Sand and Water Table Ideas: Making an Ocean Floor
- By Jennifer Dobson
- Published 02/10/2010
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- Unrated
Jennifer Dobson
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Standing around a sand & water table, playing in the water, manipulating the sand and other things is a fun learning experience for preschool children. A sand & water activity center should be a changing, interesting place for students to explore sensory information and develop their fine and gross motor skills.
Ocean Floor Creation
Sand & water play can be even more fun by introducing a theme like making an ocean floor. Invite the children to imagine an ocean floor and to think of some items they might find there. You can even encourage them to think outside of the box a little bit and list some things you would not typically see at the bottom of the ocean like a truck or cow.
Objects in the Ocean
The only thing that really puts a limitation on what kind of objects you can use in your sand and water table are your budget and the children's imaginations! Some pretty common sand and water toys you can use to create your ocean floor are a sunken vessel, a chest full of treasure, toy fish and plants, decorative rocks and minerals, sea shells, and toy boats.
As the children are having fun creating the ocean floor you can teach them about ocean life and how the ocean is full of huge whales and small little animals like crabs and shrimp. You can also use that time to educate them about the food chain or how it's important to keep the oceans pollution free.
Playing With Sand and Water
Students can create imaginary worlds in the ocean they made by arranging the objects into different scenes. They can use their imaginations with their friends to make up stories and role play as they move things through the water and on the ocean floor. They can build individual ocean floor worlds or one big ocean floor that they create as a class.
Sensory Effects
One of the most satisfying sounds in nature is probably the sound waves make as they crash against the shore. By making a shore with extra sand students can mimic that sound as they create small waves. They can even build tiny sand castles on the shore and knock them over with the waves they make. You could also set out big seashells and have them listen to the ocean within the shell. Often times allowing the children to run wet sand and water through their hands has a calming effect on them.
Another way for children to use their sense of touch at the sand and water table is by looking for hidden objects in the sand. You could bury some things the children could take home with them after they find them like small rocks or rings, or other types of little treasures.
Sand and water tables are a place for dynamic exploration and activity, and an ocean floor theme provides a delightful sensory experience for preschool children. As they develop their motor skills they will have fun creating an imaginary ocean world and looking for hidden objects.
Ocean Floor Creation
Sand & water play can be even more fun by introducing a theme like making an ocean floor. Invite the children to imagine an ocean floor and to think of some items they might find there. You can even encourage them to think outside of the box a little bit and list some things you would not typically see at the bottom of the ocean like a truck or cow.
Objects in the Ocean
The only thing that really puts a limitation on what kind of objects you can use in your sand and water table are your budget and the children's imaginations! Some pretty common sand and water toys you can use to create your ocean floor are a sunken vessel, a chest full of treasure, toy fish and plants, decorative rocks and minerals, sea shells, and toy boats.
As the children are having fun creating the ocean floor you can teach them about ocean life and how the ocean is full of huge whales and small little animals like crabs and shrimp. You can also use that time to educate them about the food chain or how it's important to keep the oceans pollution free.
Playing With Sand and Water
Students can create imaginary worlds in the ocean they made by arranging the objects into different scenes. They can use their imaginations with their friends to make up stories and role play as they move things through the water and on the ocean floor. They can build individual ocean floor worlds or one big ocean floor that they create as a class.
Sensory Effects
One of the most satisfying sounds in nature is probably the sound waves make as they crash against the shore. By making a shore with extra sand students can mimic that sound as they create small waves. They can even build tiny sand castles on the shore and knock them over with the waves they make. You could also set out big seashells and have them listen to the ocean within the shell. Often times allowing the children to run wet sand and water through their hands has a calming effect on them.
Another way for children to use their sense of touch at the sand and water table is by looking for hidden objects in the sand. You could bury some things the children could take home with them after they find them like small rocks or rings, or other types of little treasures.
Sand and water tables are a place for dynamic exploration and activity, and an ocean floor theme provides a delightful sensory experience for preschool children. As they develop their motor skills they will have fun creating an imaginary ocean world and looking for hidden objects.