Things to do with BREADTAGS!

 Breadtags,breadtags, breadtags... and things to do with them! 

Miracle of miracles! I am actually putting my fingers to the keyboard and doing a blog. I realised that I had to do something, write something, to give people out there a few ideas of the FUN THINGS you can do with breadtags. At home, with your kids, or just by yourself! 

The teacher in me sees lots of opportunities when it comes to breadtags for learning stuff and creating. (Mind you, though partial to breadtags, you could use bottle top lids too, or both together.)

Kids are what we call concrete operational, which is a fancy way of saying they learn best when they can touch and see objects in front of them, not imagined, invisible things. So breadtags etc. are just tools to be used, another medium to create with! 

And so … here are some ideas for you,  put into headings for ease of use.  

Maths

1. Line them up and count them, stack them like a graph to see which colours you have most of.

2. Look at the dates on the tags, and put them in calendar order, by day or month. 

3. Use them as counters and count by twos, fives , etc. 

4. Write numbers on them, mix them up, and then put them in order, or backwards , etc. 

5. Use them to make symmetrical patterns, shapes, etc. 

Science

1.Sort them out and classify them. You could do it by colour, size, shape, date. Look carefully at the size of the 'hole' they can be quite different! 

2. Google breadtags and find out what plastics they are made of and if they can be recycled. 

3. Use them to talk about pollution, and recycling and why breadtags are not good for plants, wildlife etc. 

4. Get kids to 'design' machines or ways to reuse them, or alternative solutions for breadtags. 

Art

1. Put them under paper and rub over with pencils/crayons to make shapes. This is called 'frottage'.

2. Trace around them to create an outline that you can use to put patterns in, colour in, or make new simple pictures.

3. Arrange them to make temporary images and take photos of them. 

4. Arrange them into rainbow colours and talk about which colours blend into each other.

5. Use them as mini canvases, and use sharpies to do pictures and patterns. 

6. Think of things that breadtags look like and turn them into them. For example, kids have suggested to me they look like helmets, Pac-man, lions manes, artist palettes, apples, teeth, ghosts... 

ENGLISH

1. Write a story or poem  about a breadtag! 

2. See if you can use describing words (adjectives) to describe a breadtag to someone who has not seen one before, like pretending it might be to an ALIEN. You have to use words to say what they LOOK like, FEEL like, WHAT they are used for , etc. 

3. Write vowels, letters of alphabet on them, and use them to make words, write their name, put in alphabetical order etc. Get the kids to write on them! 

GAMES

1. Play tic tac toe/noughts and crosses with them. Kids design their own drawing/shape on them, or use different colour tags as their tokens. 

2. Do two patterns/images on breadtags the same, make a set of them, and play mini pairs/memory with them! 

3. Play hide and seek, by hiding them in funny places. The person who finds the most wins. OR hide one, and play saying WARMER, COLDER etc. Winner is who finds it fastest (can time them, which is good for maths too) 

4. Use play dough with them, make imprints, use to chop up play dough, stick them in to make funny things.  

6. See if kids can make up their own games with them! 

Yes, I know, these things are a little weird. But everyday objects like breadtags are really great resources! Things do not have to be fancy, expensive and store bought. 

I'm also a HUGE believer in using imagination and coming up with solutions, ideas, experimenting by just playing, to see what can happen. That is what kids are great at doing when they are young, but they seem to lose it as they get older. We seem to lose it as we get older  as well! Scared of looking foolish, making mistakes? 

And we get lazy too, and are used to being entertained by pressing a few buttons and just being passive observers rather than interacting in meaningful ways. Holding, dropping, touching, feeling, connecting, arranging, flipping, sliding, rotating, moving, stacking... REAL things gives us memory, builds synapses, challenges and teaches. 

So there you go, a few ideas that you may like to try in this crazy time, stuck at home, broke, bored, cabin fevered and running out of things to do. 

And PLEASE if you think other things to do with breadtags, let me know, or if you do some of them, take photos videos!  I would LOVE to see! 

Meanwhile... please stay well, stay healthy, wash hands and look after yourself. xxx

 Link to The Breadtag project Facebook page here...