Monday Morning Play Time

At the end of last week, I pulled out the old ball pit and put the sand sensory box in it. After about 1 second all the sand was out of the box and on the floor of the ball pit. So, I took the box out and added some of the Crayola Play Sand that comes in neat colors. I purchased purple and a limey green. The kids LOVE it!!! A lot of playin went on in that ball pit. Yeah, we did have A LOT of sand on the floor, in our socks (on purpose) and in our hair, but what a good time. How many kids get to have a purple sandbox, in the house!!! I was told I was the best teacher ever, probably 100 times, just this morning.

Ok, I have been reading a couple really cool blogs lately, My Home Made Montessori Manipulatives, and Sand and Water Tables. I really am enjoying the great ideas and inspirations from both blogs. I knew Tomsensori, from Sand and Water Tables, used duct tape for a lot of his projects. I thought, "I have duct tape, inspiration, and kids. I am sure I can come up with something."

HERE IT IS:

Yup, we made some sort of water wall. The kids and I gathered some things from around the room, I got the duct tape and away we went. They gathered around and watched me very intently, hardly able to keep their bodies contained with all the excitement. I got it all duct taped on and stepped back to take a look, in my head I thought, "Man, that's a lot of duct tape. They are gonna hate it." Boy was I wrong. They absolutely loved it!! Squealing in delight when the water would come out one of the holes we popped into a container, or when it actually went through the tube and into the strainer. We talked a lot about cause and effect while we were making it, and how much water we might need to get the water to come out of some of the holes and when they finally got to test their hypothesis they couldn't wait to discuss it with me and each other. "Look Shell, it IS coming out of the top hole." "Look D-Man, you said it wouldn't make it to the bottom." "Miss M you got all the water in the top container, it went down the tube too." How satisfying... for us all :)

We also had the play dough out again, with some interesting creature pieces. My husbands Aunt had sent them to us last year and I dumped them in the sensory table and the kids really enjoyed playing with them, you can read that post here. We are learning about the letter Oo & Pp this week and we talked about Ocean & Octopus today, the kids then got to make play dough ocean creatures and/or a silly octopus. (we also made an octopus out of a paper plate, but forgot to get a photo). Play dough is a real favorite around here!!

As Is Open Ended Art Activities... Little Miss M made these for her Dad. She cut the circle out and then glued the different collage materials on. She has gotten so proficient at applying the liquid glue, I am always amazed.

Little Man got into a lot of stuff today. He played with the kids in the sandbox, splashed the water all over the place, all the while trying to get the containers in his mouth, and even played blocks with my older son. I wanted to get photo's of the other things, but my hands were busy keeping everything out of his mouth :)