Playing With an "Un-toy"

 It was Friday!  Finally Friday!  The unusual thing about this particular Friday was that we only had 3 little ones in the afternoon.  In a 12 kid center, that doesn't happen very often, but we embraced it!  We decided to use our time to clean the dreaded under the sink cupboard.  The cupboard where things get tossed when we don't have time to put them away properly or when we don't know where else they belong.  So we hauled everything out of that cupboard and truth be told, got rid of lots of the items.  We get a lot of donations, which we appreciate of course, but due to having very limited storage space, we have to be ruthless with items we are not using.  Under the sink I found these two goodies though. I'm not sure where they came from or how we got them.  We realized that the 3-5's would use them for painting but we would not likely use them that way with the toddlers.  However, I wondered if the mechanisms would be interesting to them?  I taped the lids on and placed them in their kitchen area.

The white one has a pumping action and the yellow one has a handle that  needs to be turned.  

They have been used all week!  The white one is the most popular perhaps because as they press down they can feel the spinning action vibrating inside.  They can also see the inner cannister moving.  Plus, it has a few buttons to press.

The yellow one is a  slightly more challenging action to figure out.  I think it's great that the toddlers are challenged by it though and keep trying.

I think it's even more awesome that we rescued items from going to the landfill and have provided something thought provoking and stimulating to the toddlers.

A long time ago I wrote another blog post about a different un-toy in a different daycare center.  You can read about it here.

Do you have any un-toys in your center?