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Simple Swimming Pool Sensory Table
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Oct 12, 2020 | Social-Emotional Learning
Sensory play set ups can be as simple as you like. From my experience, as long as they are open ended, they are sure to get great engagement. I set up this really basic water table invitation for my 3 year old and I couldn’t believe the imagination and creativity that resulted from it!
What you need:
- Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set™
- Learning Resources All About Me Family Counters™
- Containers / water table (we used an IKEA FLISAT Children’s Table with TROFAST bins)
- Water
- Selection of measuring cups and funnels
The Set Up
This literally took me a matter of minutes to put together. I filled the large bin with water and then placed the fine motor toys in one of the small bins and the measuring cups and funnels in the other. The final touch was to add a rainbow family of six counters down the middle of the table.
Initial Exploration
With a set up like this I never really have an expected outcome as to what the play will look like. I’ve always found that it is really important to offer a few different tools and transfer containers as this encourages better engagement, and also a sense of the child directing their own play. The first thing my 3 year old did was to experiment moving the water around using the Twisty Dropper™. She enjoyed filling the measuring cup and even tested out holding the funnel above which was great for her gross motor skills and crossing the midline.
Testing out the Tools
Before long my little one was diligently testing out each fine motor tool. She used the Gator Grabber Tweezers™ to rescue the counters from the water, as well as scooping up and transferring the counters with the Handy Scoopers™. These tools worked her little hands hard and were perfect for developing those all important fine motor skills.
Let’s Make Swimming Pools!
Here’s where the magic truly happened. When you keep a set up open ended it allows for the child to use their imagination to direct the play as they desire. My daughter yelped with excitement as she declared that she was making swimming pools for the family. She was so excited to transfer the water from place to place, carefully deciding who was going to swim in which pool and why.
Throughout she enjoyed continuing to use a variety of materials and tools to move the water and counters, chatting away about her play as she went. This play conversation is so incredibly valuable for language development and creativity confidence. I loved listening to her taking the cat and baby counters swimming together in the ‘baby pool’! She even gave them a little water safety lecture!
A Few Tips:
If you feel like your child never seems to engage with sensory setups like this be sure to engage with them. Play with the tools, ask them if they can do what you are doing, or do they know how something works. Joining them in their world of play is a great way to build their inquisitive nature as well as their confidence. Sometimes all it takes is to mention a simple idea such as ‘how can we make this container full’, or ‘how many counters can we fit in here’ and that will be enough to get the play rolling.
Another tip is to be led by your child’s passions. My little one always wants to play with her people counters so I knew she would be interested in the set up. If your child is more into dinosaurs or cars, just roll with it. One final tip is to enjoy your sensory play outside whenever possible as it makes cleaning up much easier. Water is one of my favorite sensory bases because all it takes is a quick mop up and possibly a change of clothes if things really get crazy. Happy playing!
Sensory Play with Hot Cocoa Time!
The winter days can be long, especially when too cold for extended periods outside. Those are the days when I try to set up a fun and inviting sensory play activity for my four-year-old. During a recent snow day, she was desperately trying to convince me that we needed to set up a hot chocolate stand just like an ice cream stand we had set up the previous summer. I was game for the hot chocolate part, but I'm not sure about the standing outside to sell it! We compromised and decided to enjoy some simple sensory play with our Learning Resources® Hot Cocoa Time! Playset and a packet of cocoa powder.
What you need:
- Hot Cocoa Time! set from Learning Resources (Amazon exclusive)
- Bowl of warm water
- Cocoa powder
- Twisty Dropper™
- Tray or tablecloth (ours is an IKEA SMULA tray, they are great for sensory play and crafting with kids!)
Let’s Get Set Up
It’s a good idea to put the materials on some sort of tray or plastic cloth as things may get a little messy. I scooped a few spoons of hot chocolate powder into the brown cocoa powder box from the set. I also put out the kettle, spoons, two cups, some warm water in a bowl (not too hot, of course) and a Twisty Dropper to help encourage plenty of fine motor work.
It’s Hot Cocoa Time!
