Description and Learning Objectives
The pop-up toy is a very popular activity among young children. The object of this activity is for children to manipulate the different knobs on the toy using their hands and fingers in order to reveal what is hidden underneath. Once revealed, they will push the characters down and do it all over again. This activity helps promote fine motor skills and cognitive skills such as problem solving as well as cause and effect.
Materials
Pop-Up activities can be found in many stores and in a variety of colours, themes, and variations.
Observations and Findings
Through this activity, children are able to practice and strengthen their fine motor development. They will use their hands and fingers to manipulate the different knobs and by doing these actions repeatedly they will be able to master these movements. Thus, creating a foundation that they will need as they get older and become adults.
The pop-up activity also supports children’s cognitive development especially with problem solving and when trying to understand cause and effect. In this activity, children will notice that some knobs are easier to manipulate than others. For example, it may be easy for them to push one button but harder for them to rotate a knob. This activity encourages them to experiment and practice a variety of actions by learning to figure out what motions they need to do in order to get the characters to pop out from hiding.
Another cognitive developmental skill that is supported through this activity is understanding the concept of cause and effect. With this activity children begin to recognize and experience first hand what happens when we do certain actions and the results of those actions. They begin to understand that different actions results in different outcomes and it may not be the same outcome every time. Children will then be able to build on their experiences and be able to adapt those skills to other things in their daily lives.
