Those bright red, blue, green and yellow plastic coffee cans are valuable play things! The coffee cans store things and stack neatly because the lid fits so nicely. They are also durable for banging on, dumping into, and pouring out of. Since they are so playfully useful, lets give them an additional purpose before they are recycled.
Collect a bunch of these plastic coffee cans. It might take a little time. Or you can ask friends to collect them too. When you have enough of them, then play can happen. Stretching of both physical and emotional abilities will take place during play. Simply stacking these coffee cans, one on top of another, a tower will form. Depending on the size of the coffee can, it can quickly become taller than the builder. Thus, the stretching begins.
Physical stretching, to get one more coffee can on the top. Balancing is required to ensure that the tower is not knocked over. Meanwhile both gross motor control and core strength are engaged.
Emotional stretching happens also. When we are trying to do something beyond our physical ability, failure is a possibility. Therefore, perseverance is required to achieve the goal. Resilience is practiced by accepting that failure and being willing to try again.
Play is the process through which we each learn. In addition, we gain mastery of our physical and emotional abilities through repetition. When we are playing the important thing is not the completed product. It is the processes used during the play that develop our physical and emotional abilities.
How did you use your rescued coffee cans to improve physical and emotional abilities? We hope you will share your story with us.
plastic coffee cans – tip sheet
Check out these other posts
#playisneccesary – Play propels resilient learning
#repurposingforplay – Kitchen Utensils
#Recycleforplay – small plastic containers
small plastic containers – tip sheet (1) So much of our food comes packaged in plastic containers: yogurt, sour cream, butter, margarine, cereal, nuts, fruit, icing, etc. And once we use the product, we toss the container into our recycling bin. But what could children be doing with those empty…