Inquiry-Based Learning Through Play Kids’ Games

April 9, 2021 / Learn About Osmo

Kids feel motivated to learn when they harness their natural curiosity. By using an inquiry-based learning through play approach, these interactive kids’ games make your little ones form open questions and come up with ways to answer them, all while investigating their curiosity!

Play Based Learning: What Do You Notice About..

Take any topic your little one is interested in: Learning Through Play – for instance, rainbows! – and ask them what they notice about rainbows. You could ask your child to get creative and make a rainbow using playdough or colorful pipe cleaners! If you don’t have these, they can simply draw them on a sheet of paper and then color them. Once you’ve triggered their curiosity, you could explain to them how rainbows are made and explore how light is refracted using a paper, a cup of water, and a flashlight.

Plan a Party-Children Learn Through Play:

Children learn through play: Ask your child to help you plan a fictional party. Encourage them to ask you questions about the supplies required, what the guest list is like, and how much food they would have to make! An play based learning that can enable your child to plan such a fictional party is Osmo’s Pizza Co. Beyond building kids’ imagination and curiosity, this game helps them learn interactive math activities games, identify non-verbal cues, and understand empathy.

What Happens If You Mix Colors-Importance of Play Based Learning:

Learning through play activities: Mixing colors can be a magical experience for your little one. Show them how red becomes orange, yellow becomes green, blue becomes purple, and let them explore this phenomenon on their own! Once they try and mix colors by themselves, they can find out the many different ways to create colors and feel a sense of awe and accomplishment as they do so. After this play based learning activity, you can ask them to recollect names of different colors and then paint a picture using them! Osmo’s iPad drawing games for kids are great interactive learning tools for your budding artists.

How Do Siblings Differ-Learning Through Play:

Ask your child why siblings don’t share the exact same features (unless they’re identical!) or how they don’t exactly look like any of their close relatives. Once you’ve triggered their curiosity, you can make them play a simple game-learning through play. For this game, you will need to place different colors of blocks (or Osmo’s Tangram shapes!) inside a bag. Make them randomly draw a block from the bag and tell them that these blocks represent the genetic information they received from their parents. Then, make them return them and draw another block. Explain to them how even though the same blocks were in the bag both times, they came out in a different combination each time! They will learn that is what happens with genetic information and why they don’t look the same as the members of their family an importance of play based learning.

Dramatic Roleplay-Benefits of Learning Through Play:

Learning through play activities: Teaching through plays and skits is a great way to spark your child’s curiosity and imagination. For instance, you could teach your little one about professions through a simple activity – Act like you’re injured and you place a call in order to make an appointment with a doctor. Kids will need to identify the context and then eventually the profession. You could go on to explain other professions like teaching, acting, and so much more.

Scavenger Hunt with Math-Play Based Learning:

Kids love any activity that involves movement and action an learning through play! Here’s a twist on the classic scavenger hunt game – you need to replace directions with math problems. For example, instead of telling your kid the clue lies in the bedroom, you could tell them something like “move 7 steps forward and then take 3 steps to the right.”You can complicate it by including math properties as well, like “add 5+4 and take those many steps forward to find the clue!”

Remember, the best educational learning games and play based learning are those that are interactive and involve play!

Random Word Strips-Learning Through Play:

For this fun-filled activity, you will need to cut pieces of blank paper into strips and write random words on each piece. Your kids will then need to pick only half of those chits and then try and form as many sentences as they can using those words. This learning through play activities game will encourage your little one to get creative, think on their feet, and organize words into meaningful sentences. The more sentences they can form, the better! Looking for online play based learning for kids? Osmo has exactly what your child will love.
All these interactive kids’ games and learning through play use an inquiry-based learning approach to make your kids ask as many questions as possible and find creative ways to answer them. For more benefits of learning through play, check out our website!