Lots of times while cooking occurs children want to smell or taste what is being made. With the holidays approaching, a great invitation to explore different spices through their five senses is mixing tiny amounts of spices with water. This invitation is set on the Excellerations® Outdoor Sensory Mixing Table along with cooking utensils, measuring cups, beakers, cylinders and recycled water bottles. Exploring different spices is an opportunity to teach children about some of the spices from around the world, where they come from and where they are commonly used. It is also great sensory exposure for children who may be hesitant to try new foods. Before inviting the child to mix the spices you can pass around the spices to smell, touch, and see. Next invite them to mix it all up. When children are given the opportunity to learn through play it is one the best ways to make connections across and amongst many learning opportunities. They are not just playing, they are exploring science in action; helping lay down basic math, and giving them the tools to enhance their cognitive skills. The social learnings from "water play" include collaboration, concentration, turn taking, problem solving, perseverance, self-regulation, and more. Children also gain physical learning through water play, such as precision in pouring, eye-hand coordination, and other skills. Exploring with water is captivating, engaging, engrossing and absorbing to almost all children. When a child engages in sensory play the variety of materials and textures are stimulating the mind & body. It enhances fine motor skills, language development, improves focus and concentration. It is play based learning, stimulates the 5 main senses, & it's child-directed exploration.

A sensory tube or bottle is any sealable container filled with a base with different types of objects to develop their senses and encourage exploration. These two sets from Discount School supply are the Excellerations® Visual Tracking Sensory Tubes and Learning Resources Sensory Tubes Set. To enhance this invitation you can place it on a mirror. Mirrors naturally draw the child to the exploration of reflection, perception and appearance and it is a rather calming experience as they explore. Sensory play is crucial to development throughout a child’s life. Children explore the world through their senses. This does not mean only exploring through touch but sight, smell, hearing and taste as well. “Sensory exploration is a child’s way of examining, discovering, categorizing, and making sense of the world, and it’s beneficial to provide them with opportunities for sensory play.” Amanda Moriri. Sensory tubes help young children relax and soothe themselves by focusing on the motion and sound happening inside the tube. Each tube has objects that make a unique visual and sound quality that will help children begin to explore objects and develop observational skills. They also aide with understanding spatial relationships, problem solving, and hand-eye coordination. The best part is that they grow with your child through all their stages and can be used in multitude of ways while they play! With the holiday’s approaching check out these Sensory Tubes and so much more on Discount School Supply’s Gift Guide.

Anything that’s translucent will make for magic on any light table . Discount School Supply’s Environments® earlySTEM™ Translucent Stacking Pegs are perfect for STEM Concepts: sorting, patterning, and colors, Fine Motor Skills: Practicing hand-eye coordination while stacking, Creative Thinking: Endless possibilities through block play. When children explore the natural progression of block play, they have to learn how to move and manipulate objects, as well as have the fine motor control to “click” them into place. Building toys such as pegs help the child enhance their visual-spatial skills which is crucial for reading readiness. Encourages thinking and reasoning: these skills are what make children become well-rounded, independent and successful adults. Involves focus and patience: children need to work slowly and carefully to be successful at creating their designs. Through building, the child will learn to experiment and make new discoveries about how things work. Adding the light table to this experience is an excellent resource for sensory input. Children are often calmed by the glow of the table and the visual stimulation enhances their experience as they explore. With the holiday’s approaching check out these amazing pegs and so much more on Discount School Supply’s Gift Guide.

For those who value play and advocate inspiring creativity within children loose parts provides endless opportunities to continuously stimulate their curiosity. What are loose parts? In early childhood they are objects or materials that children can move, manipulate, change and control while they play. There is great importance of loose parts play in the early years. Since loose parts are dynamic in nature, it brings about authenticity of formulating ideas. Whether you provide loose parts to place on a mirror, light table, butcher paper, cardboard, dramatic play areas, sensory bins, play-dough, mud kitchens, or small world play, they are adaptable to so many aspects of learning through play. The more variables an object offers the more possibilities and creativity the object will have. As they play they enter an environment of “what if” that promotes problem solving and theoretical reasoning. This is the foundation we want to establish early on in children: to have a higher level of learning and understanding of how things work while honoring their ability to think imaginatively. Loose parts play really breaks away from stereotypical thinking and empowers children to explore in powerful ways. Safety Notes: Anytime a child, no matter the age, is provided with or near any choking hazard supervision is of the utmost priority. Anytime boundaries need to be established to ensure safety before inviting a child to play is a great opportunity to guide a child to interact with objects and materials in a safe manner. Therefore having discussions or modeling before they engage in loose parts play is ideal. If it is not within your threshold of comfort to provide your child or children in your care with loose parts that is completely understandable. To learn more about Loose Parts Play check out these books. Since loose parts provide children to tinker..wonder…play…enter in this Giveaway to get all my favorite Discount School Supply favorites along with two Tinker Trays. To Enter on Instagram: 1)Follow @tinkerwonderplay on Instagram 2)Tag a friend. 3)You may enter as many times as you'd like, but each tag must be in a separate comment. 4)Like This Post Giveaway ends 11/8/2020. Winner will be announced over Instagram stories. Winner will be notified by this account only. This giveaway is not affiliated or endorsed by Instagram.

