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, June 25, 2016

What is play?

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I have been thinking a lot about play lately. Today I did a conference session on play at the sensory table in Mankato, Minnesota at the Mi...

Saturday, June 18, 2016

New element for the channel board

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I have built a couple different channel boards over the years. The first one I built was made of wood. One of the main objectives with ...

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Party

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I have been thinking about retiring for over a year. One of my big concerns was: What kind of party do I want because I knew the families i...

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Saturday, June 4, 2016

I dare you

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When people ask me what do I use in the sensory table, I say I mostly use sand and water. I always add that I never mix the two. The main ...

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Saturday, May 28, 2016

Ephemeral

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I often tell people that so much of my work happens even before the children arrive at school. For the sand and water table, that means set...

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Jurassic Sand and dinosaurs

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People always ask me what I use in my sensory table. For the most part, I use either wood pellets, water or sand . One of my favorite kin...

Saturday, May 14, 2016

What do spaces have to do with Harry Potter?

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For the past four weeks I have been writing about aspects of play at an installation called "big boxes around the table." Catchy ...

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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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