Tying knots is very challenging for preschool age children and so today we “loosely” explored the process of tying a knot together…
Even though not all of my students were quite able to master this process, we did have some amazing teamwork and support for one another that made this process far more rewarding than just tying knots…
Before everyone got their own length of rope to work with, we had a group discussion on using rope safely in the classroom and we set a few rules to keep us safe too. Then we took turns feeling two kinds of rope – silk and plastic. We discovered that silk rope is softer and plastic rope is more slippery….
After our discussion and chance to feel rope, I gave each child their own piece of rope and together we walked through the process of trying to tie a knot…
We crisscrossed the ends of our rope and then worked to figure out which end of rope needed to go through the loop. Okay – I won’t kid you but this was quite confusing to explain to the children but most of them figured it out by simply exploring the process on their own…
Our older students really started to get the hang of it…
And some of our younger students caught on too…
And those who had mastered the knot tying process stopped to help their friends figure it out too…
Whether everyone mastered the knot tying process today didn’t matter because what my students are mastering is how to care about one another – now that is priceless!
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Wild about this space from I’m a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!
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Big Rope Play from I’m a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!