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, January 28, 2017

Evolution of the wooden tray

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One of the very first apparatus I built was a wooden bridge that spanned the width between two toddler water tables. ...

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Transporters

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Below is a generic five-gallon bucket that can be found in any hardware store. It is set up next to the water table all the time no matt...

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Saturday, January 14, 2017

Snow table

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In October 2015, I built two trash bin apparatus from plastic waste baskets. We had been using the two white trash bins at school for re...

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Classroom metaphor of the year

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Last week I posted my 2016 classroom picture of the year . I borrowed some aerobic steps from the adult ed program in our building and set...

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Classroom picture of the year 2016

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For the past three years, I have been writing a post I call "classroom picture of the year." I have an ulterior motive for such a...

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Lesson plans---or not

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For the past couple of years, I have been questioning my role as a teacher in an early childhood classroom. What did I really teach? Ther...

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Idiosyncrasies

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One of the perks of retirement is that I have more time for reading. Between helping raise a family and building a career as an early child...

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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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