Sensory tubs have long been a curiosity of mine. I know that they are frequently used in the Early Childhood Classroom, I just didn't have enough information on the subject. I didn't know what the purpose was, I just knew that lots of people use them. I came across a FAQ on one of the "Teacher Blogs" that I follow, and decided to check it out. One of the first FAQs was "What is the purpose?"
I was super excited to be close to the answer to this question :)
Here is what I learned: there does not always have to be a purpose. Clear as mud, right? Well, once I did a little more reading, I began to understand. Sensory tubs provide children with open-ended opportunities to explore with their senses, engage in meaningful converstaions with adults and other children, develop motor and cognitive skills, and so much more! I also learned that I already have one, just on a more basic level. A sand table is a sensory tub in itself. I have been varying the materials in the sand table at preschool, using beans, rice, and Easter grass, now I just need to kick it up a notch!
I saw a picture of a "Back to School" sensory tub and decided to jump right it! As often is the case, Windsor is my test student. I spent a week or so collecting back-t0-school things that I thought might work well in the tub. I sent Nate to the office to shred notebook paper enough times that he says he is not interested in becoming "Parent Volunteer of the Year"!
The only thing left to do is sit down and discover! I am pretty sure that this is one of those that you have to "do" to understand. So , here we go...
As soon as I brought her into the kitchen, she sat down, looked up at me, and said, "Mommy, do you want to play with me?". The very next thing out of her mouth was, "What do we do?" It seems that she had the same question I did... It did not take us long to figure it out.
She picked up the scissors first and asked if she could cut. I said go for it. Her little eyes lit up and she went to cutting. Cutting with a 2 YO takes both hands, so I don't have a picture of this activity. Here she is loving the shredded notebook paper. We talked about how it was "crinkled" and "crunchy"-2 great new words!
The pencil sharpener discovery was the highlight of our time together. She asked me what is was, and I almost took if from her to show her, but then I remembered to give her a chance to figure it our on her own. And that is exactly what she did. At first, she put the eraser in the sharpener, but it didn't work so she turned it around. After about a minute she had figured it out all by herself. She was very proud. We talked about how it could be dangerous if she put her finger in, and I would not let her do this without close supervision.
Here she is "writing" her name on one of the mini notebooks in the tub.
This experience exceeded my expectations. A sensory tub is almost like a choose-your-own adventure. The same child could have sat down with me and had an entirely different experience, which is the beauty of it! I can't wait to share this with the rest of my preschoolers over the next few weeks!
We worked together for about 10 minutes, which is great for a little one! Most surprising to me, was the amount of content that we packed into the short amount of time. I can't imagine a lesson that would teach this broad of a range of subjects. I am listing below the things I can remember that we did..
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-we TALKED! (language development)
-cut (fine motor development)
-used our senses, the post-its were sticky (vocabulary development)
-opposites, off/on with the calculator (cognitive development)
-used a new tool, ruler (math, vocabulary development)
-orally spelled her name (early literacy development)
-zipped the pencil pouch (fine motor development)
-counted the pencils (building number sense)
-sharpened pencils
We didn't do these things this time, but we could next time...
-identify colors
-sort by color, shape, and type of object
-identify letters and numbers
-measure objects
-manipulate paperclips
-place erasers on pencils
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