Color mixing can be magical! No, better than magic, it’s science!
Sensory Play Inspiration to Get You Going
Children are natural-born explorers. Present them with a bin of dry beans and random tubes, and they will dive in hands first. They will manipulate the medium — scooping, pouring, burying — creating stories and structures and, oh yeah, brain connections.
Sensory play is a powerful and alluring learning experience for children. Last year, I wrote this post explaining why sensory play is so important for preschoolers and this one about how to find sensory media inexpensively. Recently, a reader commented asking for a quick-reference list of sensory media as well as ideas for tools and storage tips for those who might just be starting out with their sensory play adventures.
The first thing I would point out is that sensory play is happening all around you, whether you have a dedicated sensory table or not. Children will naturally utilize their senses to investigate the world around them. And because they use their senses to explore everything and anything, that means almost everything and anything can be used in a planned sensory play activity. Notice the things they are drawn to in their impromptu sensory play. To get your own creative juices going, here are some of the basics of sensory play to get you started. [Read more…]
A Handful of Fun: Why Sensory Play is Important for Preschoolers
***Curious about what to expect from child development in the preschool years — from sensory skills to cognitive development and beyond? Head over here to get the Not Just Cute Developmental Guide when you sign up for the Not Just Cute Newsletter!
Exploring Magnets
I apologize for disappearing for a bit. I was being held hostage by a computer virus and spent the better part of the last couple of days trying to put down its hostile take-over. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why people make a hobby out of creating something to waste other people’s time. If you want to waste your own time, by all means go for it, but why waste some stranger’s? Is that entertaining to some people? Though I have to confess, if, in the midst of my virus-inflicted frustration, I had actually followed through with my fantasy of throwing my computer through the window, someone might have found that entertaining. But alas, the computer is still here on my desk, and the mutiny has been laid to rest. So, on to the better things in life…..like magnets!
Cornmeal Play
If you’re looking for something new to put in your sensory table, consider cornmeal! Some types are more fine than others – the fine stuff can leave a bit of a dusty residue on those little hands, but no permanent harm done, right? Whether you have coarse or fine cornmeal, the kiddos just love it! Compliment the play with toy cars, scoops in a variety of sizes, and even combs to create a fun texture! Around Valentine’s Day, I threw in some foam hearts and the children kept themselves engaged burying and digging up their “treasures”! You could add any foam features, plastic figures, or some beads or rocks.
Moving Water
Here’s a quick and easy, yet fascinating , activity for your sensory table. (Find how to make your own here.) Inside the table, place two smaller containers. (I used the shoebox size storage containers here.) Fill one box with water. You may want to add a little coloring to make the water more visible as it moves. Leave the other box empty. Provide a variety of tools including scoops in varying sizes, funnels, basters and eye-droppers, and clear tubing (available at hardware stores).
Recipe for Fun: Leaves, Sawdust, and Bugs!
If you’re lucky enough, you have childhood memories of digging through fallen leaves, twigs, and dirt to find treasure troves of bugs and creepy crawlies. Hopefully the children you love and teach get the same opportunity! Here’s a way to extend that fun into a sensory table activity.
Pouring Preschoolers
Here’s a little secret: Preschoolers can pour their own drinks. It’s true! The children gain so much independence and self-confidence by learning this self-help skill. Autonomy is something children crave at this age, and this is certainly an activity they can do on their own when appropriate parameters are set.
First of all, I use a small pitcher that they can easily lift and control. I use these little, plastic, liquid measuring cups that I picked up at the Wally Mart, and have my little ones pour their own water at snack time. I love that these are see-through so the children can watch as they and others pour (and the fact that they are extremely cheap and readily available is nice too).
Dinosaur Erosion
After seeing an erosion table at a nearby museum, I decided to implement the same concept on a much smaller scale in my sensory table. There are three vital ingredients here: sand (you can buy a large bag for a little money at Home Depot), water filled spray bottles, and dinosaur figures. After placing the sand in the sensory table, add the dinosaurs and mix well. You want some to be buried, some to sit on top, and a few somewhere in between. Provide spray bottles filled with water so that the children can spray water to erode the sand and unearth the dinosaurs. Inevitably, they will incorporate some dramatic play as they create storylines involving storms, floods, or dinosaurs trapped in quicksand.
This type of activity gives children that time-honored sensory experience of mixing sand and water. That could be reason alone for doing this activity, but there’s more! Using spray bottles takes a great degree of fine motor strength and control, as well as hand-eye coordination for keeping aim while firing! Science and language skills come into play as the children notice and talk about the effects of the water on the sand; not only that it changes the texture and consistency of the sand pile, but that the sand can be moved by the force of water. This can also lead to discussions about the concept of erosion, or about how dinosaur fossils and remains are found as earth is moved, perhaps by erosion, exposing the prehistoric treasures!
Make Your Sensory Table Pop: Using Popcorn as a Sensory Medium
The sensory table is an area of the preschool room that children go to because, as the name implies, they are drawn in by the many appeals to the senses. Few activities I have done in the sensory table have drawn as much widespread interest as popcorn kernels. My guess is that it’s because it draws in the sense of hearing, as few other media do. It literally calls the children over to explore. Every time those kernels fall, they rap against each other, or against the plastic bottom, making almost as much sound as popcorn actually popping!
I began my popcorn-as-a-medium collection with the help of my two-year old, who managed to spill quite a bit from our pantry onto the floor…and mix it with the rice…and the flour. Well, no use crying over spilled milk, or grains, so I sifted it out and added it to the sensory table. Along with the popcorn, I included paper-towel tubes, funnels, clear tubing (from Home Depot) and my sand mill, along with several scoopers (from laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and infant formula containers for a variety of sizes). The children loved filling the paper towel tubes to the brim and then lifting them up, letting all the kernels drop to the bottom, rapid-fire like rain on a tin roof. Without even knowing it, they experimented with math principles of size, volume, and circumference, as well as motor skills as they scooped and poured the hypnotic golden grains. I even included a small funnel, which I knew would likely not allow the large kernels to pass through, just to create the questions that would lead to learning. Pour a little popcorn into your sensory table and see what concepts your children tackle!
