Educators
Parents
References
Awards
Reviews
Newsletters
Webinars
Articles
Sometimes, as I showed my 4-year-old students some new materials to work with (which teachers call manipulatives), they would ask me, “What does it DO?” This question would make me think twice about what people give children to play with; too often toys and manipulatives are designed to “do” something interesting, but not to require the child to “do” very much at all!
My favorite choices for manipulatives have always been materials that teachers call open-ended. These are materials that require children to think and construct for themselves. Examples are blocks, geometric shapes, play dough, paint, and other materials that allow for creating or building without a lot of instructions or guidance.
For example, my class and I once read the book Cuckoo by Lois Ehlert (a Mexican folktale) and discussed the story of the laziness of Cuckoo, who wanted to look beautiful and sing but would not stoop to help other animals of the rainforest—until a fire threatened their seeds. This book features beautiful folk art and vivid colors, much like the tinwork and cutout fiesta flag banners of Mexico.
We could have followed up this story with a "follow-the-directions" type of assignment, in which the children cut out birds from printables or colored-in pre-created line drawings. Instead, I gave the children a collection of geometric shapes of many colors cut from construction paper and asked them to design their own cuckoo. Then we did a mini-lesson on geometric shapes, colors, and how birds have certain body parts.
The children created amazing birds! They used circles and half circles for wings or eyes, thick rectangles became thin rectangles for legs and feet, triangles created beaks, and so on. None of the resulting original works of art looked the same, and all were beautiful. The children were proud of their creations. And the conversations that we had during this process were rich in vocabulary from our mini-lesson.
The students were then inspired while playing with blocks to try and create birds using plastic construction pieces and unit blocks. They also painted birds on the painting easel and used feathers and pasta to create more and more birds.
The lesson here is that the open-ended materials selected did not “do” anything, but they could be used in a creative way to inspire the child to “do” something. In the end, the students experienced a wonderful piece of children’s literature (and learned about the author and her style in a way that allowed a comparison and contrast with another of her works, Moon Rope). They also discovered some science content that was made more interesting and relevant to them by its relationship to that story: how birds look, what they do, what they eat, where they live, and how they can be represented. (I also borrowed parakeets from a friend and asked the children to observe and draw them.) On top of that, they learned more about the names and characteristics of basic geometric shapes—and how to work in a new medium to create an artistic piece.
What can you learn from this as a parent? Look for toys and think of projects that allow children to be creative and to construct, even though they might be a slightly messy endeavor. (A used shower curtain on the floor helps protect the floor from any spills, glue, or paint.) And try to think about the things that are already in your household as inspirations for creativity. While you are cooking, for example, your child can arrange macaroni into interesting patterns. Multi-colored lentils and beans can lead to interesting designs, and a little bit of glue turns those designs into something that they can hang on a wall. (Always remember, though, not to give such small objects to very young children.) Play dough is the perfect “manipulative” to keep your child occupied while you are preparing meals, as your child can “make” a pizza, bread, chicken or a pie (and it’s easy to make your own play dough, with many recipes available on the Internet).
And sometimes, the best manipulatives aren’t inside the home or classroom at all—they’re outside, provided by nature. I truly believe that my own creativity was originally encouraged and inspired by my ability to make absolutely awesome mud cakes, decorated with leaves from our backyard tree.
In a world where technology does so much for us—including so many of the jobs that were once done by people—the ability to be creative may be your child’s most important future asset. So the next time you’re at the toy store, ask yourself: What will inspire my child to “do”?
Home | Teachers | Gift Cards | Libraries | About Us | Careers | Media Center | FAQs | Customer Support
We take your privacy very seriously and will never monetize the Personal Information of any User of our Services by providing it to a third party in exchange for money. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has a broader definition of the term “sell” which includes disclosing Personal Information to any third party for valuable consideration. When we work with our advertising partners, we are disclosing certain information such as cookies for their services, which are of value to us. Under the CCPA you have the right to opt-out of our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration. You may exercise your right to opt-out through the settings on this page. However, please note that if you opt-out you will not receive special discounts or offers that may be of interest to you. In addition, if you opt-out, but come back to our site through a different browser or device we will not be able to recognize you, so you will still have to opt-out again.
We take your privacy very seriously and will never monetize the Personal Information of any User of our Services by providing it to a third party in exchange for money. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has a broader definition of the term “sell” which includes disclosing Personal Information to any third party for valuable consideration. When we work with our advertising partners, we are disclosing certain information such as cookies for their services, which are of value to us. Under the CCPA you have the right to opt-out of our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration. You may exercise your right to opt-out through the settings on this page. However, please note that if you opt-out you will not receive special discounts or offers that may be of interest to you. In addition, if you opt-out, but come back to our site through a different browser or device we will not be able to recognize you, so you will still have to opt-out again.
These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to our Services and how users use the Services. The information gathered does not identify any individual visitor. It includes the number of visitors to our Services, the websites that referred them to our Services, the pages they visited on our Services, what time of day they visited our Services, whether they have visited our Services before, and other similar information. We use this information to help operate our Services more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information, and to monitor the level of activity on our Services.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to remember choices you make when you use our Services, such as remembering your language preferences, remembering your login details, and remembering the changes you make to other parts of Services which you can customize. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you visit our Services.
These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through Services and to enable you to use some of its features. For example, they allow you to log in to secure areas of our Services and help the content of the pages you request load quickly. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.
TM & © 2007-2021 Age of Learning, Inc.Patents Pending Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
We take your privacy very seriously and will never monetize the Personal Information of any User of our Services by providing it to a third party in exchange for money. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has a broader definition of the term “sell” which includes disclosing Personal Information to any third party for valuable consideration. When we work with our advertising partners, we are disclosing certain information such as cookies for their services, which are of value to us. Under the CCPA you have the right to opt-out of our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration. You may exercise your right to opt-out through the settings on this page. However, please note that if you opt-out you will not receive special discounts or offers that may be of interest to you. In addition, if you opt-out, but come back to our site through a different browser or device we will not be able to recognize you, so you will still have to opt-out again.
We take your privacy very seriously and will never monetize the Personal Information of any User of our Services by providing it to a third party in exchange for money. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has a broader definition of the term “sell” which includes disclosing Personal Information to any third party for valuable consideration. When we work with our advertising partners, we are disclosing certain information such as cookies for their services, which are of value to us. Under the CCPA you have the right to opt-out of our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration. You may exercise your right to opt-out through the settings on this page. However, please note that if you opt-out you will not receive special discounts or offers that may be of interest to you. In addition, if you opt-out, but come back to our site through a different browser or device we will not be able to recognize you, so you will still have to opt-out again.
These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to our Services and how users use the Services. The information gathered does not identify any individual visitor. It includes the number of visitors to our Services, the websites that referred them to our Services, the pages they visited on our Services, what time of day they visited our Services, whether they have visited our Services before, and other similar information. We use this information to help operate our Services more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information, and to monitor the level of activity on our Services.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to remember choices you make when you use our Services, such as remembering your language preferences, remembering your login details, and remembering the changes you make to other parts of Services which you can customize. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you visit our Services.
These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through Services and to enable you to use some of its features. For example, they allow you to log in to secure areas of our Services and help the content of the pages you request load quickly. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.