Search Results for: bulb syringe

Droppers, Bulb Syringes and Turkey Basters

These items are great to have in a My Obstacle Course kit because they add fun and build hand muscles with hardly any set up – just add water and some bowls or cups and you are good to go!

They also help to build some other skills, like planning, patience and focus (in a way that I found was tolerable for Andrew 🙂 ) because for it to work, the child has to do several things:

• squeeze the top
• hold it squeezed while putting the bottom in the liquid
• release the bulb slowly to allow the liquid to get sucked into the tube.

These muscles also have to work to squeeze the liquid back out. He learned pretty quickly how to do it to get the most liquid and would talk to himself about how it worked and what he was going to have to do next time. (Andrew: “Oh, not a lot. Try again and get some more next time. Hooray! Look at all the water!”)

I found a package of droppers (I think 12) at my local teacher store and I do find that having more than one is helpful. The bulb syringe was something that was left over from when Andrew was a baby. They also sell these as part of ear cleaning kits. Look no further than your kitchen drawers to find the turkey baster, however, I did buy a separate one for Andrew’s use (really inexpensive one from the grocery store) to keep with my other station materials.

Uses:

• making different colors when combined with colored water
• transferring water from one container to another in order to fill it to a certain level
• squirting water on something (putting out fire blog post)

Past Posts Using These Items:

• Droppers
• Bulb Syringe
• Baster

Adding any of these items to a My Obstacle Course kit is a super easy way to encourage experimentation with water while also helping to build muscles that will help with handwriting. I love things that make this fun!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

 

My Obstacle Kit Item #6: Food Coloring

When thinking about how to make activities fun in order to make building more challenging skills exciting, I thought back to teaching my “Colors” unit in kindergarten. The students loved experimenting and learning how different colors are made. I started using food coloring in My Obstacle Course station activities with Andrew and got to see the same look of wonder and joy as he saw firsthand what happens when two colors blend together. So easy and so fun!!

Uses:

• drops of color into water combined with droppers, bulb syringe or turkey baster to build fine motor skills while experimenting with color
• drops of color into shaving cream or frosting to build hand and arm muscles by mixing with spoon

Sample Activities:

These are all pretty straight forward station activities. Click here for a food coloring post search from my website but these photos give a good idea of how we have used food coloring to add some color to station activities aimed at building hand muscles and muscle control.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Adding food coloring to make orange shaving cream for autumn themed shaving cream writing station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Color fun with droppers

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Use hands to squeeze bag so frosting mixes and makes it colored

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Use spoon to mix and make the frosting turn green

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pour colored water to fill muffin pan

These are just some ways we have used food coloring in My Obstacle Courses to make them a bit more fun. Such an easy add in that helps to motivate and inspire experimentation. Have fun!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!