BOX TOWER

Orientation of an apparatus offers the children foundational experiences with space. A long fan box placed upright produces a very nice vertical tower.  And a box tower is as simple as it gets.  All you have to do is find a long rectangular box, cut some holes, and tape it in the sensory table. You now have a dynamic apparatus with a vertical orientation for children to explore and make their own.

To make this apparatus more stable, I embedded it in another box.  Holes are cut in the bottom sides of the fan box and the base box so when the children put sand in the holes on an upper level it comes out the bottom.  When cutting the holes on the bottom sides of the boxes, I make three cuts, one across and two down.  I leave the bottom uncut so I have a flap that I can fold down and tape to the bottom of the table.  That increases the stability of the box tower, otherwise, the children pulling on the top---and they will---dislodge the apparatus easily.

So why is the box tower so dynamic?  It is dynamic because it is open-ended.   For the youngest children, it is a pouring activity; young children feel compelled to put things in holes.  For them, it is an opportunity to work on fine and large motor developmental tasks.  For the older children---who still feel compelled to put things in holes---it becomes a machine to animate.

On the wall next to the box tower, a piece of paper is stapled for recording what the children say as they use the box tower. 

There are several things to note.  1) Children are imaginative in the realm of what could be real:  "It's a pancake factory.  It makes pancakes softer."  2) Children are imaginative in the realm of what is not real: "milk berries" and "oint, a special kind of sugar."  3) Children take expressions from life and make them their own: In making the chocolate pie, one child decided to have three secret ingredients.  4) Any activity can be a writing activity: Owen gets a sheet of paper and signs it(bottom left in orange) because he wants to lay claim to his recipe in the myriad of recipes.  

CREATIVITY AND TONGS

Newsweek had an article in its July 10, 2010 issue referencing the decline in creativity scores of children in US since 1990.  The article can be found here: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html    With emphasis on testing and getting answers right, is there any wonder creativity suffers?

There is an easy antidote to this problem.  Here is a video clip of a child using tongs that illustrates the antidote nicely.  Two-year-old Teddy has a pair a tongs.  He is trying to pick up a rock.  He has not mastered opening and closing the tongs to pick up the rock.  He jabs at it and says: "I'm cutting the cupcake."  Then he picks up the rock with one hand and slips it inbetween the open tongs he is holding in his other hand.  He has not mastered pinching the tongs closed to hold the rock, so in a sweeping motion with his hands, arms and tongs as one, he projects the rock into the water.

Teddy has not mastered the use of the tongs by adult standards.  What he brings to the task of mastering the tongs, though, are abilities, such as large and small motor capabilities, and concrete operational schemes, both of which are the wellspring of his creativity.  By allowing him to experiment with the tongs---instead of teaching them how to use them---he will master them.   By experimenting with them he will have more "tong scenarios" on which to bring to any new task using tongs or similar implements.  Can you use tongs to cut a cupcake?  Of course, especially if the tongs have a spatula type head and you do not have a knife handy.

The antidote to decreasing creativity:  Let them play!  And let them play with real-life, three-dimensional materials on tasks they set for themselves.

WOODEN TRAY AND ROCKS

I like to include natural elements in my sensory table.   This past week, I put rocks in the table with water.  Ever since my own children were little, I have walked along the Mississippi in the Twin Cities collecting rocks.  They are all shapes, sizes, colors and textures.  Along with the rocks, I set out containers, spoons and tongs.  One child, a four-year-old, arranged the rocks in an old metal jello mold.  He used tongs to meticulously arrange them to make sure he filled the jello mold.  He purposefully used rocks that were very close in size to match the width of the jello mold.  As I look at it, I would call it a work of art.

One child, a two-year-old, really experimented with feeling the rocks.  First he rubbed and rolled a very smooth rock in his hand.  Next, he took a rock almost the same size and shape and rubbed and rolled it in his hand.  The second rock, though, was quite rough.  

Here is a clip that incorporates the wooden tray with the rocks.   The tray allows the children to work above the table at a very comfortable level up and out of the water.  It also allows the children to transport from the table to the pot on the tray.  As the clip begins, the two-year-olds have been putting rocks in the copper pot.  The boy in the middle, Emiliano, puts a rock in the pot.  The other boy, Teddy, also adds a rock.  The girl, Elise, adds a little water using a spoon.

