Author: Alice Sharp
Alice is nationally and internationally recognised as using a dynamic and innovative approach to children. She uses an experiential approach in her role as early childhood influencer, keynote speaker, mum and writer. She is waiting to uplift and inspire in a sensitive and thought-provoking way.
Fun Play with Gems, Jewels and Sparkles
- Use gems to count, group or match. This helps children develop one-to-one correspondence for basic math’s skills.
- Sorting them by colour sharpens children’s visual awareness and discrimination. It also helps them to categorize.
- Picking them up and manipulating small jewels and shiny objects helps strengthen finger muscles which is great for writing skills later.
- Build the foundations of mathematical thinking with patterns and sequences. Arranging them, placing them helps develop logical thinking.
- Describing, categorizing and story building with the gems will build vocabulary and develop expressive language.
- Using gems to create shapes and placing other gems inside the shapes boosts understanding of special awareness and even introduces geometry.
- Simple math’s games like adding another or taking the blue ones away can introduce the concepts of addition and subtraction.
- Sorting, counting and sequencing with these objects takes concentration, focus and builds a longer attention span.
- Children love treasure, magic stories, fairy tools, gems are great for this – sparking their imagination and narrative thinking.
- Sharing a pile of gems, jewels and treasure develops social skills as the children wait, take turns and co-operate.
