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Sensory Table/Sand & Water Play
Sensory
tables are an ideal way for children to learn through exploration and hands on learning experiences. It
is a place where children can play freely with messy and squishy items and a place for children to sift, dig, pour, measure
and experiment with different items. A sensory table is a must have for any early childhood classroom environment.
Our classroom is small and it does not provide enough room to
support a sand & water table. So we solved our problem and purchased a supply of large dish pans.
The children can place the dish pans on top of tables.
When
I Play with Water I am Learning: *That some things sink and some things float.
*To observe changes as water takes different form in different containers.
*About different temperatures.
*About
wet, dry and Evaporation.
*What happens when you add soap.
*Eye-hand coordination as I learn to pour.
*Concepts
of empty and full, volume and weight, mathematics.
"When I Play I Learn" Posters for your center here: Day Care Resource
When
I Play with Sand I am Learning:
*To exercise my imagination.
*Concepts of size, shape and
volume, empty and full.
*How to use tools.
*Concepts of warm and cool, wet, damp and dry, heavy and light.
*How
to play socially with others.
*To create systems for classifying, ordering & arranging-skills used in math.
*To
create my own patterns and symbols, skill used in reading and writing.
*To observe changes, a science skill.
"When I Play I Learn" Posters for your center here: Day Care Resource
Corn Meal and Flour
Clean Mud or Indoor SnowTake rolls of toilet paper (charmin ultra works the best) and tear into pieces
into your sand/water table, grate ivory soap into the table and add water. Let it sit over night and drain
any extra water off. Let the children squeeze the mixture with their hand and mold it and reshape.
Packing Peanuts and measuring cups
Pumpkins cut open with soapy water
Items that can added to the sensory
table. ·
Aquarium Rocks (Add measuring
cups and containers to be filled) ·
Aquarium
Rocks (Add water and plastic water animals) · Beans (Variety of beans) · Bird Seed · Bows (In a variety of sizes and add strips
of wrapping ribbon for stringing) ·
Buckwheat · Cedar Pet Bedding · Clay · Clean Mud · Coffee Grind Sand · Cooked Spaghetti (add a little baby oil to
keep from drying out) ·
Corn
Feed (you can find it at the local feed store) ·
Cornmeal · Cotton Balls · Easter Grass (Add plastic eggs and small plastic
animals and bugs) ·
Feathers · Flour (Add oatmeal and sifters
so the children can sift the oats from the flour) ·
Glass
Floral Stones ·
Goop · Ice (In different sizes
with rock salt to form ice creations) ·
Ice
(Add water and arctic Animals ·
Ice
block (Add rock salt and let the children add drops of water color) · Macaroni (Color Macaroni by adding food coloring
and rubbing alcohol) ·
Mud · Oats · Packing Peanuts · Paper Dots (From hole puncher) · Pom Poms (Varies sizes and colors for sorting) · Pop Corn Kernels · Potting Soil · Pumpkin Guts (Add every
thing from the inside of pumpkin) ·
Rice
(Color rice with food coloring and rubbing alcohol) · River stones (Small river rocks) · Sand (Wet or Dry) ·
Saw
Dust ·
Saw
Dust Dough ·
Shaving
Cream (Add cars ) ·
Shredded
Paper ·
Soapy
Water ·
Space
Mud ·
Sunflower
Seeds (Add a variety of seeds for sorting) ·
Wheat
Items to use with Water · Measuring Cups · Measuring Spoons · Funnels · Large Container to fill · Bowls · Cups ·
Small Pots · Eye Drops · Basters · Nesting Cups · Film Containers · Corks · Small plastic Animals · Toy Boats · Plastic Frogs with Foam Lilly Pads · Ping Pong balls with small fish nets · Sponges · Hand Mixers with soapy water · Rubber Worms · Fishing Bobbers · Small Empty Squeezable Bottles (like
small dish soap)
Items to use with Sand · Measuring Cups · Measuring Spoons · Small Sand Toys · Empty Detergent Caps · Pie Tins · Bread Loaf Pans · Muffin Tins · Funnels · Paint Brushes for items that can be buried (Bones, rocks, glass stones, gold painted
rocks) ·
Magnifying Glasses
Saw Dust Dough To make the clay you will need
saw dust from your local lumber yard or door shop, they usually will give it to you for free. Also you
will need wallpaper paste. Mix 3 cups of saw dust to 1 cup of wallpaper paste and 2 cups of water.
Knead the dough.
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