Use a few simple materials to have some sticky learning time! Adding the element of a vertical surface can completely transform skills such as patterning and sorting!
It was a cool, rainy day yesterday (perfect for this activity)…and it was also a day that we didn’t have anything going on so we stayed inside the house all day. Needless to say, it was a rough day on everyone. Complete defiance, lying, and a rubber splash guard from our potty being flushed down the toilet all nearly led to my utter demise. But we all persevered relatively unscathed (besides some harsh words spoken) and the kids went down for their nap/rest time EARLY.
Here’s what you’ll need: Masking tape, contact paper, and pom-poms (which we received compliments of CraftProjectIdeas.com).
1. Tape a piece of contact paper sticky-side-out onto your window/door.
2. Get your pom-poms ready!
We decided to make some patterns.
Next, we sorted the pom-poms according to size onto a Venn diagram. Technically, this isn’t the proper use of a Venn diagram (which I remembered as I was drawing it with Sharpie ON the contact paper) since the center of the Venn is supposed to be reserved for things that fit BOTH of the outer descriptions (like classifying animals who live on land AND water). But we’re going with it anyway…just don’t tell my fourth grade teacher! ;) If I were to do this again, however, I would just make 3 freestanding circles that DON’T intersect!
Put an assortment of sizes in your bowl…
…and let your kids go to work. They put the medium-sized poms in the overlap.
Aha! One of our “moments” yesterday caught on camera…Little Brother is swinging his arm to hit Big Brother in this photo (and no, I didn’t intentionally take a picture of this…I was only trying to capture the activity)! :)
Settled down…now that he got some uninterrupted time to do the activity by himself.
Admiring his work!
The best part is you can use the pom-poms for another fun activity!
What Do We Do All Day? says
September 14, 2012 at 12:33 pmSeeing this post is a little nostalgic for me. I used to use sticky paper to distract my kids all the time! Plus, we love our pound-size bag of poms. I love how you combined the two to make a learning activity.
Michelle says
September 14, 2012 at 8:46 pmThis is such a great activity! My daughter loves playing with the pom poms and contact paper, so I’m excited to put them together.
School Sparks Renee says
September 14, 2012 at 10:35 pmWhat great pictures and what a neat idea to use contact paper – sticky side out! I’m going to try this idea Thanks! Sounds like you salvaged a tough day! Congrats on that :)
amber says
September 15, 2012 at 8:21 amWhat a good and easy idea. Love it!!
Karole says
September 15, 2012 at 8:47 amAs a math teacher I would say that is a perfect way to use a Venn diagram, the medium size poms are big compared to the small ones and they are little compared to the large ones so they would fit in both categories. I saw it and thought what a clever idea ;)
Gina says
September 15, 2012 at 9:50 amActually, the author was correct in saying separate circles are correct. It is incorrect to say big and little have an intersection.
heather Davis says
September 15, 2012 at 8:52 amI love this idea and I will be trying this with my 4 year old!
amber says
September 15, 2012 at 9:02 amI was glad you felt you could share the upsetting times of your rainy day. It was nice to hear other moms have terrible days , still survive and can discuss it calmly, without complaining. My boys are constantly bickering. Thank you for your honesty! Oh and i love the sorting idea.
AM says
September 15, 2012 at 7:56 pmI love the contact paper idea!
JDaniel4's Mom says
March 5, 2013 at 7:59 amI really love this activity. Comparing and contrasting is a great higher level thinking skill. I share this post on Sulia.
emma says
March 19, 2013 at 9:59 amI tried this today and the pom poms absolutely would NOT stick to the contact paper. Did I do something in error? This seemed like such an easy and fun activity!
John says
March 22, 2013 at 7:20 amHi, I really, really love this – it is just right on so many levels. It is a perfect, very versatile idea!
However, that Venn diagram has me seriously worried. I know you pointed out in the text that it wasn’t technically correct, but I worry that your beautiful images may carry more weight than the text and that some may duplicate the diagram ‘as is’ without reading the detail.
Sorry, it’s still a GREAT idea.
John
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