So, who would've thought one little bin could bring so much joy and excitement
and also be completely developmentally appropriate for kids?
and basically is just the bees knees of furniture inside a classroom.
But, a lot of missed opportunities come out of this bin.
So, today is titled: Think Outside the Box.
So this is the water table, and the reason it's called the water table or a sensory table is
basically it's exploration through using your senses.
So, using your eyes and ears and hands
you're conducting experiments but at the same time having a really great time doing it.
I have seen kids get hours of joy and excitement just by pouring
water and not only are they having a really good time but they're learning
about quantity they're learning about measuring, without ever realizing it's happening.
Just sitting here pouring, exploring - "how many do you think it's gonna take?"
"What do you notice when it gets to the top?" All of this is math that you're using.
One of my favorite things to do when it comes to the water table is putting in
things that kids would normally not get an opportunity to play with.
Think about eye droppers, think about putting snow in if you live in a climate that has snow,
as we do in Chicago.
Different kinds of cups - have a little tea party!
One of the best things you can possibly do is at the end of the year when you really want to have a good
solid spring clean, put all the toys in there, put some soap in there,
and put some sponges in there,
the kids love to help out, the room gets clean, bingo bingo - everything is awesome.
and you had a fun time doing it.
Today I went ahead and put in the big buttons.
So with these buttons, it's fun cause you can say let's find a circle or I found a heart.
or you can even go ahead and work on fine motor by simply grabbing some
string and then, again, just start sewing, just start chatting and talking.
If you can, leave the water table outside all summer.
If not, just pick up a bowl, pick up a big bin.
You're gonna go ahead and you're gonna put dirt in it. With the kids plant some grass seed
and leave it outside. Now if you have a table with a lid it's really
great cause one year I didn't and a lot of bugs ended up going all over. Super fun...
but we brought it and had this massive ecosystem where the kids are
taking little popsicle sticks and they're going through and they're
making these drawings about what bugs they discovered. Also the plants that
grew that we didnt' plant - so how did they get there? It's going to provide so many
rich learning experiences come fall, it's basically it's a must. Again, not a should, but do.
Now, it's going to sound a little crazy and, it is. You're gonna have to talk to your director,
or your principal and you should find out about anybody's allergic to fish or shellfish,
and you're gonna wanna tell the parents. Because you're gonna put live fish in
the water table. Yes.
and it's as awesome as my face is letting on, cause I know how good this is.
You can buy little feeder fish and you're gonna put em in and you're
not gonna tell the kids. Every year I put fish in the water table, and every year,
it's talked about as the greatest day of these kids lives.
There are few things and times in life where you make a memory that's gonna last forever and
this is one of them. And it's not going to be the memory of like "Oh I held a fish once."
It's gonna be the memory that you came into school and something happened that you
never thought was possible and the idea that you could go in somewhere and
something magical could happen at any given moment on any random Thursday is a really great feeling.
BIN there, done that... [water table joke]
Check it out because you know what, putting a sensory table in
your classroom, putting a sensory table outside, putting weird things in it is
No Small Matter. I know there are a million things I missed and I know there
are a million explorations that I didn't talk about - so that's your job.
Go ahead and put them in the comments below because I want to know what I'm missing out on.
I wanna know what weird things I can put in that are gonna change kids' lives.
So add in the comments below, and I'll see you soon.