Saturday, 14 April 2012

Mechanics Role Play With Real Tools

The children play a lot with the plastic tools and I have noticed recently that they are getting broken as they are used with some force! Also plastic tools don't really 'do' the job that tools are supposed to do they??!! So when we were in Wales at the weekend, I went to 'The Famous £1.20 Shop' (I know, I laugh my socks off every time we go!) and bought some small tools including a double ended spanner set, a ring of Allen keys, a screwdriver and a ratchet set.
 These proved a huge and instantaneous hit and the children set about taking apart the pedal car and were delighted to find that the tools really did undo the nuts and bolts! I have to admit I hadn't anticipated that one and got my husband to side step them by getting them to take apart an old lawn mower instead (under supervision of course!!). It didn't last long though and they were back to the car - sigh!
 So I provided a tub for the small pieces coming off it and hoped that they could remember how to reassemble it!
 The imaginative play was wonderful - they pulled in ideas from all over the place and used some wonderful maths language!
Then the foreman dropped by for a site inspection - and checked the wheel had been put back on properly, tasted the headlamps, tickled Faith's toes that were sticking out from under the chassis......
...... and then moved on to explore other wheels!!


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