Square Fun

We made a really fun, practical and useful resource recently at school. We had been looking at a different shape each week and this is what we made in square week.

Square Bean Bags!!

I cut out small squares of black fabric and wrote the children's names on the front.

The children then printed squares with a square foam block and white fabric paint. Some chose to do the squares in rows and others did it randomly.

Once dry and ironed a lovely mother brought her sewing machine to school and sewed up the sides, leaving a gap to fill the bean bag.

At each step I asked the children to find their name as we are working on name recognition as well.

Using funnels and spoons, the children filled their bean bag with rice. We counted the spoonfuls, estimated how much rice they would need and kept feeling them to see if they were happy with the weight. The children loved being responsible for their bean bag and enjoyed each and every step.

The mother helping us then sewed up the last open gap. Our bean bags were ready to play with!!

As it was square day, I made a large square on the mat and we had fun throwing our bean bags into the square.

We drew squares outside with chalk and threw them into the squares.

We threw them to each other, in the air, into buckets and baskets and everywhere!! Each time, the children had to find their own name and they were soon reading and finding each other's.

This was a simple activity that the children absolutely loved- you just need a very kind person to man the sewing machine so you can do it all in the classroom.

Niccola