Who hasn’t heard about fidget spinners lately?! For children with sensory processing disorder or autism, they can be very important. For teachers dealing with the fidget spinner fad, they can be very annoying. But whatever your feelings about fidgets are, they can provide some helpful learning lessons – even for preschoolers. Spielgaben educational toys have activities that can help children understand spinners along with many other concepts.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spielgaben. All opinions are honest and my own. This post also contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Spielgaben, Version 4
Cabinet for Spielgaben Version 4
In case you’re not familiar with Spielgaben toys, they are exceptionally high-quality educational toys designed for ages 3-12. You can see from the photo that the cabinet is very high quality and fits in well in a room with traditional Montessori materials. I love the new, easily removable drawers in version 4.
The Spielgaben complete set comes with over 700 pages of full-color printed learning materials. These printed materials help you as a parent or teacher easily use Spielgaben toys educationally with your child and/or students.
Note: The yarn balls in set 1 are fine for babies and toddlers. The other sets should only be used with ages 3 and older unless your toddler no longer mouths objects or you are constantly supervising your toddler during an activity using the materials.
Spielgaben Materials Used in This Post
For this post, I used Spielgaben wooden rings and semi-rings from Spielgaben set #9 and sticks and vertex balls from Spielgaben set #8.
Montessori-Inspired Symmetry and Spinner Activities with Spielgaben
Spielgaben Symmetry Tray
For this symmetry activity, I used a a Multicraft tray and Montessori Services basket with Spielgaben wooden rings and semi-rings along with “9-4 Center Pattern Design Play” page from Spielgaben Play Guide 1. Older children could get the materials from the Spielgaben cabinet themselves.
Using Spielgaben Wooden Rings and Semi-Rings to Make Symmetrical Designs
Zoey enjoyed following the steps to make a symmetrical design that looked somewhat like a fidget spinner at various stages. She did the activity more than once!
Spielgaben Spinner Tray
For the spinner activity, I used a a Multicraft tray and Bambu condiment cup with Spielgaben sticks and vertex balls along with “8-2 Spinners” page from Spielgaben Play Guide 1. I had both a smaller and a larger spinner completed except for the vertex balls. It’s tricky getting the sticks in the correct holes for the proper balance, so having it mainly completed works best for most preschoolers. Of course, older children can put their spinners together on their own.
Attaching Vertex Balls to Complete Spinners Made with Spielgaben Sticks and Vertex Balls
First, Zoey attached the vertex balls in a symmetrical pattern.
Having Fun Observing the Spinning Speed of Spinners Made with Spielgaben Sticks and Vertex Balls
Then the real fun began! We explored just spinning the spinners as well as observing to see which spinner would spin longer or faster.
Zoey was fascinated by the whole process!
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My Previous Spielgaben Posts
Most of these include links to free printables! (Click on an image to go to the related blog post.)
Version 4 of Spielgaben Educational Toys
I highly recommend Spielgaben as an amazing educational material for home or school. Even though the toys aren’t inexpensive, they’re definitely worth the price because of the high quality of materials and number of years your children or students can use them.
Spielgaben Version 4
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Shirley Gilchrist says
July 4, 2017 at 4:13 amI appreciate the suggestions you give for the Spielgaben sets, but have had problems locating referenced pages in their resource sets.
The spinners look fascinating, but I cannot locate the 8-2 Spinners in my User Guide (copyright 2012). The 8-2 is My Body Bones. I had a similar problem trying to find the Center Pattern Play sheet and finally found it on page 127 of the user guide.
Thank you for your help in locating this.