Seasonal Sensory Tables

I have been changing my sand and water tables to match the season and the themes.  I know it's a little late, but I here is my Halloween themed sand table.  I put rice in the table and Halloween toys.  All the toys came from the Dollar Tree except the mini pumpkins and the couldrons.  They came from Michael's.

Today, I changed out both tables.  I left rice in the red table and added some silk fall leaves and a few styrofoam gourds that I purchased at the Dollar Tree.  I finally removed the split peas from my clear table and added brown beans, foam leaves, and stryofoam gourds in different colors.  I also added some new scoops and a few scarecrows.

I would love to see what other people are doing in their classrooms to add to the season.  Feel free to shoot me a comment and tell me about it.  Maybe I have inspired you to change out your sand table or to even create one at home for your own children.

Sand and Water Table aka Sensory Table

I have been surfing around the net and I came across some cute ideas for my sand and water table.  Yes, I'm lucky to have one of each.  I want to make sure I keep students interested in playing in these areas.  Also, I want to make my tables go with the seasons or what we are studying.  Here is what I have in my tables right now.


Sand Table:  I don't have sand in my sand table, but I am sure it did at one time.  When I moved into my kindergarten classroom this year, this table was empty so I decided to change that.  I noticed that I had lots of these puff balls in my classroom so I poured them all into the sand table.  I added a few cloth bags for students to stuff with the puffs, some tongs and a few clothespins to practice picking them up, a couple of measuring cups, and some ice cream scoops from the Dollar Tree.  The only things I bought were the orange and green ice cream scoops and the green handle tongs.  All the other items were already in my room.

 

 Water Table:  Obviously, I don't have water in my water table.  Unlike my sand table, I have a lid for my water table.  I'm going to have to purchase one for the sand table to keep little ones from playing in it when we are lining up.  I did purchase the items for this table, but they will be reused next fall.  I filled my table with split peas.  It took about 16 bags, but the bags were small and $1.08 each.  I bought two cute little scarecrows, two cute little tin buckets, styrofoam apples, and decrative cheeries that I pulled off the wires to make the smaller apples.  I bought these items from Michael's, then I bought a 3 pack of funnels at the Dollar Tree. 

Let me just say, the kids really love playing at these tables and they are popular areas in my classroom during center time.  I am so happy that kinder teachers are being encourage to do traditional centers in kindergarten now.  I plan on changing my sand table soon to fit with a Halloween theme so come back and see what I do.  Maybe I will inspire you.