Preschool Water Table Ideas

While out shopping I found these sponges and decided to switch up the sensory table with water and sponges. The sponges would be a new item that would be of interest to my group and would provide opportunities for squeezing. See the bottom of this post for more preschool water table ideas.

Sponges in the water table — Sponges in the Water Table

Preschool Water Table Ideas

Simply adding:

large sponges – found at the dollar store
a small amount of water
gentle soap if desired

creates a fun water table for preschoolers!

Sponges in the water table preschool play and more water table sensory play ideas

Sensory play allows the senses to take in, experience, integrate and regulate response to the the environment. Such a simple bin of water supports the whole child in developing skills that will be necessary for learning and life. Not only is sensory play FUN…

While standing at the water or sand table a child is using his/her finger, hands, arms and trunk while maintaining balance and coordination of the body.

Playing with tools like shovels or scoops (in this case sponges) provides resistive activity which supplies the muscles and joints in the hands and arms with information that is sent to the vestibuler (balance) and proprioceptive (where the body is in space) sections of the brain.

Through water sensory play children are also developing their eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills needed for future writing. We know that children learn through active physical play.

Along with the previous skills, many cognitive happenings are taking place as well, such as:

investigation
observation
problem solving
cause and effect
curiosity and imagination
learning about volume, measurement, properties
understanding is gained through reasoning and logical thinking

Let’s not forget about peer interaction, friendship building, sharing, helping and compromising that takes place!

I observed speech skills being used – spontaneous speech, question asking, discussion of observations and language such as full, heavy, dripping, warm, wet and dry and squeeze.

Sensory play is amazing! We try to do some sort of sensory play daily.