If you are new to our monthly Playful Learning with Spielgaben posts, you can see our introduction here. We were given the Spielgaben set to review and are honored to have them as a blog sponsor. I will be sharing once a month a detailed post featuring Spielgaben. You can also see my Learning with Ladybug posts to see what my daughter is doing with this learning set!
We are not actually using our Spielgaben set for formal lessons right now, and honestly I haven’t been using my camera much so although the kids are using our set for free play, I don’t have anything to show for it!
Since I don’t have a plethora of photos of the set in action, this month I wanted to share my plans for incorporating Spielgaben into our Kindergarten. We will begin lessons again soon, and I have put together a loose plan for how our Spielgaben lessons will fit in.
Last year for preschool, we worked with Play Guide 1 and will continue on with it right where we left off. The really cool thing is that the section we are up to, begins the “Advanced” work recommended for ages 5 and up.
Our first lessons will begin with set 7, which features tablet shapes. She already loves these for free play, so I know these lessons will be a hit. Here’s a peek from the introduction lesson.
I looked through the lessons and plan to do all 8 of them. They are the perfect step up from the lessons prior to this! I also love that with this transition we are now into the colored sets. We worked with only the wooden brown sets last year for our formal lessons, I know she will be excited to learn with the colored sets too!
My plan for the Kindergarten year is similar to last year. We will do 1-3 formal lessons per week, and tons of free play. We will also use the pieces for other things too, like we do now. You can see many uses here in our Spielgaben, Is it Worth it? post.
We DO use the worksheets from the packs. Below are just 2 I have chosen to use to go along with set 7. One of the awesome ways Spielgaben has responded to parent/teacher concerns and requests is by now offering the full color version of the worksheets with NO background color {to save on ink}. This is such a great change, everyone loves to save money on ink! One way you could save even more ink is by slipping the set into sheet protectors and using a dry erase or Vis A Vis marker, so you can reuse the same worksheets with multiple children!
She knows when it is Spielgaben lesson time, and loves it. I love it because it is so 
different than anything else we do. It is more abstract, more playful, and more fun. It teaches things I sometimes don’t even realize! Honestly, it would be easy for the Kindergarten teacher in me to put this type of learning aside and opt for the way I taught school {when I was a classroom teacher}, but I know how valuable this type of playful learning is and how much she loves it. I may not be able to check off a box that says “developed combination skills and an artistic sensibility through tessellation play” on a normal Kindergarten checklist, but man is it cool that we get to learn and play this way!
I know many of you purchased Spielgaben recently, I am curious to know what YOUR plans are for using your set. Please share in the comments, and also any questions you have about our plans. I will be blogging once a month, so you’ll continue to be able to see exactly what we are doing with our Spielgaben learning set!
Remember there is a special discount for 1+1+1=1 readers…
Spielgaben is offering an exclusive discount to 1+1+1=1 blog readers –
AUD 370 | USD 337 | GBP 200
including shipping to AU | USA | UK, which is over 15% off of the already discounted online price. Prices are approximate depending on conversion rates. All you need to do to claim your discount is send an email to [email protected]mentioning 1+1+1=1 and you will be provided with a discount coupon!
Please check directly with Spielgaben for current discount available, prices change with version updates and conversion rates.