball without a sound.

Throw the ball towards the sky,

Catch the ball, let out a sigh.

Stretch the ball in, out, in,

Squash the ball flat and thin.

PLAYING GAMES

Hide and seek

- Let a child select one or two balls to hide in the room for you to find.

- Now hide one or two balls for the child to find.

- Repeat, but this time, when you find the ball ask the child to say how it should be passed to the other person - throw, roll or bounce.

On target

Placing a few pictures, bowls and magazines on the floor and with the child, you could:

- drop or throw one of the balls on to one of the 'targets' (placing the 'targets' further away from the bag of balls will offer a greater challenge)

- experiment together to find which balls bounce and which do not.

Through the tunnel

- Place cardboard boxes on the floor to form tunnels and roll the balls into or through them.

EXTENSION IDEAS

- Pile up the balls in the middle of the floor.

- Place the empty bag at the other side of the room.

- Choosing one ball at a time, balance it on the child's hand, palm or back of a wooden spoon depending on your child's ability.

Marie Richardson is head of centre at training company Experiential Play (www.experientialplay.com) and early years executive at Wonderbox, specialising in interactive products for use with children under three (www.wonderbox.co.uk; e-mail: info@wonderbox.co.uk)

MAKE YOUR MARK

WHAT YOU NEED

Everyday items suitable for mark-making, such as brushes, massagers and plastic sauce bottles (see left); paints and other such materials such as treacle, spices, oil and syrup

POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Extends vocabulary

Makes random marks with fingers and tools

Develops fine motor skills

Creates and experiments with marks and materials

PLAYING GAMES

- Let the children explore the mark-making objects. As they choose each one you could perhaps name them.

- Encourage them to describe the mark-makers and suggest how they might use it or what mark it might make.

- Place the 'markers' out in the basket and provide a little paint or spices - or even treacle or syrup.

- Let the children try out the 'markers' in a variety of ways to create a range of marks and patterns.

- You could also choose some of the 'markers' and describe what you are doing with each, exclaiming at the outcomes/marks as you make them.

- Invite the children to mix some of the paints to make them thinner or thicker, and easier or more difficult to manipulate. Use them to create marks.

- On another occasion, challenge the children to suggest what kind of mark will be made before letting them choose what to use.

Extension ideas

- Add a highly scented soap or candle to the set of mark-makers and use it to add to one of the 'pictures' that the children have created in their mark-making.