21/11/2012
Smarticle Playtime Tips: Stormy Seas
There are other ways to play the game! Here are some tips from Smarticle:
• Practice colour sorting and matching with younger children. Discuss the colours of the different pieces of cargo and sort them into groups of the same colour. Then find other items in your home to match the colours of the cargo.
• Counting cargo - how many of each shape, colour and type can you find? Count the items of cargo on the boat. How many are there and how many still need to be loaded? Use the numbers to start addition and subtraction games.
• For older children discuss the concept of balance and how balance scales are used to determine equal weight.
• Playing the game is a fun way to build your child's vocabulary about ships and sailing. Discuss words such as cargo, boat, deck, port, starboard, bow, stern, seas, stormy, rough, wind, mast, flag, beach, water, balancing, sailors, afloat, plunge, buoyant, vessel, river, bank, waves, tides, sails, ropes, knots, rowing boats, oars, rafts, load, freight.
Use your imagination to invent other games. For example:
• Play ‘Simon Says’ using a nautical theme. For example: Simon says, ‘Scrub the decks’; Simon says, ‘Climb the rigging’; ‘Walk the plank’; ‘Salute the captain’; ‘Lookout from the crow’s nest’; ‘Dig for treasure’; ‘Fire the cannons!’
• Build boats using recyclable materials such as plastic water bottles, polystyrene trays, paper (try origami boats), foil, wood, reeds and ‘Plasticine’.
• Younger children will enjoy making a boat out of a large cardboard box that they can ‘sail’ in after loading their cargo.
• Discuss different types of boats with your children or read them stories about boats. Smarticle recommends: ‘The Wind in the Willows’ (Kenneth Grahame); ‘Mr Gumpy’s Outing’ (John Burningham); ‘Who Sank the Boat?’ (Pamela Allen); ‘The Brave Tin Soldier’ (Hans Christian Andersen); ‘The Fairy Ship’ (Alison Uttley)