There is a lot to see in this short video.  Two-year-olds are sharing an activity, but at the same time, doing their own thing.  At times they are shoulder to shoulder.  Elise is attempting to transport water with a big spoon.  After she is able to put some in the communal pot, she lifts the spoon and succeeds in spilling the water out of the spoon.  My first thought was: if this was an adult trying to master a new skill, exactly how much frustration and how many expletives would have been recorded.    For Elise, though, it was a discovery process.  She was simply going to keep working at transporting the water with the spoon.  Emiliano after adding to the pot, finds a small rock and works at putting it into one of the small metal bowls in the table.  Both Elise and Emiliano respond by showing me a rock when I ask: "What did you find?"  The question was directed at Teddy, but children listen and respond even though they do not look like they are listening.

When I was filming this short episode, I was actually more focused on Teddy.  The filling of the pot with rocks seemed to be his activity.  There are a some interesting actions to note.  After putting a rock in the pot, he puts in several helpings of water.  Each time, he seems to check the level in the pot.  As he fills the pot with rocks, I encourage him and ask if it is full, yet.  He responds by putting on yet another rock, a big white one.  As he places the rock on top, he slowly pulls his hand away in an effort to make sure the rock is balanced on the other rocks.  It stays and he tries another rock.  Notice how he puts it in the little container and then pours it from the small container on top of the other rocks in the pot.  This last rock does not stay and falls next to the pot.  He might have been able to balance another rock on top of the pile, but he chose instead to transfer the rock to the cup by hand and then pour the rock on top of the pile.   I never presume to guess what the children are thinking.  Their actions are their thoughts which become the mapping in the brain that lays the groundwork for later manipulation of objects inside their head.

I really appreciate the industriousness of the children's play.  Here, they are experiencing natural elements that have shape, texture, weight and color.  They are operating on and with these elements to discover such things as volume in a way that is unique: filling a pot with rocks is different than filling the pot with water.  For instance, you can fill the pot high above the rim by balancing the rocks on top of one another; you can't fill the pot that full with water.   

ANOTHER USE FOR TRAYS

Besides being apparatus themselves, trays can serve another important function in the sensory table.  For me, they also form the base on which to place or build other apparatus.  The trays are used especially when I want a vertical incline to the apparatus.  Here two cardboard chutes are attached to the wooden tray ( see previous post from 8/23/10)).  

In the apparatus below,  I have used the planter tray (previous post from 9/12/10) to attach a crate.  Through the crate, I have attached a plastic chute.

The great thing about the plastic planter tray is that if it is turned upside down, it sits on the lip of the sensory table and apparatus can be attached to it in that configuration.  Look!

I have even combined to the two types of trays to form the base of an apparatus.  I did that to get a greater incline on a cardboard chute apparatus.

As you might have guessed by now,  I like trays.

MULTIPLE TRAYS

So if one tray is good, then two must be better.

There are now two trays, but how many spaces?  Two trays multiplies the spaces in which the children work. Besides the over, under, and in of each of the trays, there is now an inbetween.  Now, too, there is another container from which---or into which---to transport.

So if two trays are better, then three trays must be even better, still.

Besides the planter tray in the middle, I found some old dark room trays.  I was able to arrange one of the darkroom trays so the bottom on one side rested on the lip of the planter and the bottom on the other side rested on the lip of the sensory table.  With this arrangement, there are more levels and more spaces to explore.  There are now three levels inside the table and spaces on either side of the trays, over the trays and under the trays.  

If three trays are better still, then five trays...well, you get the idea.  Once you start, there are any number of combinations and orientations.

There are now four levels inside the table and plenty of novel spaces.  And the children will use all the levels and spaces in their play and exploration.

These children said they were filling the top trays with all the seeds.  Could they do it?  The answer is not as important as the process.  First they gave themselves a task and pursued it with the utmost importance.  Why this task?  I think it has something to do with their innate drive to transport.  They worked very hard even though gathering all the seeds from all the spaces involved more complex operations, like scooping the corn from the bottom trays.  This involved first scooping with spoons under the top trays, pulling the scoops back and then lifting and pouring into the top tray.  The spoons lost their usefulness because the bottom of the bottom trays are not flat and the children were getting fewer and fewer seeds.  Next, they started to use their hands to grasp the seeds.  When I look at the picture, I think of the feeling of space, particularly depth, they are experiencing as they reach all the way under the tray to get the seeds.  That is not only the vertical depth of reaching into the tray, but it is also a horizontal depth of reaching way under the tray.

