The key question for creative floor time play is: What else can you do with it? It could be an object, or a movement, or even just a look.
Instead of focusing on teaching the child ‚how to do it right‘ and getting stuck with functional or prefabricated ways of using or playing, DIRFloortime is about taking an interest and trying to understand what the child means and what they have in mind in order to enter into a dialog with them and their issues and keep it going for as long as possible. The question ‚What else can we do with it‘ opens up countless possibilities and variations for joint creative play and learning, for example:
30+ simple ideas for playing with a SPONGE/ SPONGE SPONGE
Incidentally, it is advisable NOT to teach children with learning difficulties to stack with blocks or similar things and build simple towers and let them topple over, because this is a developmental cul-de-sac we want to avoid: many children get stuck here because it is so fun and exciting, and refuse to play around with the materials and discover what else can be done with them: ATTENTION: Avoid building towers and tipping over as a game!
Here are 30+ ideas of what you could do with a pack of dishwashing sponges (or similar items):
- Put the sponge under the sweater: on the stomach, on the leg, on the sleeve, ...
(practicing school content such as: body awareness and sensory integration) - Tuck several sponges under the sweater
(practicing school content such as: Body awareness and sensory integration, physics, mathematics) - Place on your own head and let it slide down again and again
(practicing school content such as: Body awareness and sensory integration, physics, mathematics) - Lay on the other person's head and take turns with it
(practicing school content such as: Body awareness and sensory integration, physics, mathematics, interaction) - Place it on your own head and walk around the room without it falling off
(practicing school content such as: Body coordination and sensory integration, geography/spatial perception) - Place the sponge on the floor and stand on it with one foot, - alternate with your feet
(practicing school content such as: body coordination and sensory integration) - Place sponges on the floor and stand with each foot on a sponge and walk around the room, alternating with 2 or each with 2 sponges
(practicing school content such as: Body coordination and sensory integration, geography/spatial perception) - Crawl around the room like a cat with a sponge under each hand and knee (practicing school content such as:
Body coordination and sensory integration, geography/spatial perception) - Walk around the room like a bear with a sponge under each hand and foot
(practicing school content such as: Body coordination and sensory integration, geography/spatial perception) - Sit opposite each other and push the sponge back and forth
(practises school subjects such as painting, drawing and writing) - Use a sponge to ‚paint‘/wipe a horizontal figure eight as large as possible on the table, perhaps hand-over-hand at first, with each hand
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing and writing, regulation, Brain Gym) - With a sponge in each hand, ‚paint‘/wipe clear rhythms on the table, perhaps hand-over-hand at first
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing and writing, regulation, Brain Gym) - Everyone plays ‚auto-scooter‘ on the table with a sponge and bumps into each other or pushes the other person off the table
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing and writing, regulation, Brain Gym) - Everyone with a sponge in each hand playing ‚auto-scooter‘ on the table
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing and writing, regulation, Brain Gym) - Line up the sponges on the table
(practices school subjects such as: math, physics and tidying up) - Line up sponges from the table on the floor or elsewhere in the room
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and endurance, geography/spatial perception) - Line up the sponges alternately (rough green side on top - soft yellow side on top ...)
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and attention development) - Place the sponges in the hole of a large box (made from a cardboard box)
(Exercise in physics, object permanence, imagination, memory, self-confidence) - Place each sponge in a flowerpot saucer and push it into a row that is an arm's length away
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and endurance, geography/spatial perception) - Turn the flower pot coasters over and move them to a different place with the sponge underneath in a row
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and endurance, geography/spatial perception) - Take the sponges with spaghetti tongs and place them in a bowl an arm's length away
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing, writing, cutting and fine motor skills) - Attach a clothes peg to each sponge
(practices school subjects such as: math, cutting and fine motor skills) - Put each sponge in a jam jar (empty, dry and clean!), close the lid and line up in a row: on the table, on the floor, in a box
(practicing school content such as: Painting, drawing, writing, cutting and fine motor skills) - Replace one sponge at a time with a clothespin and then line up or insert the sponges elsewhere
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and attention development) - Alternating rows with 2 components: Sponge - clamp - sponge - clamp ...
- Alternating rows with 3 components: Sponge - clamp - jam jar - sponge - jam jar ...
(practicing school content such as: Mathematics, physics and attention development) - Put the sponge under the carpet/under a cushion and search
(practises school content such as: physics, object permanence, imagination, memory, self-confidence) - Use the sponge to transfer water from one container to another
(practises school content such as: physics, self-confidence) - Pretend that the sponge is a loaf of bread/cake/an apple that you can eat
(practises school content such as: simple symbol game) - Use the sponge as a pillow for a soft toy in a shoe box, - and a paper handkerchief as a comforter
(practises school content such as: more complex symbol play) - Build a house from the sponges, with a door and roof
(practises school content such as: 3-dimensional visual-spatial perception, more complex symbol play)
