{Playing Through Autumn Day 18} Autumn Discovery Basket

Discovery baskets (or bins) are fantastic for open-ended play: just fill up a basket with any number of materials and present them to a child - she'll take it from there! I have been having a lot of fun presenting L with various discovery bins over the past several months, and of course I couldn't let autumn pass me by without letting her get her hands on some of the best things the season has to offer: in this case, miniature pumpkins, gourds, and fabulous red Indian corn.

I decided to put the items in a wicker basket rather than a plastic bin (which I typically use) to carry on the natural feel of the gourds and corn. Actually, L had helped me pick these things out at the market a couple of days before we did this activity, and she was so surprised and happy to see everything again!

She especially loved the corn - we talked about the bumpy texture and the crinkly stalk. She even tickled my nose with it!

After the initial exploration, L took emptying and refilling the basket with all of the items. She has been very into counting lately, so I used the opportunity to work on counting with her, using one-to-one correspondence.

As the activity began to wind down, we also learned something new about gourds: if you drop them, they bounce!

We both loved this activity! It was so simple and yet presented us with so many opportunities for language, math concepts, and sensory experiences. 

Have your kiddos had a chance to experience some of these fall items? What else would you add to your own discovery basket?

Open-Ended Play with Discovery Bins

One of the great things about kids is you never know exactly what they'll do when you present them with new materials. This fact of life inspired me to try something a little different with L recently, in what I'm calling a Discovery Bin.

I'm always looking for ways to invite L to engage in activities that are open-ended and without a lot of structure. I like to watch what she does with certain materials, the way her little brow furrows as the cogs in her brain start to turn. In this case, I took a small plastic bin (about the size of a shoe box) and filled it with cotton balls, buttons, pom poms, and bells. Then I threw in a cardboard tube for extra fun, set it out where she'd be sure to find it, and let her take it from there.

The first thing she did was pull out each type of material for exploration. It didn't take her long to discover that it would be really fun to start dropping those materials down the cardboard tube.  It was such fun to watch her giggle when each item came out on the other end. I loved the fact that there was so much to discuss: the sound of the bells, the smoothness of the buttons, the soft and fluffy texture of the cotton balls and poms. She stayed engaged with this activity for quite some time and even when she did move onto the next thing, she watched me like a hawk to keep track of where I put the bin.

This was a super simple activity that hit on fine motor practice, new vocabulary (smooth, fluffy, jingly) and offered lots of opportunities for L to practice her emerging language skills. All in all, a roaring success!