Finger gyms are the perfect invitations to create a challenge to be able to grasp objects with a child's whole hand or with thumb and index finger, in order to refine their fine motor activities such as lacing beads on a string. This fall finger gym consists of placing/removing feathers in a colander and wrapping/removing rubber bands on pinecones , pumpkins, or gourds. As with many activities, taking the feathers out of colander is easier than putting them back in, so this invitation can provides a natural grading of challenge as they grow and obtain a variety of skill levels. When and if they are old enough, putting the feathers in the colander or encourages precise hand movements and higher level hand-eye coordination than lower level play skills such as stacking two blocks or placing pegs in a board. Placing or removing rubber bands on pine cones, gourds, and pumpkins is such a simple process for strengthening those little hand muscles which is crucial for writing development later on, and good for concentration and hand-eye coordination. Rubber bands are great for children’s hand development as they need to be pushed out to stretch them and open them up, causing a good resistance against the fingers which is suitably hard to do. Disclaimer: anytime a child is provided with or near any choking hazard supervision is of the utmost priority. If it is not within your threshold of comfort to provide your child or children in your care with these materials that is completely understandable.

An election year is a great opportunity to not only talk with children about civic responsibility but an optimal way to lay the foundation in the early years of the power to make decisions can bring about change. To begin the discussion reading a book such as Democracy for Dinosaurs: A Guide for Young Citizens by Laurie Krasny Brown and illustrated Marc Brown , is an accessible way to show how the things they do every day plays an important role in being a part of their country. To deepen the connection of the literacy, inviting a child or a class to participate in an invitation to vote is an ideal way to ingrain the concepts of the book and how elections work. You can simply set up a voting booth or take a box, decorate it with washi tape , markers , stickers , or paint . Whether you have your child vote for the President of the current election, class name, snack for the next day, favorite color of the rainbow, ice cream flavors, or dinosaurs, this is such a great way to use math in real life. You can make election ballots or simply create a graph where they vote on whatever topic during circle time. After the ballots are counted or the graph is finished, you can count together what the outcome is. Through these types of meaningful experiences children learn about themselves and the world they live. They are learning to vocalize their likes and dislikes, their interests, and their abilities through communicating what they want and how to make their voice heard. This role play is developing important complex thinking skills, by projecting what they desire. They are experiencing first hand what is going on currently in our society but on terms that they can grasp. Ultimately laying down the foundation at young age will hopefully instill the importance of voting throughout their lives!

Take your sand castle moulds, fill it with baking soda, water, and Colorations Liquid Water Colors. You can add glitter for a sparkling element and creepy Halloween crawlers or wiggly eyes to excavate. Place in freezer over night. Place in a sensory bin . Provide pipettes , basters, or droppers where they will squirt water or vinegar to experiment how to break down the Haunted Mansion through science exploration. As they squirt the components away they will experiencing seeing and creating a chemical reactions. This gives the opportunity to explore their environments as they learn about cause and effect, cycles of nature, the ability to make comparisons, chemical and physical reactions and exposure to the properties of matter. Through these types of invitations children build a foundation for future scientific learning. As curiosity builds through science experiments, children learn to be patient with projects that take time and how to make decisions based on the data that they gather. Developing this ability to understand the likeness and differences between things builds a science base as well as a skill for future math and reading skills.

Creating invitations with loose parts and play-dough with materials that connect what’s happening in the world around them provokes a child to be more aware of their surroundings and deepen their connections. This invitation was created with repurposed play-dough from a previous invitation and all that was added Orange Liquid Colorations to create the color of pumpkin pie. The tinker tray was filled with wood craft rounds , pom poms , cinnamon sticks, expired pasta, and wooden cut outs of leaves + pumpkins. Lastly, an array of wooden tools to rolls and mold the the play-dough. Invitations enhance a child's free creative play, exposure to sensory elements, requires concentration, and are truly relaxing and stimulating. Through this kind of experience children are really creating: using what they have and what they already know, and combining that to create a whole that’s greater than the parts. Loose parts play give a child the ability to be creative and the freedom of imagination in endless ways. Loose parts are dynamic in nature, which brings about authenticity of ideas. The more variables an object offers the more possibilities and creativity the object will have. Children will have a higher level of learning and understanding of how things work. Disclaimer: anytime a child is provided with or near any choking hazard supervision is of the utmost priority. If it is not within your threshold of comfort to provide your child or children in your care with loose parts that is completely understandable. Stay tuned for a dedicated loose parts post + giveaway that will dive into this subject matter deeper.

