1 min read
Ages1 to 5 years
Setup3 min
SupervisionHands-on with an adult
What you need
- A saucepan and wooden spoon
- A plastic tub
- Dried pasta in a sealed jar
- Music
This is loud and it is short, and both of those are the point. It is the activity for the late-afternoon stretch when everyone has run out of patience and needs the mood broken.
How to set it up
- Pull out a saucepan, a wooden spoon, a plastic tub and a couple of dried-pasta shakers (pasta in a sealed jar or lidded tub).
- Put on a song everyone knows.
- Play along. Loudly.
Why it works
Physical, rhythmic activity is a fast way to shift a stuck mood, and joining in yourself does more for it than supervising from the side. Five minutes is usually enough to reset the afternoon.
Practical notes
Make sure shaker containers are properly sealed, and keep this one short by design — announce it as three songs, not an open-ended session, and it stays fun for the adults too.
Extending it
Take turns being the conductor who decides loud, quiet, fast and stop. The stopping is the skill worth practising.