 |
SENSORY TABLE ACTIVITIES | Sue O'Donnell, |
|
|
CurriculumCoordinator |
|||
| MAGIC BOTTLES | |||
Clean 1 liter soda bottles and the caps. With a drill (or awl), make three small holes in the bottom of the bottle. Fill with water and cover. When you unscrew the cap, the water comes out of the bottle. When you tighten the cap, the water stays in the bottle. For younger preschoolers, this is almost MAGICAL and they will twist and untwist again and again which will help their gross motor skills. For older children, this is a great way to discuss air and pressure. |
 |
||
| MARDI GRAS BEADS | |||
| Put Mardi Gras beads into the table and them add scissors, bowls, and big tweezers to pick up the different sized balls that were cut from the beads. Things that children may do - - measure lengths of the bead strings, sort beads by size and color with the tweezers, and the scissors provided wonderful eye-hand coordination with cutting the little strings in between the beads! | |||
| MATCHING BOXES AND OBJECTS | |||
| During December, gather up as many different small gift boxes (jewelry and cookie/snack sizes), both metal and cardboard. These are placed in the Discovery Table. Our preschoolers enjoy matching the tops and bottoms. They also enjoy hiding small objects in the boxes for friends to find. An excellent activity for eye hand coordination. | |||
| MEASURING UTENSILS | |||
| Collect and clean various shaped bottles, salad dressing (8 oz. clear plastic), water bottles (clear plastic 12-16 oz.), and small soda bottles. Draw lines of different colors with permanent markers on them 1 inch apart. Challenge the children to fill the bottles only to the "red" line, or "blue" line then compare, which has more? The played with those bottles for weeks at free play time. | |||
| FISHING | |||
| Cover the bottom of the sensory pan with aquarium rocks and fill it the rest of the way with water. Then scatter small rubber fish (purchased at K-Mart in the fishing department) in the water and let them use little fish nets (from the pet store) to catch the fish and put them in buckets. This is a great opportunity to work on sorting and counting as the kids fish! | |||
| SALTS AND SIFTERS | |||
| Mixing rock salt and table salt is a wonderful sensory experience! Add sand sifters to the table for added fun! | |||
| SEAWEED | |||
| Put dried whole seaweed in the water table. It can be purchased from a Japanese grocery store. Once wet, the seaweed feels like it never left the ocean! Plus the water table smells like the ocean. | |||
| SOFTENER SALT | |||
| Put water softener salt in the sensory table. Children love to feel the texture and hear the noise it makes. The salt can be purchased in grocery stores and club stores for around $3.00 a bag (the bags are 40-50 lbs.). You can also incorporate science into this activity by adding water so that the children can see how water affects the salt, and watch it become smaller as they play in it. | |||
| SPRAY LIQID WATERCOLORS AND SALT | |||
| Fill spray bottles with diluted liquid water colors, and small trays of salt (rock salt will work too). As the children get more coordinated with the spray bottles (small to medium are best), you can add smaller pouring things like specimen bottles or clear plastic measuring cups. | |||
| SPRING BREAK PLANTING | |||
| On the last day before break, fill the table with soil. Let the children plant various bean seeds. Sprinkle lots of various grass seeds over the top and barely cover. Water the seeds and put a clear piece of plastic over the whole table. Put in a location where it will get some sun light while you are gone or leave under a grow light. When you come back, you will have a jungle. Put a bunch of animals in there or anything else you can think of. The children like to use scissors and give the grass a hair cut. They can also pull clumps and explore the root systems. It is also a great place to raise worms! | |||
