At Buckle My Shoe, we love to challenge and provoke our tamariki's imagination and provide them with opportunities to work with different open-ended resources.

After lunch, our older tamariki were invited to the table where they found an unknown basket filled with something they had never seen before. "What is it?", they asked and instead of telling them what they were, we encouraged them to grab a few and begin exploring. As their fingers moved over the objects, we could see them concentrating and thinking about what it could be. "Hey, they stick together," one child said and enthusiastically showed his peers. Soon enough, many of our little ones were joining these objects strategically together - with a plan in mind. 

It was amazing to watch our tamariki show problem solving skills and use trial and error in their creations. Once they had made their creations, we brought out the box in which the objects came in and finally named the resource as Bunchems! 

Bunchems are multi-fibred balls that can be used to construct anything you want - just by pressing them together. A book of ideas also came with the pack, and so the next challenge for some of our tamariki was to replicate a creation in the book. 

This was quite tricky and required our little ones to use their counting and spatial awareness skills. But when they had completed their replica - they were over the moon. 😊