Play activity 9 - bows and bells

This activity develops: body awareness, listening, independent movement, intentional movement, looking - tracking.

What’s in the box?

• Socks
• Crinkly paper
• Gloves or mittens
• Ribbons
• Bells

Activities

• Let the child explore the different materials and sounds.
• Place the mittens on the child’s hands – encourage the child to move their arms or hands to make the bells jingle and the crinkly paper scrunch.
• Try the same with the socks on their feet.
• Place the crinkly paper under their feet and encourage them to kick out.

Moving on

• Try using a variety of different materials and textures.
• Tie the bells to the ribbons and place them within the child’s range of movement – encourage them to reach out and hit them.
• Make a ‘feely bag’ and place different items in for the child to explore.

Observation and assessment

• Do not rush the activity – give plenty of time for children to respond.
• Note which parts of the body are moved, and in what way.
• Encourage other children to watch for responses - this will help them see how the child is able to communicate.
• Introduce other materials for contrasting movements or preferences, for example, velvet, bubble wrap.
• Note which side the child moves most frequently – encourage the other side using additional stimuli, for example, favourite texture.

Inclusion guide

• Introduce a ‘feely bag’ - see if the children can find and name different objects.
• Hold a treasure hunt to find different sounding items.
• Design and make different sound mobiles.

How this fits into the Early Years Foundation Stage.