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, August 25, 2018

The ledge-part one

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I write almost exclusively about play and exploration at the sand and water table. However, for this post, I will change things up a bit. ...

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Saturday, August 18, 2018

Traces

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I have been thinking a lot about traces lately. I started out by thinking about the types of traces children leave in the classroom. Of co...

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Horizontal tubes bridging two sensory tables

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I have a proposition that I want to see if it makes sense. The proposition is: Children's actions are never random and neither are they...

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Saturday, July 28, 2018

Moon Sand operations

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Just because an apparatus is simple does not mean that the operations that emerge in the children's play and exploration are simple. A ...

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Simple operations?

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I have always been curious about the operations children employ as they explore and experiment with a new apparatus at the sensory table. ...

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Sunday, July 8, 2018

How to pump with a hand pump

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A few years ago, I added a hand held pump to the Duplo ramp. There were basically two reasons for adding the pump: 1) because it invited o...

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Saturday, June 30, 2018

Milk carton cascade

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I dove back into my archives of pictures I took over 20 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find a milk carton cascade for the water t...

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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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