Traffic Light Rocks

I LOVE loose parts! They provide wonderful open-ended play opportunities and a real 'work out' for the imagination; as well as fine motor grasping/ manipulation practise and sensory exploration possibilities. Whilst browsing our local 'Dollar Store' (cheap variety shop) recently, I discovered a bunch of little bags of interesting, square shaped, shiny black rocks. Of course, it was not surprising to see them swiftly dive into my basket! 

With a quick splash of red, yellow and green paint - the set was ready to go! [Little ones would definitely have fun painting/colouring the rocks, but on this occasion, mama needed a little paint therapy of her own whilst watching a bit of late night TV!] Although we've already had some fun with them, they still have plenty more adventures left in their long lives!

Traffic light rocks with black card cut to size...

• Counting
• Sorting
• Talking about what the traffic light colours mean
• Gathering cars, construction trucks, planes etc for a bit of 'things that go' action!
• Guessing/ memory games - turning the rocks over to the black sides and finding the colours...

• Creating patterns
• Filling in shapes/ pictures on plain paper (The snake in the photo here was inspired by the great Dreamtime Rainbow Serpent!)

• Stacking ... and of course - crashing!
• Manipulating between the fingers and swapping between hands - being rocks, they are cool to touch and slightly 'weighted' making them curious sensory objects to explore.

I have to admit, I've had a little trouble keeping up with Master B's (3 year old) imagination. Our conversations have been known to go something like this:

Me: Hey, I like these rocks! (Pointing to a green rock) What's this one here? 

B: This means 'go'!

Me: Ohhh! Great! (Pointing to a yellow rock) So does this one mean 'careful' or 'wait'?

B: No, that's cheese - you can eat that!

How cool do these collections of coloured rocks and vehicles look? We've had a lot of fun with this colour sorting practise.

The rocks have also found their way into train carriages as cargo, and been lined up to become trains themselves.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to check out:
Cereal Box City Dominoes

Cardboard Car Ramp

 

 Discovery Bottles - Made by and with a 2 year old

Thanks for visiting Kids' Play Space, 

Happy playing!

'til soon,

Anna :-)  

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