As they scoop and scrape, they are constantly gauging their progress.  How much is left in the bottom of the trays and the bottom of the table?  How much more do is needed to fill the top?  In this episode of play, they worked very hard.  The top tray was full, so they went on to the next level to fill those trays.

They could not get every seed out of the bottom trays and out of the bottom of the table, but their work was impressive.  By filling the top trays, they were able to see the effect of full trays and the weight on the base trays.  

TRAY #2

One of my favorite activities in the hardware store is to look through all the ailses to see the pipes, gutters and tubes, etc.  I am always looking for materials to use in the sensory table.  A few years ago in the fall, I was walking through the garden section.  There was a plastic planter on clearance that caught my eye.  I bought it with hopes of using it in the sensory table.  To my surprise it fit perfectly.

I had a ready-made tray that fit right into the table.  It provided many of the same features as the wooden tray(previous post).  This tray, though, actually goes into the table and sits 4 or 5 inches off the bottom of the table.  It is also narrower. 

Because it fits into the table, it is easier to attach.

Notice how the lip of the tray rests on the lip of the table.   I take two pieces of duct tape and tape it from inside the lip of the tray over and under the lip of the table (picture above left).   I then take another piece of duct tape and lay it across the two pieces (picture above right).

If you can find the right size planter to fit inside your table, this apparatus is as simple as the pail from an earlier post.

Planters always have holes because it is important for plants to drain.  I could use those, but they tend to be too big so the tray won't hold any water.  For that reason, I keep the holes plugged that are part of the planter and I drill two to four smaller holes on the edge of the bottom.  That lets the water out more  slowly and provides another avenue of exploration.  The child below is filling his plastic syrup jug from the hole at the bottom of the planter.  Notice the bottom of the little jug is in the water.  That means that at first, the jug is buoyant and the child has to push down.  As the jug fills, the child has to reverse the action because the water filling the jug gets heavier, so he has to hold it up.

There is a different space and volume  experience when the water is filling containers on different levels.  In the picture below, the table itself is a container; the tray itself also holds water;  and the pots that sit inside the trays provide additional levels for which the children experience space and volume.  

SPACE, VOLUME, BUOYANCY, oh my!

The Swamp

The is an activity that uses the wooden tray mentioned in the previous post. With the tray crossing the middle of the table, I have put fall leaves and water in the table. I call it a swamp because the mixture of dead leaves and water make a swampy brew. I add sticks, pine cones and such, too.  For the children to handle the brew, I put tongs, little pails, spoons and various containers including such things as an old plastic water bottle and an old pan.

Though I plan the general parameters of the activity, I never really know in which direction the children will take the activity.  I am continually surprised and amazed.  Let me show you an example of what children can do with this simple, open-ended set-up.  Look and listen to the following clip:

The boys found the holes in the side of the tray. Gavin (#1) and Micah are pouring water into the tray. They have placed a pot and a plastic water bottle to catch the water underneath the holes that are leaking. They talk about how they are filling the containers which, by the way, is one step removed from simply filling the tray with water. They have figured out that by filling the tray, they will fill the containers for what Gavin (#1) calls a "big, big overflow." Micah was checking the recovery process and says with confidence "we're catching it all."  Finn has taken particular interest in the leaky hole and the pot catching the leak. Off camera he tells me: "This is how apple juice is made of."  At first I thought he was saying that this is "what" juice is made of.  After listening and watching several times, I think he really meant "how" juice is made.  And in fact, the color of the water is quite similar to apple juice. And the water trickling from the hole looks a lot like the process of juice squeezed from a press. So he is not simply observing, but making associations from previous experiences and attempting to cognitively map this new one with those previous experiences.  There is a fourth child, Gavin (#2). He is the consumate observer.  I do not know what he is thinking, but I still feel he is an important part of the activity. Why?  I think of it as a scene in a play and it would not be complete without his part.