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.
Pom-Pom Grab
My posts have been very wordy and heavy lately, so I thought I’d break it up a bit with an activity post. A while back I mentioned these fine motor activities, and I wanted to show one of my own adaptations here. I’m all about saving money, so instead of buying the cool ice cube tray, I used an empty Ferrero Rocher container I had on hand. You know, those delicious hazelnut chocolates. Their container is just the right size for medium sized pom-poms. Go ahead and buy yourself some. Do it for the children. If you’re morally opposed to self-indulgence, you could also use an egg carton, ice cube tray, or mini muffin tin. Just try to match the container as closely to your pom-pom size as possible.
Shape Scoop
Kids love to scoop! It’s great for their hand-eye coordination and both large and small motor skills. Cut shapes from craft foam (or find pre-cut ones, non adhesive of course) and set them floating in your sensory table or bathtub. Give the kiddos fish nets to scoop with (you can find them very inexpensively in almost any pet store or pet supply aisle of a grocery store or Wal-Mart). As a bonus, when the foam is wet, it will stick to smooth surfaces, so your children can create pictures as well! Talk to them about the shapes and colors they’re using to increase their awareness of shape and color names and characteristics. (“Wow! You made that house by putting the red triangle on top of the yellow square!) Happy scooping!
For more Welcome Weeks activities, click here!
Make a Texture Collage for Pictures They Can Feel!
Many young children aren’t trying to make something when they do an art project. They are trying to experience something. They enjoy being in control of their project, making the choices about what to use and how to use it. They enjoy the process of manipulating materials and watching their “canvas” change. A texture collage is a great activity for those experiential artists, because it adds a tactile aspect to the activity. Provide a wide array of materials with a variety of textures. I usually just cut them in random, geometrical shapes, and provide scissors in case the children want to alter them. Some favorite materials: sandpaper (cutting it actually sharpens your scissors!), feathers, fuzzy fleece, tulle, corrugated cardboard (with one side peeled off, exposing the bumpy ridges), foil, tissue paper, silky fabrics, ribbons, acetate (overhead paper). As the children glue the pieces on to their papers, you can ask them about which textures they like, and how they feel, exposing them to new vocabulary like rough, smooth, silky, bumpy, ridges, wrinkly, and more! In addition to language skills, this activity promotes creativity, small motor skills, and sensory awareness.
Book Activity: Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
I really enjoy Kevin Henkes’ books, and I know the children do too. His clever, relatable storylines revolve around quirky, lovable characters, who often have their own hilarious comic-strip-style comments in addition to the regular text. Chrysanthemum is the story of a girl (or more accurately, a mouse) aptly named Chrysanthemum. She really loves her name, until she goes to school. There, she is teased about it, until the other girls make a discovery that makes them wish they were named after flowers as well. It’s a great book for talking about social skills, not teasing in particular, but also fantastic for talking about our individual names.
Glitter Playdough!
Playing Around with Playdough
Classic Playdough is a staple of childhood! Not only is it fun and creative, but working that dough builds fine motor strength and control. These skills are just as critical to developing young writers as is learning the ABCs. Pushing objects into playdough creates a new type of sculpture and also presents a new challenge to children as it requires them to use the pincer grasp and push at the same time (a skill similar to writing with a pencil). I’ve found that preschoolers love to scatter their creations withtoothpicks, pipecleaners, googley-eyes, feathers and beads. 
Recently, we experimented with a new kind of “push-in”. I gathered accessories from a “Cooties” game as well as our Mr. Potato Head. The kiddos had a great time coming up with all kinds of creatures. 
(It appears I have a budding Picasso on my hands with that face arrangement!)
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).
Art in the Preschool Classroom: Finding Reality and Fantasy
One of the classes I’ve been taking this summer is “The Arts in Every Classroom” (you can view the same class here). The arts seem easily incorporated into preschool, as the children are very naturally using music, movement, and visual art as a means of expressing themselves, almost constantly! This class gave me a few new insights into incorporating the arts that I may not have considered before and I hope to be able to utilize the arts more in the future. I’m particularly excited to utilize it during my “Experiencing the Arts through the Senses” theme I have planned for January!
As part of the culminating assignment, I needed to teach an art lesson. Since I don’t start my school year until September, I used two of my own cutie pies as my star pupils. I thought I’d share what we did here, in case you’d like to implement a similar lesson!
Lumpy Bumpy Dinosaur Scales
As you’re talking to your preschoolers about dinosaurs, it’s great to talk about what they might have looked like. No one was around to see them, so no one knows for sure, but paleontologists have used some clues to help them make some really good guesses. Some “mummified” dinosaur remains show dinosaurs with scales. That would make sense since they are considered reptiles! (The name brontosaurus actually means “thunder lizard”, just a tid-bit kids love to hear.) Here’s a great activity to explore the scaly nature of dinosaur skin while also building creativity and motor skills.
Start this one out with a discussion about dinosaur’s skin. I have used the book Dino Pets, by Lynn Plourde to introduce this idea, since it does a great job of illustrating and comparing the many characteristics of dinosaurs. I’ve also used samples of leather (or imitation leather, it may be easier to come by) for the children to feel the bumpy, scaly texture. Then, using a dinosaur outline as your base, (I found these dinosaur outlines online), have the children rip colored paper into small pieces and glue them on the dinosaur to represent the dinosaur scales. (It may be easiest just to cover the dinosaur with your glue stick before tearing.) Don’t be tempted to cut the paper for them! The tearing action utilizes the pincer grasp and builds fine motor strength and control. These are all skills children need to develop in order to have the physical ability to write. Of course, since we have no way to be sure what colors the dinosaurs were, the children can use their imaginations and implement any colors they like. Challenge their creativity and talk to them about their ideas as they make their own colorful dinosaurs. Where would such a colorful dinosaur live? What is it called? What does it eat?
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