The Toddler 1 educators wanted to spark an interest in sensory play this month with the toddlers. One morning, the educators set out an activity that would encourage the children to try some hard work to create foam in the sensory bin. We started by placing a dense piece of foam in the sensory bin and added some water and dish soap underneath it. The educators modelled how to push hard on the foam and soon the children began to do some hard pushing! They used their hands and body weight, as well as their fingers to poke the foam. The educators also tried adding cylinders that we had in our room. As the group continued to push, we slowly watched as the foam came up. This activity had science, hard work, sensory, problem solving and so much more. After a bit of time, we added some food coloring to see if we were able to push the color through as well. The children had so much fun and shown so much interest, we wanted to do more with the foam. So next we made holes in the foam and added some small sponges to it. Brayden, Damian, Evelyn, William, Ezra, Ferris and Russell were all engaged in this activity. Vail watched closely but didn’t want to get her hands and fingers dirty. Kane and Finnley both came over to see, they both gave the sponge a little squeeze and then they left. The children that were engaged were looking for the little sponges and then they enjoyed pulling them out. Brayden figured out how to dig his hand all the way into the hole and find the sponges, while others only pulled the ones that were peaking out. Russell and Damian enjoyed squeezing the sponges really hard to watch all the foam come out. Ferris and Trish were pushing the large sponge and watching as the foam came out of the holes that Trish had made. Ezra and Kane enjoyed knocking over the sponge tower that Trish had made for them. This activity fostered their sensory play, science, hard work, problem solving, and fine motor skills. The children loved exploring the foam piece in different ways. Some children are also getting more comfortable with messy play.
