Discovery Play..supports our children to learn laugh and love.

Discovery play is another major part of a child's life. The other part is imaginative play.

Simply put, discovery play allows children to learn about the world and how it works (not just the physical world either).

Play time at home has become even more important in recent years. In The Power of Play, David Elkind notes that over the last two decades, children have lost, on average, 12 hours of free time per week, including time for unstructured play and outdoor activities.

•Can be structured or non-structured.What is important is that there are multiple possible ways of doing something or for something to happen.

•Can be topic focused . This isn't the same as being structured. Structured refers to how the learning is delivered while "topic focused" refers to the scope of the discoveries.

•Some discovery toys have problem solving built into them like a marble run .

•Another group of discovery toys are those that are designed with one or two very specific concepts in mind.

•An interesting thing about discovery toys is that the toys that are seemingly 'elementary' or 'simplistic' offer some of the best fun for kids. Take a magnifying glass for example.

These are so easy to make.  All you need it empty clear plastic bottles with lids, a glue gun and whatever you can find to fill them with. 

Discovery Bottles

- it is much more effective than it looks in the picture and very relaxing (probably why I like it:))

Glycerine and glitter

Quick dramatic results when shook, that can be repeated again soon after.  I used glitter strands in this one

Glitter in distilled water

What else could be done with the bottles?

This one makes a lovely sound as you twist and turn the bottle, trying to find the giraffe.

Giraffe in plastic bits

Lots of twisting and turning of the bottle required to get the animals to appear.

Animals in shredded paper

We use this one to learn about the different parts of a car.  Can you see the wheels / windows / lights / mirrors etc.

Car in rice

I think I need a fish in this one!  I stupidly said to my son the other day 'look the two liquids don't mix together' to which he responded by vigorously shaking the bottle until they did!  After a while they did separate again!

Coloured water and oil

Encourages the use of other senses in exploring the bottles.  You could have a set of discovery boxes that focus entirely on smells.

Flowers and oil

Shaking creates fantastic blue bubbles which turn white before popping.

Food colouring. Dishwash and water

Good for comparing with the Marbles in Hair Gel, to see the the different ways the marbles behave in each.

Hairgel and marbles

to demonstrate that magnetism also works in water.

Paperclips and distilled water

Use magnetic wands to draw the pipe cleaners up the side of the bottle.

Pipe cleaners and magnetic wand

again can be explored with a magnetic wand.

Jumping beans and wand

(The sand was coloured with grated green chalk).

Sand and Perspex numbers

To compare with hair gel.

Shampoo and marbles

We don't have these out all the time but they are always popular when we do

Shaking

Social skills

Twisting turning

Twisitng and comparing

Keep play as an important part of a child’s day