Melody brought out cardboard cones and tape rings (as a provocation) for the children to explore and learn new skills.
Margo, Theo, Leila and Penny started by placing the cones into the rings sitting on the table. Melody thought this was interesting as she expected them to do it the other way around. Penny figured out how to get the rings on her arms without using her hands. She would set the tape ring flat on the table, put her hand inside the hole and scoop it up on her wrist. Penny was able to use great coordination to get many tape rings on her arms without them falling off. Theo went to put one on Penny’s wrist but decided to add them to his own arms instead. Theo shook his arms with excitement. Melody said, “Shake, shake, shake," Theo smiled. Leila tried them on her wrists too. Leila, Penny and Margo noticed the pictures on the tape rings and looked at Melody to label the pictures. Margo and Penny liked the Lego one while Leila liked the baby princess ones. The children put the cones in and out of the rings in various positions to experiment with what fit inside what. Theo, Penny and Leila made ring towers on the cones. When one ring went over top of another one on the cone, Theo added another one on top. Theo held the cone in his hand to add more but used problem solving skills as he set it on the table to build some more (in an easier position). Theo kept building with different sized rings until the cone couldn’t be seen. Leila made ring towers on the cones with and without the cones.
The children were very creative in manoeuvring the cones and tape rings in different positions using their fine motor skills. They transferred the rings from one cone to another as they pulled them off and put them back on over and over. Social interactions were observed through the children imitating each other. Melody wonders what the children would do with other accessories.
