HODGEPODGE AND DOOHICKIES

Here is a picture of the wire shelves next to the sensory table in my classroom.  What do you see?  There is a hodgepodge of pots, pans, and bowls, and a large assortment of doohickies.  

There is not one item on those shelves that was bought from an early childhood catalogue.  Many of them were bought in the kitchen department of a store; many others---especially the pots, pans, and bowls were bought at Goodwill.  It is a mixture of plastic and metal with one fiberglass bowl and one ceramic covered bowl.  The beauty of this collection is that there is a variety of weight, size, and different-sized openings.  I believe those factors lead to more experimentation and exploration.

It is impossible to show all the exploration, but here is a taste of just some of what happens with hodgepodge and doohickies.

Filling a syringe just to watch the level continually go down because there is a hole in the bottom. This is an operation that gets repeated over and over again.

Using a baster to fill the ice cube tray

Filling a bowl with a scoop with a hole in the bottom. (This is a scoop from a baby formula can.) There are a couple of things to notice about this video.  First, the girl has a little trouble taking a measure of how much water to pour from the bottle so the scoop does not overflow.  Second, when she figures that out, she is focused on keeping the scoop full without making it overflow.  (I see a future scientist taking careful measure with a finely calibrated instrument.)

Hole in the Scoop from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Filling the jello mold with a funnel and a small measuring cup.

Filling a red bulb with a funnel.  The child has to keep her hand on the bottom so the water does not flow out.

Of course after you fill it, you can use it to fill another cup.

Or see what it feels like when you dribble the water down your arm.

The next little video shows this child experimenting with an upside-down funnel in a container.  I looked at this video several times before I understood what was going on.  The child begins by plunging the upside-down funnel in the bowl.  There is some resistance as the funnel pops out of the water.  About halfway through the video, she sticks her index finger over the hole of the funnel.  That traps the air in so as she pulls up the funnel, she also pulls up water making that operation harder.  When she goes to put the funnel back in the water, her finger is still over the hole.  That causes the air to displace the water so she has to press down harder on the funnel to put it under the water.  At the same time, the funnel wants to  slide sideways to let air out and water in.  That's a nice little bit of experimenting for a two-year-old.  Watch.

Upside-down Funnel from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Remember the syringe in the first picture?  In the last video, the child has figured out how to use it to fill the ice cube tray from the butterfly bowl.  It is unique but methodical.  Watch.

Filling the Ice Cube Tray with a Syringe from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.


I acknowledge that the pots and pans and bowls and implements available for the children at my sensory table will win no awards for beauty.  If awards were given out for fostering creativity, though, hodgepodge and doohickies take the prize.

DESIGN FLAW

Last week I wrote about Aksel's Tray.  It is a wide tray with three low sides and one open side.  It is set on a table at a slight incline so when the children pour and stir with water, any spillage drips into the adjacent water table and not onto the floor.

There were two design flaws.  One I imagined and the other I did not see coming.

The first design flaw was imagined and a non-starter.  I wanted tray to cover the whole table, but when I set it up with the open end over the blue water table, the other end did not cover the other side of the table.  When I saw that, I was worried that the children would use that little ledge and subsequently spill copious amounts of water that would go under the tray and onto the floor.  That did not happen.

The second design flaw I did not see coming and it was major because it did lead to a lot of water on the floor.  Watch the short video below to see what happened.  Pay attention to left side of the tray over the blue table to see where the water drips after it flows out the open end of the tray. You will see the water curl under the tray and drip onto the lip of the blue table.  Where does the water go then?

Watching the Water Flow from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Did you see the water curl under the tray and drip onto the lip of the blue table?  The boy with the glasses followed the water as it curled under the tray and started to catch it with his little plastic scoop.

It is hard to see, but here is a closeup of the water curling under the tray.  (By the way, that is caused by the surface tension of the water.)

At first, I tried to put a pot under the tray, but the pot filled up quickly and was not steady.  I also put a large green bucket under the table, but since water has a mind of its own, more water went on the floor than in the bucket.

I tried turning the whole table around so the water coming off the tray would fall into the clear sensory table.  That did not work any better.

The solution was a splash guard.  I took the tray home after the first day and found a piece of black plastic that I attached with screws and caulk to the bottom of the tray.

When I set up the tray with the splash guard, the water dripped into the water table as originally planned.

The result was a tray on which the children could operate without me, as teacher, micro-managing their operations to make sure there was no flood.  That is important because children are learning what it means to fill a container.  As a teacher I could tell them the container is full, but when they fill a container so it overflows, they begin to create that knowledge themselves.

