In short, pomanders are oranges with whole cloves (or other spices) pressed into the rind. Often the spices are placed in patterns and designs, and the result is lovely to behold and delightful to sniff.
From what we gather, these special decorations date back to medieval times and were even thought to bestow good health and fortune in addition to adorning our table tops and sweetening our spaces.
Now that winter holidays are around again, get some citrus, some spices and join us in engaging kids in this long-loved way to transform fruit into sweet scented and stunning winter decorations.
This activity is featured in our December Activity Calendar. Need your free copy? Visit tinkergrten.com/calendar today!
The Guide
Gather Materials
We make our pommanders out of oranges and whole cloves. We have also experimented with lemons (skins can be a bit tougher) and other whole spices like cinnamon sticks and star anise.
Explore Materials
Whole spices and oranges are wonderful to feel, smell and even taste. Whenever we introduce play materials that dazzle the senses, I like to let kids first just explore them. Take an orange and peel it, cut it up, smell it or taste it. Rub a whole clove between your fingers and sniff. Ahh...
Poke Holes to Create a Design
You can use the pointed end of the whole cloves to poke holes in the orange. Or, you can use a toothpick, bamboo skewer or tip of a knife to pre-poke holes into which younger kids can more easily stick whole cloves.
It can be fun to start poking and see what kind of design emerges. Or, you can talk to kids about what they're thinking and pre-plan their design a bit.
Fancy Twists
If you have a potato peeler or rind peeler tools used for coctails handy, you can shave off stripes as well. You can also use pins to secure, wire, ribbon or twine around your pommander to turn it into a hanging decoration.
Why is this activity great for kids?
I can still remember the first time I made a pomander at a friend's house—how satisfying it was to push whole cloves into the rind and how long their mingled scents lingered in the air.
To the teacher and parent in me, they've become a wonderful way to stimulate kids' senses, calm their minds and bodies, hone those fine motor skills and elevate my home or classroom environment for Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or any wintery celebration.
By creativity, we mean the ability to both imagine original ideas or solutions to problems and actually do what needs to be done to make them happen. So, to help kids develop creativity, we parents need to nurture kids' imaginations and give them lots of chances to design, test, redesign and implement their ideas.
"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Why, you ask? For one, it is through being creative that a person is able to get senses, sensibility and spirit working together. Simply put, without creativity, we don't think our kids will live a full life.
On a more practical level, it's also the means by which humans of all ages make an impact on the world and other people around them. A lot of heavy stuff is going to go down in our kids' lifetime, and their generation will need to imagine and implement solutions to big and very complicated problems. Although our kids are still far from public office or the boardroom, today's political and business leaders worldwide are already pointing to creativity as the most important leadership quality for the future.
Although years from the art studio or design lab, little kids can learn to think and act creatively if you give them time and the right practice.
Focus & Self Control
Category:
Thinking Skills
What is Focus and Self Control?
We think of self control as a child’s ability to focus on something in such a way that maximizes learning. In order to do that, they first need to direct their attention and focus on a single thing. They also need to discern which information around them is most important and deserving of their attention. Thirdly, they need something called “inhibition.” Think of inhibition as the ability to control impulses, block out distractions and continue attending to the same thing. Focus, discerning and inhibition all require rather fancy brain work and are thought to be part of the “executive functions” or the set of cognitive processes involving the prefrontal cortex that help us manage ourselves and the environment to achieve a goal.
Why does it matter?
Our world is full of distractions, more today than ever. Kids who are in any learning situation need the ability to control their impulses, block out noise and attend to the person, objects, events, or discussions that are central to learning. As classroom teachers, we saw that kids who did this ruled the classroom. As outdoor educators and parents, we know the same holds true outside of school.
But don’t take our word for it; the research is impressive. It turns out that these executive function skills are closely tied to success in the classroom, higher level education and life beyond school. Experts like Adele Diamond of the University of British Columbia have shown that, “If you look at what predicts how well children will do later in school, more and more evidence is showing that executive functions—working memory and inhibition—actually predict success better than IQ tests.” Although these skills are difficult for young children and don’t crystallize until adulthood, the more kids practice them, the better at them kids become.
Fine Motor
Category:
Body Skills
What are Fine Motor skills?
Fine motor skills refer to how we coordinate small muscle movements in the hands and fingers in conjunction with our eyes. Children begin with whole arm movements at birth and refine their movement, using smaller muscle groups as their bodies develop. With time and practice, children are able to enhance and strengthen the movements in their fingers, becoming able to manipulate small objects and perform a range of important life and learning tasks.
Why does it matter?
Kids need fine motor skills in order to perform every day tasks like using fork and knife, turning a door knob, cutting with scissors and catching and throwing a ball. These same skills are essential for tasks associated with higher level learning like hand writing and typing on a keyboard. If kids enter school without good fine motor skills, they can not only fall behind, but learning can become very frustrating. Moreover, they can develop lasting negative attitudes towards learning and themselves as learners.
Sensory
Category:
Body Skills
What is Sensory Development?
Although some scientists classify as many as 20 senses, when childhood educators talk about "developing the senses," we typically mean developing the five standard senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. In addition to honing these senses, educators care about sensory integration, which is the ability to take in, sort out, process and make use of information gathered from the world around us via the senses.
Why does it matter?
The better kids are able to tune and integrate their senses, the more they can learn. First, if their senses are sharper, the information kids can gather should be of greater quantity and quality, making their understanding of the world more sophisticated. Further, until the lower levels of the brain can efficiently and accurately sort out information gathered through the senses, the higher levels cannot begin to develop thinking and organization skills kids need to succeed. Senses also have a powerful connection to memory. Children (and adults) often retain new learning when the senses are an active part of the learning.
So, if kids have more sensory experiences, they will learn more, retain better and be better able to think at a higher level. Makes the days they get all wet and dirty in the sandbox seem better, doesn't it?
Age: 3 to 8+
Time: Under 1 hour
Materials: oranges (or lemons), whole cloves, toothpick or skewer (optional)
