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Perhaps your child has mentioned that we no longer have sand in the sand table. Where did it go? Teachers scooped out all of the dry sand and carried it over and into the water table. We then added water, and placed letter molds in the wet sand for exploring. Some children were a little worried about the change in our physical arrangement. And some were so thrilled they could barely contain their excitement. Though we know this can be a challenge for some, we also know that weathering small changes can help to build flexibility. It also gave us an opportunity to voice some of these feelings for children. We affirmed what children noticed and tried to identify what they might be feeling. It looks a little different. Are you worried that things have changed? Everything else will stay the same at school.
Experiencing a familiar material in a novel way is one way that we spark children’s thinking and build their awareness of the world around them. By changing the physical property of sand, you use it in different ways and notice new things about it. It also provides a different sensory experience. Children are engaged in experimenting with how sand behaves when it is wet. They experimented with using shovels to create sand castles, molding letters of out of sand and making big mounds of wet sand. Some children love the texture and feel of wet sand. For others, tolerating the way it can stick to your skin is a challenge. For those who find it more challenging, we provide tools so that they can interact with the wet sand without touching it, if they prefer. Engaging in such sensory experiences helps to build a child’s ability to process and organize sensory input. When they are done, we show children how to rub the sand off of their hands and refer them to towels or the sink if necessary.
Now that our sand table no longer has sand in it, we have filled it with a variety of balls and tongs. Children have been exploring how the tongs work and filling buckets with balls. Many children have been engaged in sorting and like to collect one specific type of ball. Others have sorted them by color while others have acted out a variety of pretend scenarios with these materials. This activity promotes hand eye coordination, hand strength and dexterity while providing opportunities to explore mathematical concepts such as sorting by attributes and comparing sizes.
