This month in school-age 1 at Rising Oaks | John Sweeney, the children were observed engaging in sensory play more than usual. The clay was a frequently visited item on the cart as well as felt insects and births on the felt board. Both of these activities enhanced the children’s creativity and fine motor skills. Last month, the children loved the times that we were able to visit the natural playground and spent the majority of the time in the sand box. As Emily was preparing activities for the week that represented the interests of the children, she came across a few bottles of shaving cream. In preparation of the activity, Emily found a disposable drop cloth that we would throw away after the activity. When we arrived in the program room, Emily covered and taped the drop cloth to the table. She began to spray the shaving cream all over the table. The children’s faces lit up!
Emily offered a variety of writing tools to encourage the children to create shapes, letters and number in the shaving cream. They were far more interested in using their hands and fingers to touch and feel the shaving cream. “Its so squishy!” Liz expressed as she moved the shaving cream between her fingers. Liam let out several loud and happy sounds of excitement. He spoke so quickly I couldn’t catch all of the great things he was describing. Sensory play promotes language development and communication as the children gain new vocabulary words and share their experiences with their educators and peers.
As the shaving cream began to flatten out and the area open for design became smaller. Noah used problem solving skills to create a clean canvas for his designs and shared this discovery with his peers. “Guy’s if you rub your hand over your picture, it makes a new picture to draw on.” Great discovery Noah!
This activity helped to further the attention span of many of the children in our program. The average child spent 15 minutes at the table exploring the shaving cream.
It took a bit of convincing for Austin to try the shaving cream. He was nervous to get his hands too messy and also had a band aid on his finger. With some brainstorming, together we came up wit the idea that he could wear gloves during his play! This allowed him to participate in the activity without getting messy. He seemed to really enjoy his time at the sensory table. Not every child enjoys the messy play, but they do enjoy the texture of the shaving cream. By working together and problem solving, Austin was able to gain the confidence to try something new. Keep an eye on our documentation board to see the next sensory activity we engage in.