There is one final point to this post.   There will always be design flaws.  I will not let that stop me from building apparatus.  It certainly doesn't stop the children from exploring the apparatus and exposing the flaws.  In other words, as I build, the children teach me.

AKSEL'S TRAY

Aksel's Tray is a large flat tray made from wood that sits on top of a table.  The tray is closed on three sides but open on one end.  The tray is slightly propped opposite the open end so when there is some spillage, the water empties into the blue water table.

Here is the setup before the tray is added.  The table connects the two sensory tables.  Notice the white wooden tray that spans the blue table.  That was the first tray I used with the sensory table over twenty years ago.  You might say that Aksel's Tray is a version of that tray.

The purpose of this new tray is to provide a larger, flat surface for the children to work on.  (The old tray can serve the same purpose, but is more constricting.)  With a wider surface, a child can comfortably work with several pots and pans at the same time.

So why is it called Aksel's tray?  First you need to know that the table on which the tray sits is usually in the sensory area and is usually used to hold implements and utensils.  With the last apparatus, the table was clear of things, so Aksel commandeered it for his own purposes.

For Aksel, that meant mixing.  As Aksel mixed, he appropriated more pots and and bowls.

The more pots and bowls he used, the more water he used.  The more water he used, the more he spilled.  The more he spilled, the wetter the table got.  The wetter the table got, the more water went on the floor.  Aksel was so focused on his mixing, that I did not want to interrupt his enterprise.  As a consequence, the water actually began to puddle on the floor like never before.  I always have towels when there is water play at the table, but I could not keep up with this guy's industriousness.  It was then the light came on: Aksel was telling me that he---and the others---needed a wide surface to work on almost like a counter in a kitchen.   I thought if I could make a tray with a slight incline with three sides closed and one side open it would empty into the sensory table and the children could mix to their heart's content.  Thus was born Aksel's Tray.

Watch how the tray works in the video below.  This video shows three children mixing on the tray. The first child says she she is making soup.  The second says she is making chocolate.  In one container are M&M's and in the other two are chocolate chips.  The first child changes her mind and says she is making a lot of chocolate.  The third child takes a few seconds before declaring she is making noodles.   

WHAT ARE YOU MAKING? from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Did you notice how wet the tray was?  And did you watch to the end when the third child poured water into her full container at the end of the video?

Did the tray work?  You are the judge.  

Axiom #7 on the right-hand column of this blog states that children will always create their own play that is tangental to the apparatus.  Aksel's Tray is a good example of how rich that play is if we pay attention and take it as a cue for further activities or apparatus.  Thanks Aksel.

COMBINING APPARATUS

First of all, I want to thank all those who attended my presentation on sensory tables at the NAEYC annual conference in Atlanta last weekend. There has been an noticeable uptick in the number of hits to this blog, so I want to thank you.  If you ever have any questions or comments, I invite you to either comment on the post or send me an email.  

After the Tubes and Funnels apparatus and after the Channel Board apparatus, I decided to combine the two apparatus into one big apparatus.

With this new combination, children still have to figure out where the water goes when they pour it in one of the funnels.  If you look at the channel board, you can see that two of the tubes empty onto the channel board.  That is trickier that it may seem because for water to flow out of the two tubes, the water first has to flow down and then back up before it can flow out of these long tubes.

What that means for the children operating on the combined apparatus is that the water does not flow out of the tubes with much force.  You can see the anemic flow of water out of the sprinkler head in the picture below.

So how do children figure out which funnels empty out of which tubes?  They investigate.  That is illustrated nicely in the video below.  Watch as the boy first pours water into the black funnel.  He looks through the crate to see where the water goes.  He figures out pretty quickly that the funnel is connected to the black tube.  He then follows the tube down and then up.  He declares: "It went in here."  He follows the tube to the end and then uses his hand to trace the tube's path from crate to the board.  He asks: "Oh, what is this?"  I am not sure why he asks the question because he seems to know that the water flows through the tube.  Maybe he is just saying what he is thinking because he then states: "It [the water] went down this one." He again scoops up some water to pour in the funnels.  He starts with one funnel and actually looks at the channel board to see where the water will go.  After referencing the channel board, he decides to pour the water into the funnel in front of the black funnel.  He immediately turns and sees that the water come out of the sprinkler head.  He chuckles and says that it is funny.   Watch him figure out the apparatus.

Where does the water go? from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

When the children begin to figure out how the apparatus works, they come up with their own operations.  Watch as this girl demonstrates how to make water come out of both tubes at the same time.  She has figured out that if she pours water into two particular funnels at the same time, the water comes out onto the channel board at the same time.  Watch.

