Description

Review Quotes:

“It’s the most amazing toy ever!”
“A great innovative toy with therapeutic value.”
“A great gift for special needs kids.”
“A great visual for getting students to concentrate on slowly filling their bellies with air and slowly breathing out.”
“Great as a kinesthetic activity for the student who needs to have busy hands.”
“Great for teaching calming movement!”
“It’s a fascinating object!”
“Very educational.”

A review from our Program Director:

I have the Hoberman mini sphere and use it with kids to help explain the lungs and breathing. I hold the sphere by two main connectors on opposite sides, I then lead the children to inhale as I slowly pull the two ends apart and watch the sphere get bigger (this represents their lungs filling with air). We then exhale together as I slowly collapse it back down. I then allow the children to try it themselves, as they try to match their inhale with the expansion of the sphere and their exhale with the collapse. This gives a nice visual for kids to slow down their breath, relaxing the nervous system. I also like to only open it 1/3 of the way and let kids know that most people only use 1/3 of their lung capacity, then I open it all the way and let them see how much air they can breathe in with a deep yoga breath.

The sphere can do some fun things too. I found a list of activities online (link below)! I have used it to explain to kids about 3 dimensional objects, also looking for shapes within the connecting lines. I have played games with the kids, rolling it back and forth or playing hot potato. We incorporate yoga when the music stops and the person holding the sphere leads the group in a yoga pose. Get creative and have fun with it. Kids are mesmerized by the fact that the sphere “magically” changes and get larger or smaller. It intrigues them!

~ Alicia Mauldin, CYKT

http://www.hoberman.com/fold/Sphere/21games_sheets.pdf