WonderWorks: Tweezer & tongs

Technology = Tools and some of the favorites at this age are these extensions of our fingers.

Today's Topic: Tweezers & Tongs
Supplies:
tweezers (i found mine 2/$1 at the dollar store!)
tongs (wooden, spring-loaded, ones that open like scissors....a variety is best!)
stuff to pick up (pom poms (various sizes), marshmallows, beads, toy cars, feathers, wooden blocks, fabric scraps, cotton balls, styrofoam packing peanuts, marbles, spools, etc, etc, etc...)
stuff to put things into (muffin tins, ice cube trays, egg cartons, buckets, Connect Four game board, paper cups, film canisters, drink bottle lids, empty tissue boxes, etc, etc, etc....)

Book: (one of the few I've ever read with tweezers in the story.  This is an odd, but good one!)

  How to catch an elephant / Schwartz, Amy

Set-up:
--set out a variety of things to pick up and things to put them in on each table.  I sorted them out into roughly "large, medium and small" tables so that no one would get frustrated trying to pick up a giant wooden bead with tweezers, but that's a valuable lesson to learn, so mixing everything up on every table would also be fine.

 What Kids Do:

 I happened to have a Connect Four game on my shelf that someone had donated awhile back.  It ended up being one of the favorite objects for kids to put things into.  Check your shelves for something you can re-purpose--you never know what you'll find if you think about your stash of stuff a little differently!

 This explorer discovered that it was fun to spin a marble around the edges of a plastic lid!

 This explorer discovered that it was fun to combine fabric and tissue boxes!

 We tried a new "hello" song today that incorporated kids writing their names on a piece of tape on a building block, then when it was their turn in the song, they came to the front to add their block to the structure that grew throughout the song.  I love it!

  

Hindsight Tip:  During play, the objects you put out for kids to pick up will get well-mixed.  Talk to participants beforehand about how sorting is also a very important early science skill (classification!) and have the kids all help to sort objects back into their original containers at the end of the program.  (Many thanks to the parents and the handful of kids who helped sort at the end of this week's program!)

Related Apps: Toca Doctor Lite includes a mini-game where you pull splinters from the patient's hand.  Although there are no actual tweezers involved, you could easily engage in a conversation with your child about different ways that tweezers are used!