CREATING YOUR OWN GAMES

Transcription

1 PARENTS EVENT CREATING YOUR OWN GAMES Date: Wednesday, 16th November 2016 Location: Schulhaus Sihlfeld, Room 7 (ground floor) Time: pm

2 Dear Parents, Stadt Zürich Schule Sihlfeld Sihlfeldstr Zürich Tel Fax Nowadays technical devices determine rather more than less the pastime of our children. However, there are many possibilities how to create games yourselves. These need just a little money and bring a lot of fun. On this occasion we would like to give you some ideas, which you then could try yourself together with your children at home. Timetable: 7pm welcome and introduction 7.05 pm theory 7.15 pm introducing the various stations 7.30 pm try for yourselves 8.30 pm end Organisation of the various stations: There are about 80 people attending this event. This makes 4 groups of 20 people each. The colour of your string tells you, to which group you belong. For each station you will have 15 minutes to try and create a game. The time to change to the next station will be signalled by a gong. Stations: 1. make your own play dough (Frau Fischer) 2. a dice game (Frau Staub) 3.a skills game (Herr Coradi) 4. a paper craft (Frau Kleiner) 5. check out more ideas and take copies with you.

3 Theory To play is important for children. The development of the nervous system depends on inputs and experiences the child is able to get. A lot of various stimuli and inputs are needed. Therefore cutting, drawing and doing handy crafts with various materials is important for the development of our children. By doing this, the child collects numerous information by which the nervous system is being extended. The child collects basic information which is needed to master daily life. Adults take many things for granted, which children have yet to learn and to discover. Such as: Physical phenomena: What happens when I tear something? How does it feel like? What happens when I cut something? How does it feel like? How does soft material react, how does hard or rough or spiky material react? Directing your strength: How much strength is needed for cutting, tearing, drawing, running, jumping, closing a door? What happens, if I stand on one end oft the seesaw, what happens when I stand in the middle?... Geometrical and 3D experiences: Children need to touch shapes and geometrical bodies. Experiencing movements forward and backward are important to understand the numerical order and system. To discover and create patterns help to gain further basic mathematical understanding. Try it yourselves : Master a task with missing information: 1. Tie the string around one of your fingers or your wrist with closed eyes or behind your back. 2. Wrap tape around two or three fingers of both of your hands. Try to master the task above once again. How would you describe your experience? Please keep the string; it determines to which group you belong!

4 Creating your own games with your children......means to enable your children to have basic experiences, which they will need for life and their school career....enables your child to take pride in herself or himself. Experiencing and training ones skills and abilities in creating a product builds up self - confidence.... teaches valuable lessons in social skills. Your child may learn to cope with difficulties or frustrations like having to wait for your turn or how to loose a game. You as parents are the best teachers to your own child, especially when it comes to every day life lessons. Your children also learn a lot when they can experience how you as parents struggle with a problem and try to find a way to solve it. To be a good teacher, one does not need to have all the answers. A good teacher invites the child to join him on the road from the question to the answer, from a problem to its solution, from frustration to overcoming it.

5 Station 1: make your own play dough Children love to play with play dough. Often the ingredients of bought play dough are not labelled. A good alternative is homemade play dough. This play dough helps your child to wonderfully train motor skills because it is softer than bought play dough. In order to keep it soft for a long time, it is necessary to store it airtight. How to go about: 1. Mix flour and salt in a big bowl. 2. Add citric acid (Zitronensäure), oil and boiling water. 3. Mix everything with a wooden spoon. 4. Knead firmly with your hands Tipp: Should the dough be too sticky, add a teaspoon of flour. 5. Divide the dough in several lumps and colour them with different kinds of food colouring Material: 2 cups of flour (400 g) 1 cup of salt (200 g) 2 level measured soup spoons of citric acid ½ l water 2 soup spoons of oil 1 soup spoon of food colouring a big bowl

6 Station 2: dice game While playing board games, your child gets acquainted with the basics of maths, such as the one- to one relation and the numerical order. It is advisable, to keep the game rather short in order to repeat the fun frequently. Your child s attention span is still very short. The most important thing is the tickle to win. It does not take much to create such dice games: All you need is a dice and some tokens like buttons, pebbles or items of Lego. Now you draw simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles or flowers and connect them with a line and mark the start and the finishing place. You now agree to some simple rules and start to roll the dice. For small children it is just fine to get to the finishing line by rolling the dice. Later on, you may want to add some rules with specially marked places, telling you to go back three places or having to give up your turn. There are no limits in creating rules, as long as each player agrees to them before the game starts. Turbo star: "Turbo star" is a dice game, which is very simple and a lot of fun. The two big fields are the start and the finish. Now take turns in rolling the dice and move forward. Hitting a Turbo star, the player moves forward to the next star. Winner is, of course, the first one to reach the finish. Adding or changing rules, like needing the exact amount to reach the finish or having to go back to the start after being over taken, are possible with each new game. TIPP: Gluing your game plan onto a piece of cardboard makes it as sturdy as bought ones.

7 Station 3: skills game rolling up the string To wind a string needs much skill. How much skill is needed can vary: Is it easier to wind a string around a pencil or around an empty toilet paper roll? During the process of making this game, the child s 3D- and motor skills are trained. Material needed: cardboard or strong paper colour pencils, paint string scissors sellotape pencil and string to wind during the game How to go about: Draw the motive of your choice on cardboard, cut it out and punch a hole for the string (measuring at least 1,5 meters ) with a hole puncher. Tie one end of the string to your cardboard motive and stick the other end with sellotape onto the empty toilet paper roll, pencil or stick from a branch.

8 cutting out the motive punching the hole cut the string tie the string and off you go! Each player winds his or her string. In doing so the motive moves forward in its own speed. The most skilled and therefore the fastest player is the winner!

9 Car Races: The children sit on the ground and try to pull their car, tied to a string, as quickly as possible by winding the string. How to go about: Tie the string to your toy car and to a pencil, empty toilet paper roll or stick of a branch. Mark the start and the finish and begin to roll up the string like crazy. Have a good ride!

10 Station 4: paper craft catch the bead Folding is a means to train 3D thinking and motor skills. The game itself trains skills in throwing and catching. Material needed: 1 square piece of paper, 15 cm 1 bead with hole or aluminium foil 1 string How to go about: place the square in front of you with one corner pointing towards you Fold the lower corner unto the upper corner. Draw your fingernail strongly along the folded line. Do so with all folded lines.

11 Fold the right upper edge unto the lower edge. Fold the right corner unto the point given by the last fold and the left edge. Fold down the upper level of the corner pointing upwards. Fold it back and slip it into the bag, which appeared through your last move. Turn the side touching the table (i.e. the backside of the cup to be) up to face you.

12 Fold the right corner across the cup onto the left side. Slip the corner pointing upwards into the bag, which appeared through your last move. Now you have a cup. Poke a hole into the bottom of the cup by using a pencil or a needle. Enlarge the hole with the tip of a pencil until the string fits through the hole.

13 Make a knot on the end of the string within the cup. Tie the other end onto the bead. Take the cup into your hand, swing up the bead and try to catch it. More ideas with plastic cups an toilet paper rolls:

14 Sources: