ON-GOING
WATER TABLE ACTIVITY: Birdseed From Stormie:
By the way, I have reserved my very favorite
water table activity using birdseed for my "Fall"
booklet. You can find my booklets in the "Stormie's
Stuff for Teachers" section of my website.
I love putting birdseed in my water table for the month of October (no water, of course). I have worked with teachers who didn't like it though because the floor usually has to be swept often when it gets scattered. But I like keeping a child-sized broom and dustpan near the table for the children so they can sweep up when finished and before the next child (or group of children) takes a turn at playing there. It teaches responsibility and reinforces the rule of cleaning up after ourselves.
Other Uses
for Birdseed:
*Pre-Math:
Sorting: Provide a bowl of Sunflower Birdseed Mix and have children sort out
all the Sunflower seeds. Oh, since people often
eat sunflower seeds, remind the children NOT to eat these ones.
*Science:
1. Don't forget you can use it for "bird feeder" projects
2.
Children can use their senses by "feeling" the grainy texture of birdseed and
smelling it
*Language
Project: Birdseed would be perfect for having children sprinkle on
a glue-brushed B cutout for the letter B
*Creative
Art/Crafts:
1. Place some birdseed in the
Art Center for the children to use in collages and/or art projects
2. If two of your themes this month are "Little Miss Muffet" and "Halloween,"
birdseed could be sprinkled on a glue-brushed black sheep cutout or give artsy
spiders and bats a creepy-Halloweenish texture
From
Suzanne K in New Jersey:
Try
"Niger Thistle" bird seed. It's black, shiny, thin, and looks similar
to a marigold seed. It feels really neat and is very smooth.
From
Brenda Burgan, Smithville ISD PK:
For
October, we dye rice orange using food coloring and alcohol. You have to
spread it out on cookie sheets or trays to dry (outside is best because it smells)
-- buy the large bottles of food coloring. (Use rubber gloves or your hands
will be orange for a couple days.) We then add black beans and put it in
the sand table. The kids love it. You can store it in an airtight
container and use it over and over again.
Leanne
Grillot,
teacher for the visually impaired, puts wet
cornstarch in her water table for a very tactile experience.
From
Jennifer Williams,
teacher of special needs preschoolers:Pool of Fun: Instead of a water table, we use a small hard plastic kid's pool. We fill it with many different things throughout the year. Our pool rules are: Only two children in it at a time, no sitting on the sides, and shoes come off before getting in. In October, we fill the pool with fall-colored paper, and then we add plastic spiders and bats for Halloween. The children hide under the paper, rip it into smaller pieces, bury each other in it, find the hidden bats and spiders and/or sort them. It's like playing in a regular pool, but with a medium other than water. For safety, you may want to set the pool on a gym mat. We have also padded the walls where the pool is located.
From
Joyce Schonsheck,
Wixom, Michigan:Corn: In the fall, I put dried feed corn ($5.00 for 50lb. bag) in my sensory table. After the children are done playing with it, we set up a grain grinder at the workbench and they grind corn to place in the bird feeders that are right outside our classroom window. (When the children are grinding, a parent volunteer is helping them with safety tips.) Periodically throughout the year, we grind more corn to refill the bird feeder.
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Reminder from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here to check them out.
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