Toddlers are ALWAYS on the go and seeking out to lift and move heavy things. At times it seems as toddlers grow they are constantly looking for ways to develop their strength and challenge themselves. Maria Montessori observed in toddlers that suddenly, after learning to walk toddlers they have a strong need to do heavy and hard work, which she defined as “maximum effort.” They are building on their new found freedom by building strength through mastering their gross motor skills. To create this activity just save plastic bottles and fill them with water. You can enhance the bottles by adding Colorations Liquid Water Colors , glitter , figurines , oil, or sensory materials (rice, beans, rocks , feathers , beads , twigs, water beads , wiggly eyes etc.) You can also create a theme to tie in what’s going on in the world around them (seasons, color theory, holidays, etc.) Inviting a child to explore these bottles promotes: gross motor skills (lifting, carrying rolling, and pushing), coordination & balance (by adding the element of weight it helps perfect these skills), social emotional skill (by meeting your child’s need to lift your are fostering their self confidence and independence). Providing opportunities for a toddler to exercise the internal drive to reach this need for “maximum effort,” not only is developmentally appropriate it honors how their mind works, what their body needs and to instill that they are capable of doing anything.

There are so many wondrous takes on creating potions during this time of year. An all time favorite is Bubbly Witch Potions. To create this you will need to place baking soda at the base of a cauldron, cup, or bowl, Colorations Liquid Water Colors , and dish soap. If you love glitter as much as I do you can add that in for an extra effect on top. Then in cup, beaker, or bowl place baking soda and droppers . Next, let your child experiment and explore how to create Bubbly Witch Potions. The base mixture along with drawing vinegar with the droppers create the opportunity to explore and observe a chemical reaction. The droppers really enhance a child's fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination as they continue to draw in the vinegar and repeatedly squeeze onto the baking soda. When the vinegar and baking soda finally mix, it creates a chemical reaction due to the pH rating of each ingredient. Vinegar is an acid, and baking soda is a base. When the two react, carbon dioxide is produced. This causes the dish soap and other ingredients to rise out of the container quickly as the other ingredients get carried away with the carbon dioxide gas. Through this invitation they are able to see the whole process carried through while continuously experimenting with how much more or less they need of the materials to reach the reaction. When children are freely given the opportunity to experiment cause and effect, they use and discover so much language, figure out why things happen, and cultivate critical thinkers that can problem solve. Science taps into the "whys" of the life which supports their natural curiosities as they discover the world around them.Science in the early years is all about exploring, asking questions, and curiosity.

This invitation to create Hocus Pocus Potion on the Excellerations® Outdoor Sensory Mixing Table is the perfect way to ignite creativity and a child's imagination through play for Halloween. With just water plus drops of Colorations and Liquid Water Colors (Lime, Purple, Orange, Black), Halloween Creatures, Graduated Cylinders , Beakers, and a Ladle, children are left to create and explore potion making. With water a child will spend ages scooping, pouring, and stirring. An invitation such as this enables children to experiment with science and math concepts. Children begin to understand and investigate with ideas such as more/less, same/different, many/few, empty/full, before/after, greater than/less than. They also learn physics principles such as the effects of force (increasing the water flow through increased force); effects of gravity (water runs downhill) etc. Children also gain physical learning through water play, such as precision in pouring, eye-hand coordination, and other skills. Exploring with water is captivating, engaging, engrossing and absorbing to almost all children. Being able to bring more sensory experiences with this table for outdoor exploration is optimal for any environment. By expanding a child's outdoor play it helps develop their sensory, motor, and cognitive skills. Anytime a child is outside it lays a great foundation for learning, and the more varied the environments are the more synapses are formed in a child's brain. This sensory table provides the perfect opportunity for varied environments. Not only is this table sturdy, it does not need to be covered or put away in harsh weather because it is made of FSC Certified Eucalyptus Wood that is durable and does not need to be pre-treated. This table surely is one of the best investments to provide multiple opportunities of creativity throughout the seasons and grows with a child as they get older.

Process art has a beautiful way of transforming into STEAM experiences. This @friendsartlab inspired invitation makes a child or children feel able to experiment, to make mistakes, feel free to invent or use different techniques which provides new ways of thinking, which extends well beyond the art. To set this invitations you can use these brown paper pumpkins or real pumpkins which you will lay flat or elevated on a stand in a sensory bin. You will need to dilute Tempera Paint with water to get the right consistency to drip down. Provide spoons for the child to scoop and pour over the diluted paint. When children experiment with materials, they dabble in science. Through the process of experimenting and exploring the child is using creative and critical thinking skills. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers and artists all use the same critical thinking skills to find new and innovative solutions. Since the tool is a spoon where a child is able to pour paint onto the pumpkin and this can lead to the child to watch the dripping paint intently. During those moments of observations you can have amazing conversations explaining what gravity is, what keeps people and objects on the ground and causes objects to fall toward the Earth. By pouring the paint on top of the pumpkin it is using the Earth’s gravitational pull to direct the paint. This is also a great opportunity to talk about dripping, lines, color mixing, and what techniques you are using to cover the pumpkin. Tip: If you use real pumpkins you can wash the tempera paint off and do this activity again. If you want a more permanent process and your child is old enough use acrylic paint instead of tempera.