Un-Toys are the Most Fun?

In our toddler yard we acquired a couple of traffic marker thingys.  You know the tall, plastic, bright orange tubes on a rubber base.  Those things.  I did not steal them from the highways department.  I did not.  But someone might have.  I don't know the history, but I do know that they have been in our yard for as long as I have been there.  And I do know that they provide the toddlers with a really great challenge.  We like to tip them over and then they are a fun tilted tunnel to throw things down.  Like balls, and pinecones and cars.

Today it was cars.

They put the cars in this end,

And then retrieve them from this end.

Toddlers are still developing Object Permanence.  So they had to trust that when they put their car in, they would get it back again.  

object permanence,

a capacity to perceive that something exists even when it is not seen.

There was a lot of learning that took place.  Turn taking for one.  Always a challenge for our ego-centric toddlers.  With a little support they could take turns really well.

Thinking, imagining, practising, experimenting...

They had to learn to make sure the car didn't flip over when they put it into the tunnel.  

They also had to learn to give it a little push.

Physics 101.

Watching it go down.

Then, RUNNING to the other end to get it out!

Sometimes it took its time rolling down the tube.

Where's my car?

And sometimes they don't care about driving cars down the tube.  Sometimes it is just as much fun to use the un-toy another way.

What kind of Un-toys do you have in your program or home?