Who wants to think about learning during the summer, especially on holidays? We don’t, but kids do and they want to have as much fun and learn as much as possible in every minute of the day. It’s just that they call this PLAY and this play encourages brain connections, promotes kindergarten readiness and builds life skills. Here is wonderful play activity that kids can do anywhere and anytime just by changing the colors and shapes and is perfect for families celebrating July 4th. This idea comes from mom Dawn Call and it was inspired by another mom in a group called Play, Create, Explore. This fun and learning will stick.
Parents and caregivers can either cut out pieces of tissue paper or let kids do some cutting or ripping. Using rectangles of clear sticky contact paper, kids pat the small colored paper onto the sticky part. When done, grownup hands can carefully smooth another piece of sticky paper on top so the colored papers are sandwiched in between. This keeps the tissue paper from blowing away or falling out. Hanging these in a window creates dancing colors when the sun shines on them. Again, thank you to Dawn Call for the idea and the photos.
As children play with the bits of paper, they are also learning. It’s easy to see that kids are learning about organizing and spacing things out. Very often younger kidlets will put a few things all in one place. Their bits of paper will practically be stacked on top of each other. Their eyes will be drawn to the first bit and they will continue in the same spot. As children develop, they learn to move their focus and attention. This requires some new wiring in their brains and lots of experiences. Matching and naming colors is another thinking skill they are practicing. During the activity they will be using language purposefully and interacting with others.
Do you remember learning the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? This is an example of that synergy. Each bit of paper is not very much, but look at what it creates when it is all together. Communities are like that too, bigger together than as individuals. Countries are greater than the sum of communities, and so is our world. Do you agree that’s something to celebrate? Happy July 4th!