Remember our last newsletter about sensory materials? Recently, we introduced rice to our sand table. Aside from providing a different tactile experience, rice has different physical properties than sand does and therefore behaves in different ways. We offered the rice with funnels, clear tubes, spoons, cups and jars with lids. We also included pvc stands that allow the funnels to be at eye level, allowing children to better observe the rice as it travels through funnels and tubes. Additional funnels and tubes were included for children to use without the stands.
Many children have been engaged in pouring rice into the funnels, experimenting with attaching various tubes and figuring out how to help the rice through funnels and tubes when it gets stuck. Some enjoy filling vessels with rice and pretending they are making soup or pretending to fill jars with peanut butter while others are content to bury their hands in the rice or listen to the sound it makes as it falls into the table. Each child approached this activity in unique ways, exploring their own questions and making their own observations. Below are a few quotes from children that reflect their observations and thinking as they explored the rice. Some compare the experience to familiar activities, while others consider questions of measurement, observe the results of their actions or act out familiar activities.
While observing rice travel down a clear tube: “It’s a roller coaster!”
Watching rice enter the funnel: “It’s goin’ inside.”
After pouring rice into the funnel and not seeing it come out: “It’s not going down the tube.”
While examining the spout on a funnel: “This one has a little hole.”
With a smile after holding a cup under a tube to catch the rice: “Look at this trick!”
While adding scoops of rice to a jar: “I’m fillin’ it up.”
After taking the lid off from an empty jar and peering inside: “We need to put some peanut butter.”
While offering a classmate a full scoop of rice: “You want some rice? You want 10?”
After listening to the sound of rice falling:“It sounds like drippity drop.”
While filling a small scoop with rice: “You need not that much because it’s very small.”
After adding rice to a jar and noticing that not all of the rice stayed in the jar: “Some of it went in and some came splashing out.”
After attempting to attach a tube with a larger circumference to the end of a funnel: “It doesn’t fit. We need a small one like this.”
