Drop Box

My youngest (17M) loves to dump and pour and is taking a big interest in her shape sorting toys.  Recently, at the playground she's been putting rocks and sticks down the holes of the platforms.  I started off by putting an aluminum grill pan over her "dump box".  She had a lot of fun just sticking stuff through the holes.  However, the holes were a bit small... it was hard to find certain things that would fit, and she was becoming frustrated.  I decided to make mine own version.

Materials:

Cardboard box

Razor blade

Objects to put in holes

Some creativity!  

THIS IS HOW I DID IT.  There are so many options and possibilities to explore.  For a sturdier piece you can use a piece of wood and drill holes, you can use paint, markers, letters, shapes, big holes, small holes, etc. etc. etc.  

For the objects I used colored matchsticks, foam shapes, different color pony beads, colored pasta, and black rocks that I painted letters onto (Walmart $3.00).  I set this up for both my 17M old AND my 2 year old.  I wanted to make it fun and interesting for both of them.  I made small holes both plain and some with color around them.  Different shapes (triangle, square, circle, rectangle, and diamond).  Letter holes and number holes.  I did NOT force letters, numbers, shapes etc. on to them.  They explored at their own free will.  :-)  

The invitation

As I knew she would... she went right for the stones.  She quickly learned that rock was too big for that hole.

Does it fit?

It was also fun banging the rocks together and making music.  :-)  

Where did it go?

She LOVED this!

My oldest woke up from her nap.  She surprised me by going straight for the rocks as well.  She chose to place them over the colored squares and count them.  

Also interested in where everything was going.  

I had not mentioned anything about the letters on the rocks.  It wasn't until later that night when she

 first discovered them.  "Mommy, there is a C on this rock!" 

Then she realized there were letters on the box, too.  She is definitely more focused when she is by herself.  

 "This one is too big, maybe it will fit up here in the rectangle"  

I plan on adding more of the black stone element.  I wanted to paint the lowercase letters on the backside of the uppercase letters but didn't have time.  I also bought a bag of gemstones and x-large rocks.  They have a nice assortment at Walmart for only 3.00 for a decent size bag.  

RL