Tunnel Time

Ever wondered why your baby is so intent on wriggling under the bed, squeezing behind the couch, or curling up on the floor of your chest? Children this age are naturally intrigued with spaces – especially when it’s just their size. You can cater to this fascination by providing a commercially-made or cardboard tunnel for the baby to crawl through. Roll a ball down the tunnel and encourage her to go after it. Or put yourself, or small toys such as beanbags or plush toys, at the other end and coax her through.

Crawling through small places helps your baby learn just how big her body is in relation to other objects, which helps her develop both spatial and body awareness. This game also helps develop visual skills such as depth perception and builds her self-confidence as she maneuvers through the tunnel without the benefit of peripheral vision.

If you don't want to buy this toy but would like to have a child play tunnel, you can always make your own tunnel. Get 6 big boxes which have the same dimension. Remove the top and bottom of the boxes. Connect one end of the box to the other using duct tapes. Now you have a tunnel your kids will love to crawl in.

Parachute Games

Toddler Activities
'Touch the sky!' - everyone raise the parachute up as high as they can
'Touch the floor' - bring it down to the ground
'Wave!' - flap the parachute in the air
'Foot inside!'- everyone put one foot under the canopy
'Walk!' - the group walks round in a circle
'Underneath!'- all children run under the parachute

Mushroom

This is not so much a game, more an essential starting point for parachute play. Get everyone to spread out the parachute and hold the edge, spaced out more or less evenly so they're standing in a circle. Pull the chute taut and lower it to the ground (or knee level). On the magic word (e.g. Mushroom!) everyone pulls the chute upwards (don't let go). It will fill with air and rise up like a giant mushroom - or igloo. To get it as high as possible everyone must take a couple of paces towards the center as the chute rises. It's good to practice this so that the group can learn to work effectively as a team and get the chute really high. It won't work without co-operation.
Variations on Mushroom Once you've mastered the basic mushroom it's fun to experiment. See what happens if:
· Everyone mushrooms and then runs to the center, still holding the chute.
· Everyone mushrooms, and then let’s go, especially outdoors on a windy day!
· Everyone lets go at exactly the same time. If there isn't any wind, the chute will retain its perfect mushroom shape and rise straight up in the air. Indoors it may go up to the ceiling. To get this right it's best for someone to shout "One.. Two.. Three.. Go!", or similar, immediately after the "Mushroom!" instruction. For everyone to let go at exactly the right instant will take practice and concentration.
Groups of children who haven't played with a parachute before will probably be delighted and fascinated by the effect for quite a while before you move on to any other games. It's particularly spectacular when the sun is shining down through the chute.

· Rollerball

Everyone holds the chute taut. Place a large ball near the edge. Try to make the ball roll around the edge of the chute. To do this someone starts the ball rolling. As it comes towards you, you lower the edge you are holding, and as it goes past you raise your edge. When all the players do this in synchronization it creates a wave going round the edge, pushing the ball round in front of it in a smooth, steady circle. It can not be done without concentration and co-operation! However, it is very rewarding for the group to eventually achieve a smooth, continuous motion. Once you've done this try speeding up - or change direction.

· Big Turtle

Have the children get on their hands and knees under a large "turtle shell" and try to make the turtle more in one direction. As a cooperative game, children have to work together to get the turtle to move. Variation: Have the turtle go over a hill or bench or through an obstacle course without losing the shell.

·The Ocean

We pretend the parachute is the ocean. I have them give me the name of an ocean. Children move the parachute in response to the 'weather report' they heard. (Encourages children to be creative). For example, I'll say, "I heard on the weather report this morning that there was a slight breeze over the Atlantic. What would that look like?" The children respond by making small waves in the parachute. Other suggestions have been - high winds, snow (we would have to pull it tight to make the ice), twisters, etc. Once they get the hang of it the possibilities are endless.

· Jaws

Everyone sits on the floor in a circle holding the parachute stretched out with his or her legs underneath it. The chute is the sea and they are sitting on the beach, happily dipping their toes in the water. By shaking the edge of the chute realistic ripple or wave effects can be generated. Once the waves are going well someone is selected to be a shark and disappears under the chute. They move around underneath and because of the waves it will be difficult to see where they are. The shark chooses a victim and grabs him or her by the feet. The victim can give an appropriate scream before disappearing under the chute. This person now becomes a new shark. To prolong the game you can have the original shark revert to being a bather - or to make it more lively you can have several sharks in there at once. To finish the game you can choose 'once a shark, always a shark' - so everyone eventually becomes a shark. You can introduce freak weather conditions - or even a killer whale!

· See-Saw

Pull from a sitting position, have the children pull the chute back and forth in a see-sawing motion.

· Make Waves

While gripping the parachute, everyone moves their arms up and down to make small and large waves.

· Ball Roll

Have the children try to roll balls into the hole in the center of the parachute.

· Chute Lift

Ask the children to lift the parachute high over their heads and down again. Talk about the soft sounds and breezes that are created. Move the parachute faster and notice the different effects.

· Mushroom

From a standing position, lift the parachute from the ground to waist height, counting one (lift) and two (lift). On three (lift), have everyone raise the parachute high over their heads and then crouch down, pulling the parachute tightly behind them. A mushroom effect is created as the parachute settles.

· Parachute Tag

Lift the parachute high overhead. Call one child's name and have her run (skip, hop, twirl or crawl) to the other side before the parachute comes down and tags her.

