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, February 24, 2018

Another oldie

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A few weeks back, I wrote that I got a new toy . It was a scanner that now allows me to see and scan pictures pictures I took a couple of ...

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Entry points for play

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I was looking over my photos and videos from a water pump apparatus I set up a couple of years ago. I wrote about it here and here. I st...

Saturday, February 10, 2018

The need to climb

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Some of the apparatus I build actually invite children to climb. Here is a good example of one. I call it the piggy back incline. Basical...

Saturday, February 3, 2018

New toy

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On my computer, I have over 35,000 photos and videos. Not all of those are from the classroom, but I would make a rough guess that over 25,...

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Making sense

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If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I retired from working in the classroom in June 2016. For over 35 years I was an...

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Perspective taking

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I just finished reading a book by Vea Vecchi called Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia . I was struck by something she said about seeing t...

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Classroom picture of the year.

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For the past four years, I have posted "my classroom picture of the year." Since I am no longer in the classroom, I technically d...

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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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