My Sensory Bucket
My Sensory Bucket
This summer I had the honor of participating in the Fairy Dust Teaching Virtual Summer Conference as a guest speaker. It was exciting to share my STEAM Outdoors Workshop. The best part about attending conferences is leaving with nuggets of inspiration. At this virtual conference, I was introduced to Tom Bedard and his work with Sand and Water Tables.
I played around with the new concepts that I learned and explored different ways to create an easy way to create a “sensory table” outdoors. I created a Sensory Bucket as a beginning. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to try out my NEW Sensory Bucket with the kids at The REAL Program in Lynn, MA.
As teachers, we all know that young children love to transport. This workshop taught me how to incorporate holes and levels to your sensory table and how they add a variety of opportunities for children to transport. At the REAL Program, I witnessed children of all ages become engineers while exploring how to create a mechanism that plays the act of transporting.
Using loose parts children were also drawn to sorting and counting.
My Sensory Bucket was so simple and can be used both inside and out. Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a sensory area in your Outdoor Classroom? Can you make a Sensory Bucket? Share your picture and stories below.
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3 Comments
I love the holes in the water table cover. They will change the way the children play. I have heard that an aquarium tank aerator is a great addition too. I like the idea of the free standing board with holes and track. An old Connect Four might work well to hold track up.
During the summer my co-workers and me were very excited with the idea of building a big water table/wall for outside play. Unfortunately we got a little too overwhelmed and couldn’t figure out where to start and we ended up buying a set of to make a water wall at our water table. It was “the easy way out” but it still gave the children a chance to build/ add up to the wall and create different set ups every day. We did, however follow through with an idea of making a music wall, using different things, our favourite being small cuts of bamboo – they sound great even with just the wind blowing!
I love the sound of bamboo. I will ue your idea. I was thinking of hanging small metal washers for a windchime but the bamboo is a prettier sound.