Space Bead maze table Ways to use this resource to promote early literacy through play in your library

Young children learn through all their senses and this resource activates children’s sight (colours, shapes) and touch (texture/size of beads and wire and feeling of them moving along the wire).Children can exercise their fine motor skills and develop hand/eye coordination as they manipulate the beads. Cause and effect activities encourage children’s curiosity, creativity and exploration. Talk with children and ask, “If I do this, what happens?” Improve children’s vocabulary and colour recognition. Notice what the child is doing then talk with them about it, e.g. “the large orange bead, the coiled yellow wire, and the flat blue wire.”Develop children’s positional and directional language by talking with them about what’s happening e.g. “You’re moving those beads up to the top, and when you push them over, they’re now spiralling down to the bottom.”

Low cost/no cost alternative:Beads on pipe cleaners

Other early literacy resources you can use with the Space Bead maze table

Viking Toys chubby bucket setHarmony table and cushionsLakeshore sensory balls setFunnel table and slide setLeaf floor mats

What other ways can you use the Space bead maze table in your

library?

What other ways can you use the Space bead maze table in your

library?

Talk Play Sing Read

RhymesGrand Old Duke of YorkHead, Shoulders, Knees and ToesHickory Dickory DockJack and JillMulberry Bush

BooksPlaytime RhymesLines That Wiggle by Candace WhitmanThe Squiggle by Carole Lexa SchaeferFollow the Line by Laura LjungkvistA Line Can Be by Laura LjungkvistThe Line by Paula BossioIsh by Peter Reynolds

RhymesGrand Old Duke of YorkHead, Shoulders, Knees and ToesHickory Dickory DockJack and JillMulberry Bush

BooksPlaytime RhymesLines That Wiggle by Candace WhitmanThe Squiggle by Carole Lexa SchaeferFollow the Line by Laura LjungkvistA Line Can Be by Laura LjungkvistThe Line by Paula BossioIsh by Peter Reynolds