We love Sensory Play experiences in our preschool environment. Not only is it loads of fun, it offers a multitude of opportunities for valuable learning to take place.
A trip to one of my favorite places to collect interesting resources (Resource Rescue), had me walking away with bags of… um… well, teany tiny plastic off-cut type things! Great I thought, just like rice but without the food concern!
They looked so colourful and inviting in the tub, how could the children resist!
As the children play they:
- Develop finger dexterity and strength
- Develop small muscle skills
- Develop eye-hand coordination skills
- Learn to use materials and tools in new ways
- Manipulating materials
- Experiment with the properties of substances
- Observe and analyse change
- Learn about ‘cause and effect’
- Learn about ‘volume’ and ‘measurement’
- Develop problem-solving skills
- Experiment with basic scientific concepts and principles
- Experience a sense of awe and wonder
- Observe the effects of gravity
- Formulate ‘hypotheses’ and test them
- Experience joy and satisfaction
- Develop social skills
- Learn new vocabulary
Recycled materials are so useful in the preschool environment and it is heart-warming to know that something once discarded can be given new life with valuable consequences!
I like that! And I bet you could even add water without ruining it. And it would last forever!
Oooo add water! I like that idea! Thank you Suzanne for you suggestion. 🙂
I absolutely love that idea!
[…] & M: 2 years 10 months March 2011 Check out these other great blogs filled with sensory play: Flights of Whimsy: Sensory Play with Recycled Plastic Off-Cuts! Dirt and Boogers: The Importance of Sensory Play Not Just Cute: A Handful of Fun /* Share on […]