My four-year-old was beside herself with excitement when she opened the cocoa box, and there was real cocoa powder in there. She carefully scooped the powder into the cups, counting out the scoops as she went. Of course, she felt there needed to be plenty of chocolate flavor, so I guess it’s a good thing she got to practice counting nice and high! Then she used the dropper to add lots of water to the kettle, ready to pretend to boil it. It never ceases to amaze me how patient kids are when transferring water with droppers. My kids always love to use a dropper and will happily keep squeezing and releasing over and over until the job is done. Once she was happy with how much water was in her kettle, she pretended to flick a switch, and we stood and waited as the water ‘boiled.’
‘Click’! The water was ready, and so was my little one. She poured the water into the cups right over the cocoa powder. She then used the spoons to stir in the powder until it dissolved. She was giving a running commentary as she went, telling me how the water was changing color and that she could smell the chocolate, and it was YUMMY! We both pretended to sip on our cups of hot chocolate, giving it the occasional stir as we chatted.
With these sorts of set-ups, I always like to leave plenty of opportunities for my preschooler to explore the materials however she wishes. She asked if she could make a bowl of hot chocolate next, so that’s what she did. She kept transferring the water and cocoa powder, stirring, smelling, and eventually serving. She liked to ensure that all the powder was fully dissolved before serving it to me. This activity allowed for plenty of fine motor development and working on some science fundamentals. She predicted what would happen as she mixed the ingredients, observed the changes, and then analyzed and described the outcomes. It was science without us even realizing it!
Have you ever used hot chocolate powder for sensory play? What is your favorite way to play with your Hot Cocoa Time set? We’d love to try out some fun new ideas. Now I’m off to finish my sixth cup of hot cocoa!
Writer’s Bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind and on her blog, Find the Little Mind.
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Fun Fall Sensory Water Table for Siblings
I love it when the leaves start to change color, and it creates so many fun Fall-themed learning opportunities for my three- and seven-year-old. For this activity, we enjoyed a leaf hunt outside, looking for all sorts of shapes and colors of leaves. I then added a few simple tools and ingredients to turn our new leaf collection into an exciting sensory water table.
What you'll need for the sensory bin:
- Jumbo Tweezers
- Fine Motor Tool Set
- Sensory table or containers
- Scissors
- Bowls
- Magnifying glass
- Water (we also added a few drops of food coloring)
- Leaves from a nature walk
Some of my all-time favorite activities start with a nature walk; there’s just something so special about the learning and creativity that comes from the great outdoors! Before we left the playground, we worked together to gather up a fun selection of leaves that had fallen from the trees. As we did so, we spoke about the different colors and shapes we could see. I put my seven-year-old in charge of counting how many leaves we had in our collection.
How to set up the table
Once we got home, the kids refueled with a snack while I quickly set up the water table. I used our IKEA FLISAT Children’s Table with two small TROFAST bins and one large one. I added water and five drops of green food coloring to the large bin placed the leaves in one of the small bins, and then the fine motor and cutting tools in the other small bin. It was terrific how inviting this setup looked, considering its simplicity!
Let's Play
I always try to keep sensory bin setups as open-ended as possible to build my children’s confidence to explore independently. Straight away, my seven-year-old started experimenting to see whether the leaves would float or sink in the water. Together they spent ages using scissors to cut the leaves into different shapes. We had a star, a man, a dinosaur, and even a boat floating on the water. The fine motor skills at work were awesome. This is where having an older sibling helps because it encourages creativity and imagination for the little one!
Both my kids enjoyed exploring the different fine motor tools. Big bro liked using the Squeezy Tweezers™ and Handy Scooper™ to rescue the leaves from the water and then drop them back in. Meanwhile, baby sis was all about making the leaf confetti and sprinkling it into her bowls of green leaf soup!
Adding a magnifying glass to any sensory setup can stimulate more in-depth conversations and observations. The kids were fascinated by the veins running through the leaves and experimented with ripping the leaves to explore them further.
This was such a fun sensory and fine motor setup, and best of all, it appealed to both ages. It pays off to ensure a range of open-ended tools and containers with a sensory table because you never quite know how kids will choose to play with it.
Writer's bio
Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.
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