get more creative with the sensory table

I decided to use plain ‘ol beans this weak. They are a good medium for scooping and pouring and whatnot.

Running through the house getting prepared this morning I, on a whim, grabbed the bucket that holds the kids’ bath toys. I also grabbed a chute type thing from one of the letter board games.

Pretty nifty, I’d say. And again, no construction involved on my part.

I was feeling a little frustrated on this one.

I got the idea to recycle the old stuff from last week to the playground mud kitchen. The possibilities opened up. It ended up everywhere and the mess wasn’t an issue.

I’m planning on making a shaving cream/cornstarch mixture for indoors tomorrow.

They have the levels and inclines and containers and I didn’t have to build anything.

this week.

I got all angry with the kiddos for mixing this sandy type stuff into the playdough and getting it all over the floor today.

I know it was wrong of me. I threw the playdough out and closed the sensory bin.

PMS…I couldn’t deal with the mess. My bad. Tomorrow is a new day. Forgive me, I was wrong and weak.

I have a small metal shelf that I use for drying art and paper and some supplies. I wondered if I put the sensory tub on the shelf if I could later connect things to the shelf in order to make levels and things.

For now I just added more containers and the kids seem to prefer taking the whole thing onto the floor.

Still, I am keeping all of the concepts in mind. Also I bought kid sized brooms so that they may tidy their own spills.

just adding more buckets to this one has extended the play quite a bit. I have loosened up with allowing them to move it around.

Part of what the blog says is that children are inclined to…..(move stuff around, put things in holes, etc) so provide them the opportunities to do so. Instead of saying “keep the sand in the sandbox for example, provide buckets and wagons for them to transport because that is what they need to do.

This stuff looks crazy huh? Flour and baby oil. It’s incredibly soft and somewhat mold able at this consistency. It is also, thankfully, pretty easy to clean up…and it smells wonderful.

the contents as the format. I found a remarkable blog about a man, preschool teacher who builds all types of contraptions for the kiddies sensory play.

He incorporates different levels, ramps and chutes, holes, different types of spaces.

I’m not quite as crafty as he but I could start by thinking of these elements, adding more containers, maybe using tape and cardboard to add holes and things…

pretty nifty…