One morning, educator Lorie found a long cardboard tube. She brought it into the Infant room and propped it up again the window ledge. Everett was the first to arrive and notice the tube. He looked at it and pushed the tube until it fell on the ground. When educator Kiva came in, she was curious about the tube. She picked it up and looked through it at Brayden as he came in the room. He excitedly ran to Kiva and put his face at the other end of the tube. Then Brayden got a ball and put it through the tube. Kiva held the tube at an angle so that that balls would roll all of the way through. He did this a few times before moving on to play with the cars.
The educators wondered if they could give the tube a more permanent spot in the classroom. They first considered taping it to the window ledge, but it was in the way of the shelf. Then they leaned it on the ballet bar. It seemed to have enough space around it so they taped it up. Everett and Brayden rushed over to explore. Kiva brought over a bucket of balls. Brayden bent down and pushed the ball up the tube. When he let go, the ball it rolled back out. Everett and Lorie decided to put balls in the top of the tube. “Look, it came out of the bottom!” Lorie pointed out. Brayden joined them in this process. “That makes a funny sound when it comes out of the bottom,” Lorie noticed. Brayden and Everett took turns putting balls in the top of the tube, then walking to the end of the tube to find them. They continued this process over and over until it was time for morning snack.
When Fiya got dropped off, she went over and looked in the top of the tube. Educator Sarah showed her that balls could go inside. At first, she shook her head and walked away. A short while later, Fiya decided to try fitting some round sensory tubes into the cardboard tube. The sensory tube slid down and out the bottom of the cardboard tube. Fiya smiled up at her educators. “Wow, the sensory tube fits in there,” Kiva acknowledged. “This carboard tube is round and the sensory tube is round.” Fiya repeated this action over several times before moving on to play somewhere else.
The educators wonder where they could take several parts of this learning. They may offer different sized tubes or even take tubes and balls outside to expand on the action of putting balls in the tube. They may add some tubes to water play. They might also offer puzzles to expand on matching shapes. They wonder if they could find other toys that offer these same opportunities?
