SAND AND WATER TABLES

This is a blog for early childhood teachers looking for ways to expand and enrich play and learning in and around their sand and water tables with easy-to-make, low-cost apparatus. It may also be of interest for anyone who appreciates children's messy play.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

EXTRAODINARY OR ORDINARY?

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Just a month ago, I wrote a piece about the Extraordinary in the Ordinary. In that post, I said one of my goals this school year was to fi...

Saturday, September 19, 2015

PIPES EMBEDDED IN TRAYS

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Two years ago, I created an apparatus I called Pipes Embedded in Planter Trays . I took two 3/4 inch PVC pipes and embedded them through t...

2 comments:

Saturday, September 12, 2015

EMERGENT LISTENING

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Two years ago, I wrote a couple of pieces on listening. One was called: Thanks for Being a Good Listener . I had just read "The Peda...

4 comments:

Saturday, September 5, 2015

EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

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For the past year or so, I have been fascinated by the ordinary life of the classroom. I would step back to assay the flow in the room. Wh...

Saturday, August 29, 2015

WORM SLIDE ITERATION

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Last week I wrote a post on a Worm Slide I built that I considered a failure. To be clear, I was the one that thought it was a failure bec...

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Saturday, August 22, 2015

WORM SLIDE FAIL

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Early in my career, I did a little dumpster diving. Heck, that is how I got the plywood pieces for my first loft. I hardly dumpster dive a...

Saturday, August 15, 2015

DUMPING ROCKS

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I have shelves next to the sand and water table. Those shelves hold the provisions for the play at the table. The provisions change depend...

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About Me

Tom Bedard: Early childhood education has been my life for over 40 years. I have taught all age groups from infants to 5-year-olds. I was a director for five years in the 1980s, but I returned to the classroom 22 years ago. My passion is watching the ways children explore and discover their world. In the classroom, everything starts with the reciprocal relationships between adults and children and between the children themselves. With that in mind, I plan and set up activities. But that is just the beginning. What actually happens is a flow that includes my efforts to invite, respond and support children's interface with those activities and with others in the room. Oh yeh, and along the way, the children change the activities to suit their own inventiveness and creativity. Now the processes become reciprocal with the children doing the inviting, responding and supporting. Young children are the best learners and teachers. I am truly fortunate to be a part of their journey.

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