"If it hasn't been in the hand, it can't be in the brain"

"If it hasn't been in the hand, it can't be in the brain."  Bev Bos

Here are some ideas to accomplish just that.  Most of these things can be used multiple ways- in and out of sensory bins, at home and in schools.  

#1: Mixed dried beans 

Last week we had beans in the sensory bin (actually there were peas and corn as well). This isn't really anything special, but it it really pretty and promotes sorting.  They were specifically fascinated by picking out the huge white lima beans. 

The mix of kidney beans, pinto beans, white lima beans, black beans, black eyed peas, split peas, and left over indian corn kernels make up this mix, but really any mixture of beans/ etc will do.  Below you can see there were spoons scoops and cups in the sensory bin but also sometimes ice trays or muffin tins can encourage sorting as well.

#2: Goop (also known as "Cloud Dough")

Last week we also made what my kids call "goop"- a concoction borrowed from Lisa Murphy, the Ooey Gooey Lady.   This mixture is made up of only two ingredients flour and baby oil- so you have double sensory smell and touch.  (I love the smell of baby oil).  

I let them help make the goop, they decided to have just slightly more runny than doughy.  

They also wanted to add a little blue.  

After a while they asked if we could have more goop in the sensory bin, so we made more- this time the "goop" was much more like dough.  

#3:  Moon Sand

Recently, a parent donated four small bags of Moon Sand with "Moon Sand toys" to our classroom.  While, yes, you can make really cool sensory things on your own or use just wet sand, Moon Sand is pretty cool, and versatile.  For anyone unfamiliar with it, it holds shape like wet sand and never dries out.  This Moon Sand came with some houses, a swing, some cars, and some people molds. They didn't care much about the swing or houses, but they (of course) loved the car, and also really loved the people molds. 

I put it out on box tops, (that we seem to have an abundance of), for easy set up and clean up.  They seem to enjoy it as a quiet activity.  This is also really great for any children that require sensory input. If he or she starts losing control I can just pop the top on the table and ask the child if he or she would like to play with Moon Sand (the answer is always yes).  For an "on the go" option, I can put it in a ziplock and stick it in my apron pocket, then when I need it I just hand the bag to the child and let him or her squeeze the bag.  It works for sensory input or as a transition activity.  


#4: Water, ice, snow

See entry here about water play.  There is really no end to what they can do playing with water in any form.  






#5:  Colored Noodles, Scented Rice


I took full advantage of the snow day today to create some new things for collages, mosaics, and our sensory bin.  


The scented rice idea came from this entry at teachpreschool.org. I modified it slightly, however.  In a bowl I mixed 2 packets of Koolaid with 3 teaspoons of boiling water and a teaspoon and a half of rubbing alcohol, until completely dissolved.  Next I put this liquid into a ziplock bag containing six cups of dry rice.  I mixed the rice and liquid completely.  Then I laid it out for four hours on wax paper before putting it in an air tight container. 

For the pasta I started with the instructions found here, but, again, modified it.  I used only a teaspoon of food coloring, and three teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, then added it to a ziplock bag containing 3 cups of pasta.  The instructions at the website above suggest that there should be more food coloring and less pasta, but as you can see below the pasta is quite dark and while they will lighten a bit when they completely dry, it will not be a lot.  

Purple mini rotinelle (wheels)

Green mini farfalle (bow ties)

mini orecchiette (shells)

Hot pink mini radiatori (nuggets)

Have fun and enjoy; I know we will. 

This is like a dream! (The real winter wonderland)

Today we FINALLY had a good day to go outside! With at least four inches of snow on the ground and the tropic temperature of 28 degrees, it was a perfect day to take on the big outdoors. 

Upon going outside and taking one trip down the hill Trisha said to me "this is like a dream!"  She's right, it was. 

One of the best things, I believe about school, is the little hill in the back. There is nothing better then sledding out there on a winter day.

Most of them could spend all day just sledding.  No snowmen, no snow balls, just sledding.  Many of us adults can remember sledding as a child and I personally cannot remember many things that were much more fun than that.

 They have become experts on creating trails for themselves (and I think we have only been sledding maybe ten times this winter).  Sledding on their stomachs was new for most of them today.  Many of them were too afraid of the risk previously and preferred to remain seated on our "sleds," (kitchen trays), to sliding on their stomachs.  

climbing up the hill on hands and knees 

What I love about sledding is also that it is an experiment in traction and friction for them.  They learn (slowly) not to climb up the trails that they have made not only because the trails are slippery to climb up, but also because when they climb up them it makes bumps in the trail and so they are slowed down when sledding down the hill.  

Here you can see them traveling in groups up the hill away from the trails, using their trays as ice picks to prevent them from sliding.

