While your curriculum may still demand your focus on delivering content that privileges only linguistic and mathematical intelligences, the fact that intelligence can be expressed in multiple ways is no longer considered strange.
Successfully hosting a differentiated class — developing skills in children who span a range of learning readiness, personal interest and cultural conditioning — can easily mean taxing your budget. It’s also so easy to find yourself thinking the only way you’re able to provide for your whole class is by relying on a host of different learning aids and technology. It’s true that buying a few key tools goes a long way to ease the strain of lesson planning and delivery, but it makes sense to ensure that anything you purchase, guarantees a maximum return on your investment. This way, anything that makes its way into your classroom is sure to be flexible — catering to a wide range of children, and developing multiple skill-sets simultaneously.
Here’s how three of Miniland’s affordable educational toys can be whole toolkits, working tirelessly in your classroom as multi-purpose learning aids for every child.
Mindful Kids
This set is a good first choice for any teacher looking to expand their collection of learning aids. Enabling 36 activities with one purchase, you’re able to plug and play a range of physical and intellectual activities that grow mindfulness — purposeful, non-judgemental attention — in everyone taking part (you included!). Read more about the benefits of mindfulness in the classroom and find out why Mindful Kids may be your key to unlocking everything else to its full potential.
Follow the Big Foot
Like Mindful Kids, this game can be plugged into multiple subject curricula with just a little stretch of the imagination. This group-based, roleplay activity will have your class team up to follow instructions and a trail of footprints across (imaginary) obstacles to find the mythical Big Foot.
Building kinaesthetic intelligence especially, such as psychomotor skills, it also lends itself to cross-curricula instruction. For instance, you could blend the game seamlessly into story-time circle (where you introduce the BigFoot folklore), art/geography/orienteering lessons (where the class paint the routes they followed), or Nature Studies (where you include flora and fauna they’ve been learning about into their Follow The Big Foot adventure).
ABC Monster
Developing language skills has never been easier. This 3-in-1 set offers you variations of literacy-building activities that match the abilities of your class, and has the ability to scale up in difficulty as they grow. In this way, one key purchase can support learning development in children with a range of abilities, over an extended period of time. ABC Monster also develops fine motor coordination skills, as children learn to toss discs at a target.
With these three learning stations popping up in your classroom at leisure (or as the curriculum demands), your children are sure to remain stimulated regardless of the level of their abilities. You’ll also remain well within budget, and be able to save those extra pennies for additional treats — like a nature outing or a fresh lick of classroom paint, perhaps? Read more about Miniland, who’ve devoted themselves to helping you make Multiplay experiences easily possible in your classroom.
