Monday, July 8, 2013

Painter's Tape as a Toy?

One of the greatest things about being a mom, is the luxury to create games that teach things while using gross motor skills or fine motor skills.  I like to call these the multitasking games, and honestly my children don't even realize they are learning.  About a week ago, on yet another rainy CT afternoon, my boys found the big box of goods from Amazon that I had purchased lately, and discovered the brightly colored bean bags inside.  They started throwing them through the house, and before anything broke, I acted fast.

 Everywhere we go, both boys are pointing out shapes and colors.  I grabbed some painter's tape and taped off 3 shapes on the floor.  I made a diamond, triangle, and square, all about a 6 inches away from each other.  I love using painter's tape on the floor, since it is the only thing that does not leave a sticky residue on the hardwood, and it does not affect the stain either.  I had the boys stand about 2 feet away from the shapes with the multicolored bean bags on the ground.  I had 2 of each color, so I called out a color and shape from them to throw it into.  Pierce usually went first, but then Carter was able to copy and learned a bit from his big brother.  I wish I had taken pictures, but my jet lagged body did not think that far ahead.

Some other games we have played with painter's tape:

Balance Beam:  Put a strip of painter's tape on the floor, and walk across it like a balance beam.  If they fall off, they have landed in the ocean/lava/quick sand, or whatever else your child imagines.

Hopscotch:  Yes, good old hopscotch.  It has been raining a lot lately, so we have had to get creative.  Also great for number recognition.

Long Jump:  Run down the hall and see who can jump the farthest.  There were 4 strips of tape about 3" apart all parallel to each other.  That is what we used to measure with.

Make a Roadway:  Create a roadway down the hall with the lanes and all.  I am sure you can adapt it to railways, boat ways, and pretty much anything you can imagine.

What else can you dream up or create?

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