I made them come out at the same time! from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

I think her little chuckle indicates the sense of agency she has in having figured this operation out.

I kept the loose parts from the previous post.  That led to a whole host of other operations and experimentation.  I was especially struck by two three-year-olds that figured out how to propel little orange bottles down the clear tube by first setting the bottle in the tube and then pouring water down the tube.  Watch.




What is so striking about this video is that they have figured out how water carries objects down a incline.  They did this on their own.  Not only that, they take turns effortlessly and with social grace.  That is a nice melding of science and social learning.

CHANNEL BOARD AND LOOSE PARTS

I wrote about the Channel Board last week.  I wrote about how it was made and how the children used it.

I am often asked: Do you let the children build or help build an apparatus?  My answer no, not at this point.  Every time I am asked, though, I have to think about it again.  There are two main reasons why I do not engage the children in the building of the apparatus.  One reason is that I see over 100 children a week.  I see them over eight classes that only meet once a week for a two hours.  It is hard to create continuity between the classes; no two children are in the same class.  I see what I build for the sensory table as an installation that has to be strong and secure for all the children to use during the course of a week.  The second reason is selfish: I believe everyone needs a creative outlet and building apparatus for the sensory table is mine.

That said, I think that young children do need avenues to create and put things together.  To that end, I added loose parts to the Channel Board this year.  First of all, there was the crate that was not secure, but just sitting in the table.  I thought children might take it out, but no, it became a space on which to operate and an area of focused play.  Below you can see a child using the crate.  He has set a funnel in the hole and is pouring water in the hole.

On the shelves next to the sensory table, there was a clear tube for which the children found many uses.
                                                                 
The boy on the left is using it in conjunction with the Channel Board. He has laid it in one of the channels and is pouring water in the tube for his friend to catch.  The girl on the right has set the tube in the ever-present 5-gallon pail and is pouring water from the table into it.




There were also pieces of flexible tubing on the shelves that the children found and used.

On the left, boy is trying to pour the water down the clear tubing from his plastic measuring cup.  That takes some precise pouring.  Before long, he finds that a funnel fits nicely into the tubing (the picture on the right) and makes the job of pouring easier.




He does not stop there.  He finds another bigger funnel and fits into the black funnel for more pouring fun.

The process of using the loose parts really got interesting when the children started combining them.  The child pictured below is holding the flexible tubing in the mouth of the clear plastic tube to transport water from the table into the pail.

And even more intriguing was one group started to put the tubing inside the larger clear tube.  That led to some original pouring operations.

Wait!  Did I just make a case for the children building at the sensory table?  Maybe I will have to include more loose parts from now on.

CHANNEL BOARD

A Channel Board is a board divided into three channels.  The channels are formed by 2 x 4's screwed into the base board from the bottom side.  Each channel is then rigged with a different surface so that when water flows down the individual channels, it flows with different effects.

One channel has bubble wrap that is held in place with carpet tape.  As water flows down the bubble wrap, it disperses around the channels between the bubbles of the bubble wrap.  If water is poured slowly, the effect is dramatic: water creeps down through the channel.  The middle channel is black plastic drainage pipe cut in half and attached to the channel with screws.  When water is poured down this channel, large ripples are created.  The third channel has a piece of rubber floor mat that is stapled in the channel.  The rubber floor mat has smaller ribs, so when water is poured down the channel, little ripples are created.

This is a take-off on the Water Ramp apparatus featured in this post.

I have tried different materials in the channels.  One year, I lined one channel with carpet.  Can you guess what happened to the water when it was poured down that channel?  It disappeared and then slowly leaked out the bottom of the channel.  One year, the middle channel was outfitted with a PVC pipe that was cut in half.

If you think about it, there is no end to what material---and subsequent effects---you can use in the channels.

Another interesting aspect of this apparatus is illustrated by the picture below.  Two girls are trying to catch the water that is poured down the channels.  Once the water hits the flat board, though, it is anybody's guess where it goes.

That, by no means, is a deterrent for any child.

The apparatus is very sturdy; it has lasted at least a decade.  The one drawback, though, is that it is heavy, and because it is heavy, it is hard to secure.   One year, I actually had the bottom of the apparatus resting on the bottom of the tub.  That damaged the board because it was always in water, which is not good for wood.  One year I used less of an incline and formed a short bridge between the table and a tub.  The problem there was that water would drip off the side.  Below is the configuration and the subsequent solution that year.

Since I do not look over my documentation before I set up an apparatus, I re-invent the wheel, so to speak, each time I set up an apparatus I have used before.  That was true this year, too.  I forgot how heavy the channel apparatus was so I set it up at a fairly steep angle (see the first picture in this post). The apparatus only lasted a day on that incline because its weight made the setup unsustainable.  Below is this year's final configuration that lasted the week.

