Guest Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 Brought this up on a topic about safe use of scissors but thought I'd start a topic as others may not have done it or may have more advice or suggestions. During a major clear out I had a scanner, a keyboard, a stereo and a clock that were all non-working. I cut off any wires to reduce risk of strangling or (more likely IMO) tripping accidents! I put them on a table with a selection of adult sized screwdrivers (only because we don't have any child sized ones!). Initially I sat at the table and asked children to find screws to undo and to find the screwdriver that fitted. Some children did it purely by trial and error - stabbing a screwdriver into various places until they either found a screw to undo or gave up! Others actively looked around the object picking it up and looking for screws to undo. Once enough childrne had got the idea to show other children I continued to move round the activities. We all kept an eye (as you do anyway for all activities) and offered assistance as required. I found the inside of the keyboard fascinating!! I love the clock too as children like to see all the cogs etc. We didn't manage to fully get into the others but as we all know the process is far more important! The only incident we had was after the session. We run a lunch club and as the parents arrived one child did catch another child's face with the screwdriver. I believe it was an accident but you never know! However this wouldn't stop me doing it again. The language and the looks of concentration on faces was fab!
Marion Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 Sounds a great activity will add it to my list of things to do will fit in nicely with how things work (or dont )
Guest Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 I think it is a great idea as well, I recently took some floppy discs apart ( upgraded myself to CD use now) Inside was fascinating, literally "floppy discs" which used in the art area could represent tractor tyes for model making. As for the injury incident, it could just as well have been a pencil in the childs hand instead of a screwdriver, So well done you for not letting the incident stop you from doing the activity again. Peggy
Guest Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 Thanks for that Pandamonium - that's great - will buy screwdrivers this week.
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