This loose parts abacus is easy to make and guaranteed to keep little hands busy!
What you need:
- chair (we used a high chair)
- chair (we used a high chair)
- string of some sort (we used beading laces)
- tape
- selection of loose parts (we used wooden numbers, wooden beads, large buttons, and neon beads)
- tape
- selection of loose parts (we used wooden numbers, wooden beads, large buttons, and neon beads)
How it works:
To set up the loose parts abacus, thread the loose parts onto the pieces of string and tie the string tightly around the chair legs. Be sure to leave enough space between each row so that your kids can freely explore the materials. I decided to tape the loose leftover string up onto the high chair just to keep it out of the way (I knew it would be too tempting for 20 month old baby sis!).
When you introduce your child to the set up, you really don't need to explain much. I simply showed my toddler how the parts moved along the string. She quickly took to moving the beads along the string one at a time. This was great for her fine motor development.
She then discovered that she could move more than one loose part at a time. She liked grouping the buttons up, and sliding five or six over at a time. Through her independent exploration, she also realized that the loose parts made different noises when she clinked them together.
After she had time to enjoy some 'free play' with the set up, I introduced some color recognition and movement vocabulary, such as fast and slow, and left and right.
When big bro got home from kindergarten we had fun using the abacus for counting and simple addition using a dice. We each chose a loose part and took it in turns to roll and move our parts across to the 'safe side'. No pictures I'm afraid, I was too busy being beaten by a 5 year old!!
This was such a fun way to use our loose parts. There was gross motor and fine motor development, sensory exploration, new vocabulary, and of course the opportunity to be hands on with some numeracy learning. Definitely a play based learning winner!
When you introduce your child to the set up, you really don't need to explain much. I simply showed my toddler how the parts moved along the string. She quickly took to moving the beads along the string one at a time. This was great for her fine motor development.
She then discovered that she could move more than one loose part at a time. She liked grouping the buttons up, and sliding five or six over at a time. Through her independent exploration, she also realized that the loose parts made different noises when she clinked them together.
After she had time to enjoy some 'free play' with the set up, I introduced some color recognition and movement vocabulary, such as fast and slow, and left and right.
When big bro got home from kindergarten we had fun using the abacus for counting and simple addition using a dice. We each chose a loose part and took it in turns to roll and move our parts across to the 'safe side'. No pictures I'm afraid, I was too busy being beaten by a 5 year old!!
This was such a fun way to use our loose parts. There was gross motor and fine motor development, sensory exploration, new vocabulary, and of course the opportunity to be hands on with some numeracy learning. Definitely a play based learning winner!
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