The incline is not so great.  It rests on the tray on the blue table and the lip on the clear table. There is no need for a tray underneath because the channels keep the water from spilling out the side.  One addition this year is the unattached crate.  It ended up to be a surface above the water on which to operate and area of focused play.

That is enough explanation for now.  Take a look at how the children actually use the apparatus. In the video below one child is filling a bowl with water and rolling it down a channel on its side. She fills the bowl each time.  It's almost like the bowl and water are racing down the channel together.  A second child is pushing a copper pot down the middle channel.  That takes a little more effort than the rolling the bowl on its side.  She is looking at the child rolling the bowl down the adjacent channel as if to reference her own actions.  A third child is pouring water down the bubble wrap channel with a pink cup.  A fourth child is gathering water at the bottom tub.  She comes around to the top of the board and pours the water down the same channel as the child who is rolling the bowl.  Whether intentional or not, it is a nice bit of choreographed action.  The fifth child is an active observer. After observing she goes over to the shelf to pick out what she wants to work with.

Channel Board Work from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Did you notice there are only girls around the sensory table this day?

There is more than pouring water and rolling objects down the channels.  Often times the children will run their hands down the different channels to feel the texture.  Sometimes it is a full-on texture experience with the feel of the water rubbed over the channel.


Another girl at the sensory table!  How great is that?


P.S.  My posts may be a little spotty over the next month.  I am doing a session on reflective practice at the sensory table for the Reggio-Inspired Network of Minnesota this coming weekend. I am also finalizing my presentation on building a dynamic sensory table for the National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference in Atlanta November 7 - 10. If you are attending the conference and want to see my presentation it is on Saturday morning from 8 - 9:30 am.  If you are at the conference but can't attend the presentation---maybe a little too early---drop me a line and maybe we can meet and chat.

AN ADDITION TO CLEAR PLASTIC TUBING AND FUNNELS

Last week I wrote about Clear Plastic Tubes and Funnels.  I kept that apparatus up for a second week, but I added another component: a 5.5 liter laundry detergent jug with a push valve.

A crate is taped to the small water table.  The jug is taped securely to the crate.  A firm, clear plastic tube is taped to the handle of the jug and empties into the tray forming the base of the tubes and funnels apparatus.  A funnel is taped to the jug and is connected to a tube that is threaded through the crate to empty into the blue table.

Here is a view from the other side.  You can see that a hole is cut in the laundry jug for filling.

Pushing the button on the laundry jug is not as simple as it may look.  Why?  Because it takes a certain amount of force to get the button to push down.  In fact, you have to use an index finger on the lip of the button mechanism to create enough opposing force for the thumb to push down. Once it is down, it is easy to hold down and fill a cup.

Some children were able to master the operation by themselves.  Some were not.  That was OK, because getting water out of the jug then became a two or three person operation.  We often take these operations for granted, but they do take a certain amount of communication, coordination and cooperation.  And don't forget the active observer taking it all in so he can contribute later on.

In reviewing pictures for this post, I ran across the picture below.  A child is filling the jug through the hole.  That was expected.  What was not expected was the other child watching the operation through the small cap hole on the end.

Of course, the child pouring had to check the water level himself.

Here is a little insight into on how this component originated.  Last year a colleague gave me the laundry detergent jug.   She said when the jug was empty, she immediately thought of me.  If anyone could do anything with it, she thought, I could---and probably in the sensory table.  I took it not really knowing how I would use it.  In fact, I did not do anything with it all year last year. Instead, I left it in the housekeeping area as a prop, which the children generously appropriated for their own purposes.  It was easy to carry around because of the handle and they enjoyed the challenge of pushing the red button.  I would revisit using it as part of an apparatus every once in awhile, but none of the ideas seem to gain any traction.  I could have left it in the housekeeping area this year, too, but using it to extend the tube and funnel apparatus was as likely place to start as any.   The challenge was to have the jug above the table out of the water oriented in such a way as to allow the children to operate the button.  I also wanted the jug to be within reach but the button still had to be over the table so when it was pressed the water would empty into the table and not onto the floor.  I brought in a crate and tried two different orientations.  Once I was satisfied with the orientation, I taped the crate to the table and then the jug to the create. Once the jug was in place, I added the other components to make it more interesting. 

Sometimes it just takes a willingness to play with objects---almost like a child---to see a idea become a reality.   By the way, I joked with the parents that this component originating from adult world of washing clothes allows the children to work on the "life skill" of pushing the button of a laundry detergent jug.