Welcome back to
HMSC Connects! Families
, our electronic newsletter connecting families to museum resources for playing and learning at home. People from all over the world enjoy playing games. Games offer us challenges, help us practice following rules, and give us new ways of interacting with each other, all while having fun! This week, try a nature memory game, play a hopping game from Bolivia, and discover the secrets behind the Wiffle Ball!
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Special Live Event!
Animal Snack Time: Marine-Tank Edition
Interested in what a spider crab eats? Want to see a sea star up close? Curious about what a horseshoe crab does with that long tail? Grab a snack and join human museum staff members Javier and Ryan on
Tuesday, August 4 at 2:00 pm
as they spend thirty minutes feeding, interacting with, and discussing these amazing animals. This event is free and will be hosted on the Zoom webinar platform. Visit our
web listing
for more information and to register.
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What We’re Doing This Week
By Ryan Wieboldt, Lead Visitor Services Representative
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This week as I was searching through the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI) online, I stumbled across an artifact almost seventy years old that was used in a physics demonstration. As I opened the image, it immediately struck me that this was something I had played with my entire childhood: a
Wiffle Ball.
As it turns out, the Wiffle Ball was invented to replace other balls, like softballs or baseballs, that could easily be hit too far, get lost, or break a window. The Wiffle Ball was designed to avoid those issues. Being made of lightweight plastic, with holes to create air resistance, it cannot be hit too hard or far. It’s been so successful that the design of the ball has not changed since the 1950s. What we play with today is what our parents and grandparents were playing with when they were kids.
Later in the day, I went rooting around in my closet, found an old Wiffle Ball, and ran outside to test it out. Sure enough, however hard I threw it, the ball didn’t go too far. I noticed how the ball moved through the air differently, sometimes curving, depending on where I positioned the holes when I threw it. I spent all afternoon trying out curve balls and strikes, my pitches altered by the air moving through the holes.
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Story Time
Join Harvard Museums of Science & Culture Volunteer Coordinator Carol Carlson for a virtual story time! This week’s story is
Octavia and Her Purple Ink Cloud
by Donna Rathmell and Doreen Rathmell, illustrated by Connie McLennon (Arbordale Collection, 2012).
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Scientists look closely at the world around them. They try to be observant and pay attention to details. Practice your observation skills with this memory game to play with a friend!
For this game, you will need:
- 10–20 natural objects such as leaves, flowers, rocks, sticks, or pine cones. The more objects you use, the more challenging the game will be.
- A large tray or plate (optional).
- A friend or family member to play with.
Directions:
- Arrange the natural objects in front of you. You can arrange them on the tray or plate, or just on the ground.
- Ask the other player to look at the objects for 30 seconds, trying to remember everything that is there.
- Ask the other player to close their eyes and count to 10. While their eyes are closed, remove one of the objects.
- Ask the player to open their eyes. Can they figure out which object is missing?
- Now it’s your turn to test your memory. Switch roles and play again!
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Hopping games exist around the world and we play them during programs at the Peabody Museum. They are all a little different. They are called
kith kith
in India,
Lay-lay
in Iran, and
Potsy
in Brooklyn, New York. Courts or patterns can be drawn in dust with a stick, in colored chalk on a street, or on a hard, sandy beach with a shell. Games use a puck you can make and decorate yourself or just find a cool rock. Try this classic hopping and kicking game called
La Thunkuna
from the country of Bolivia in South America. Today children play the game with the same court but they number the squares instead of naming them.
How to Play:
- Draw the pattern big enough so that you can put your feet into the squares.
- Throw the puck/rock into the first box, Lunes (Monday) and hop over this box into the second box, Martes (Tuesday). Always hop over the space where the puck lands.
- Kick the puck out the first box, Lunes, and back behind the starting point. After you kick the puck out you hop back out of the pattern.
- Repeat the same pattern until Jueves (Thursday), where you use both feet; one in each striped square. Then jump on one foot into box Domingo (Sunday), and kick the puck back behind the main baseline.
- Don't throw the puck in the striped boxes. Do throw it into Domingo (Sunday).
- The winner is the one who gets to El Mundo (World) level first.
From Mary D.
Lankford,
"Hopscotch Around the World" Morrow Junior Books, New York 1992 p.10.
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Something Extra
Last month we celebrated the summer solstice. Continue enjoying the sun with this
sundial activity
from the Facts and Fun section of the current edition of Extraordinary Things.
Check out games dating back to the seventeenth century in
this article
about the collection at Harvard's Houghton Library.
Play Nature Bingo with
these cards
from the Harvard Arnold Arboretum!
Learn how games support social-emotional learning and see examples to try with your kids in
this article
from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Share the sign-up form with friends–no membership required!
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