Eventually, after a half an hour of sledding down the big hill they decided to try the little hill that forms a miniature valley with the adjoining large hill.  

creating a trail

Without being asked, when friends noticed Trisha working on this interesting project, they rushed over to help and collaborate.

They were successful in creating a trail on the small hill, of course, but being so short, and requiring a lot more scooting and less sliding because of the very gradual incline, as soon as it was accomplished, they moved on. 

We did have a couple children who tried to mold snow in bowls and buckets, but the snow was not the right consistency to mold, so they only made a few bowl molds.  

Happy sledding. :-)

Self- direction is the best direction.

I love it when children create their own programming.  It's one of my favorite parts of my job- when they come up with a topic that I can help them explore.  Just the other day I had brought in a tub of snow for them to play in and had objects for them to use for the snow (like an empty ice tray, a "sifter," shovels, buckets, etc).  One child, while filling up the ice tray, said "we should ask Miss D. to put this in the oven so we can have ice cubes."  I asked them a silly question: "wait, how do we make ice cubes from the snow?"  "You cook it in the oven," he answered, unwavering.  "Is that so?"  By now the rest of the children were listening and had decided that he was probably right- if you "cooked" snow in the oven you would have ice cubes.
So we tried it.  I had them fill a baking pan with snow, and we asked Miss D. to put it in the oven while we ate our lunch.  Minutes later we took it our of the oven- water (as you probably knew).  "Why isn't it ice?" I asked. 
 One little girl piped up- "because it is hot in the oven, so the snow melted."  "
Oh,"  I answered, "so we can't make ice?" 
"Put it in the freezer!" Nearly all of them yelled at once.
So we did, and then they played with the ice it made.
Now, this is not rocket science, but discoveries like this are so important for this age group.  Not to mention, they were so proud of this discovery that they told nearly anyone who would listen that they knew how to make snow into ice. explaining they had to melt the snow first and then put it in the freezer.
Nothing like a little science on the fly.

Indoor Winter Wonderland

In New York it is often too cold to go outside (legally) in the winter time.  In order to go outside, the center policy is that it has to be warmer than 25 degrees including the wind chill factor, and even then there are various time constraints based on how cold it is.  This problem often leads to cabin fever that no amount of super- fun gross motor activities can seem to cure.  The magic balm rather is bringing the outside in.  In the winter I bring tubs full of snow inside from the outside. We do many things with the snow.  Sometimes I have them put gloves on and they play in the snow however they see fit; this often results in several  miniature snow men on various surfaces waiting to melt.  We also stir it, put trucks in it, melt it with salt, pour warm water in it, dig in it, and anything else you can think of.  My favorite activity with the tubs of snow however, (and theirs too), is variations on snow paint.  


Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago:

I had several small squirt bottles out filled with their choice of water and liquid water color.  We ran out of liquid water colors on this particular occasion so I just started using food coloring and water.  They work about the same, the only downside to food coloring is that the color is more watered down and there for not as vibrant and doesn't take as easily to the snow.  It still works fine, though.

I also gave them Dixie cups filled with water and liquid water color, pipettes, and eye droppers.  They were fascinated with the holes that they could make in the snow by dropping the contents of their pipettes in the same spot over and over again.  I also gave them spoons and forks that they used to dig or rake the snow.  When they first started, once they had covered the surface of the snow with color, they would dig down and bring up white snow to put on top and start all over again.  

We did this several times over- we used about 6 bins of snow this paticular day and we would have used more if we didn't have to go to lunch.  

As you can see we ended up with quite a variety of colors.

This is one of my favorite shots; It is "a mountain" that they made unintentionally and one little girl sprayed and sprayed this mountain.  The holes in the top are from the water stream from the spray bottles; She held the spray bottle not even a centimeter away from it while spraying.  The mountain was made when they were digging "valleys" for the "rivers;"  At this point the snow had melted down enough and enough of the color had gathered at the bottom beneath the snow that, if they dug deep, they created rivers of liquid water color.  


On this day I let them play in it again after lunch and nap time, when it resembled glaciers in blackish water.  This was an interesting discovery for them.  They were surprised that the water from the melted snow was cold for some reason.  




Variations:
On other occasions they have put glitter in the snow, buried buttons and dug them out again, put chalk in it that they smashed up using mortars and pestles but  ultimately they always come back to just wanting to do spray bottles and pipettes with colored water.   In a very slight variation of this I put ordinary colored water and pipettes and spray bottles at one table and the same things at another except I had them dissolve salt in the water.  They did ask for spoons and forks or shovels but I told them that I didn't have any that day so they would pay attention to what was happening. They went back from table to table and eventually found out that the salt water melted the snow much more efficiently than than the plain water.  Once this discovery was made it was every child at the "salt" table; They worked together spraying and dropping until the entirety of the snow melted into salty indigo liquid.  I put out the salt bottles another day, but they weren't as interested in melting; the discovery had already been made.