Tagged with 'sensory'

Who doesn’t love a good snow globe? Each one is a spellbinding combination of swirling, swishing liquid, and falling glitter that is perfect for sensory play. As mesmerizing as they are, did you know that snow globes are actually an experiment regarding the scientific principle of viscosity?

Let’s apply the standard of viscosity by creating a Snowman Snow Globe. We’ll put it together and then explain why it works.

You will need the following:

• A water bottle (a clear glass water bottle was used here)
• Clear glue
• Tap water
• Glitter
• Black tape for the snowman’s top hat
• Markers, paper, and pipe cleaners to make the snowman face
• Craft items for the “floaters” inside the globe, like snowflakes, stars, buttons, or jingle bells

First, let’s get our snow globe looking like a snowman. Using a sharpie marker, draw on the eyes and buttons.

Second, you can draw on the carrot nose, but we used leftover orange sticky craft paper here.

Next, select a pipe cleaner to tie around under his carrot nose for a little scarf.

The man needs a top hat, right? Wrap the cap in black tape for his hat.

Now that he’s dressed and ready to go, squirt the clear glue into the bottle. We added more glue to one of our bottles. Will more thick glue make the glitter move slower or faster?

Next, sprinkle in your glitter and drop in the items that will float.

Now it’s time to watch the snow fly!

So what does viscosity mean for the snow globe?

The viscosity of a fluid is its relative “thickness.” Think of glue or maple syrup. Both are thick and slow. Viscosity is measured by its resistance to a stress factor. In the case of our snow globe, the stress is the water and shaking motion. Compared to the water, it is much thicker, slowing the fall of our glitter, snowflakes, and jingle bells.

Are you excited about the fall? Cooler weather, changing colors, and leaves and seeds on the ground make for a great time to get outside and explore nature. Bring a nature inside and set up a discovery table. Today I’m sharing five tools for your fall discovery table. These items will help your little scientists make observations and use real science tools in the process.

Questions to ask:

• What do you notice about the different leaves? (colors, shape, size) 
  
• What time of year do trees like sycamore and maple lose all of their leaves? (fall/autumn) 
  
• Pine cones and pine needles come from evergreen trees. They lose their needles a little at a time; not all at once. Compare the green pine needles to the brown ones. What do you think the difference is? (time – the green needles fell more recently than the brown needles, the brown needles are older/drier) 

Observations to make: 

• What do you notice about the different kinds of bark? (color, texture, etc.) 
  
• Look at the inside of the walnut. Compare it to the outside. 
  
• How is the small pine cone similar to the large pine cone? (look at the cone scales, or seed scales) 

Measuring is a science and math skill that is important to practice. Once you’ve taught your child how to use a ruler or tape measure properly, set them off to compare the sizes of different nature items. We used the tape measure and ruler. My kids love finding the objects on the card and then measuring them. Taking the tape measure outside on your next nature walk would also be fun. Measure the distance between trees or the length of a large rock. The possibilities are endless. 

Questions to ask: 

• How many leaves will it take to balance a walnut? 
  
• Which is heavier: a pine cone or an acorn? 
  
• Which weighs less: a hickory nut or three orange leaves? 

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. 

• 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.

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!

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.

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.