10 examples of how you can make sand play inviting
Instead of just emptying the bag of sand into your sand tray think about what else you could use sand for. Being creative in how you use sand will widen children’s learning opportunities. Think outside the box as to what you can use it for.
Most children enjoy playing with sand; they will dig, pour with it, bury objects and make sandcastles. Sand is a perfect resource that allows children to use their exploratory and imagination skills. There is no right or wrong way as to how sand should be presented to children. Children will be intrigued and eager to explore. Sand play can help children develop their physical, cognitive and social skills. As sand play is an open-ended resource, children are able to direct their own play and take themselves on a journey. It provides the opportunities for children to learn new skills and concepts at a pace that suits them.
As we know children have an inner ability to explore the world around them and find out how and why things work. Therefore, all opportunities within the learning environment need to be rich and stimulating this includes sand play.
For children who have never explored sand play before will need time and support to help them explore these new learning opportunities. An adult’s role is important when helping children in these situations, children should feel comfortable in being able to ask adults questions. An adult’s role is to support and scaffold children’s learning. This can be achieved by using careful questioning that gets children’s minds thinking which this then helps them to achieve more and more on their own. Let’s take a look at how you can make sand play inviting in your learning environment.
- Wet and dry sand. This is a great sensory experience that many children will love exploring. Children will learn different concepts from playing with wet and dry sand.
- Making sand moose. Mixing shaving form and sand together with create a moose consistency. Children can use this to make marks with or just explore the texture.
- Moon dough. This is created by adding sand and baby oil. It will make a dough that when manipulated it will feel like soft sand.
- Coloured sand. Many people wonder how this can be achieved. Mix pots of sand with a different coloured powder paint to create the different coloured sand.
- Add sand to a tuff spot tray to create a construction site. Sand can be used to enhance activities, for example, using sand to create a construction small world scene. Children can use the diggers and trucks to scoop up the sand and transport it around the tray.
- Making marks using sand. Fill a shallow tray with sand and provide children with different mark making tools eg different size paint brushes. Watch the children make various marks in the sand using the tools.
- Natural sand play dough. Many people forget about making this when in fact it is a great sensory activity. Mix flour, sand, water and oil together to create the dough.
- Moon mud. Mix sand, water and cornstarch to create this mud consitiency.
- Sand paint. Why not mix sand with your paint to make gritty paint.
- Quick sand. This simple activity consists of sand, water and cornstarch it is very similair to moon mud, but you can add some coloured paint.
For more ideas on what to use sand for in your learning environment visit our Pinterest page.