· One Hand Run

Have each child hold the parachute with one hand, extending the opposite arm out for balance. Run around in one direction, then change and run around in the other direction. A variation would be to use music as the cue for changing direction (i.e. direction can be changed every time the music stops).

· Parachute Run

Have the children take turns running on the parachute as it lies on the ground, while the other children make waves. See how long the children can maneuver on the waves before falling down. The length of turns can be determined by songs that the children choose to sing (i.e. every one's turn lasts the length of one song).

· Popcorn

Place a number of beanbags on the chute. Shake the chute to make them rise like popcorn.

· Poison Snake

Place four to six pieces of yarn on the chute. By shaking the chute, try to make them hit the players on the other side. Keep track of who gets bitten. Put the pompoms in the middle. Sprinkle various sized pompoms in the top of the shoot and try to get them into the middle pocket. You could have teams with different colours and count how many they get in.

· Shaking the Rug and Making Waves

Shaking rug involves rapid movement either light or heavy. Making waves are large movements to send billow of cloth up and down like waves. Waves can be small, medium or large. Kids can alternate turns to see who can make the best waves.


· Merry go Round

Turn the body so that the chute is held with only one hand, walk, hop, jump, skip around holding the chute. It looks like a merry-go-round.

· W A V E

Where one person puts hands up and person next to her follows action. (like the wave at a baseball game)

·Cathedral

Everyone lowers the chute and then on the count of three raise their arms high once the chute is quite high - everyone takes 3-4 giant steps toward the center and pulls the chute behind them and sit down with their bottoms on the edge of the chute.

·Cat and mouse(although some might find this dangerous - just make sure the cat is crawling on all fours and not running upright)

One child - the mouse - is under the chute, everyone is shaking it - quite close to the ground and another child (shoes off) crawls on top and tries to hunt and tag the mouse.

·The Ocean

We try to let everyone who wants to have a turn 'in the ocean'. Everyone is standing and one or two kids (shoes off) go toward the center and lie down - then we all make waves - it's a neat sensation.

· Merry Go Round Variation

It is also neat to let one lie in the middle and go for a ride - when everyone is holding with one arm and facing the same direction and walking.

· Running by Numbers

If the chute is a large one...the kids love to run underneath and switch places with others - could number them 1 through 5 around the circle- and then call out a number. (Lots of screams for this one.)

Tent Pole
While you're in the tent, try this: One person is selected to be a tent pole and stands in the middle, holding the centre of the chute as high as possible. The tent-pole person calls out some one's name and goes and sits down in that person's place. The person called has to rush to the middle and take up the role of the tent-pole before the chute comes down. Repeat the procedure as long as you feel like it.There's also a variation of Tent-Pole, which is called Jellyfish. In this version, all the seated people sway about as much as possible for the tent-pole to stay upright. From the outside, the chute should look like a gigantic quivering jellyfish.
Upside-down tent

An alternative way to make a tent is to have everyone lie on their backs under the chute, heads to the middle with their feet up in the air. Stretch the chute tight and tuck the chute under your backs so it holds your legs up. You can bring in a soft ball and use your hands to bounce it around inside the tent.

Air Conditioning
This game is good for recuperation after an energetic game. Hold the chute stretched out and have about a third of the people lie on the ground under it (best with heads near the middle). The rest mushroom the chute up and quickly pull it down again repeatedly.Air rushing in and out cools those underneath like a giant fan, and the sensation of watching the chute rise up and then come down on top of you is very strange.

Chute Ball
This game is best played with a large beach ball. You simply place the ball in the middle of the chute and by pulling upwards and outwards, throw the ball as high in the air as possible. This game can also be played by replacing the ball with a small child or doll.

Competitive chute ball
Mark a line across the diameter of the chute. Have equal teams hold the edge of the chute on either side. Throw a ball into the middle. The aim is to get the ball off the chute on the other team's side of the line, and stop it coming off your own side of the line. (i.e. to throw it over the other team's heads). You mustn't let go of the chute or touch the ball with any part of the body. Keeping score is optional.
After several minutes of wild flapping and little progress the group should realise that co-ordination and strategy are needed to flick the ball off the chute.

Bouncing balls
Start as above and this time have two or three children under the chute. The children under the chute have to try and push off the balls while every one else tries to keep them bouncing.

Change Over

Mushroom the chute and call out a command, e.g. "Change over if you are wearing red". Everyone wearing red has to run under the chute to the opposite side, before the chute lands on them (although that is part of the fun).

Music less Chairs
Number the children by threes around the chute, so that you have an equal number of ones, twos and threes evenly spread out. Mushroom the chute, then call out a number and also a description of who you would like them to act as.
For example, if you call out: "Mushroom... Number ones are ballerinas", all of the number ones have to cross under the chute, acting like ballerinas on the way

Washing Machine
We do a washing machine routine - 1/2 the children are the machine; 1/2 the washing.
Just like washing routine: in goes the washing (children sit under the parachute) in goes the powder - and mix - give the parachute a good shake. The washing turns one way - run around in a circle turning the parachute - then the other. Rinse (shake) turn (circle) again. Shake and then dry - Up and down in big movements.
Repeat - reversing roles of children.

Para-swap
Number the children around the circle, say one to six. Lift the chute and on the third go shout a number, these children then have to swap places under the canopy before it falls to earth. They need to be told to head for gaps, keep their eyes open and try to avoid bumping into one another. Make sure that those who remain around the edge allow the canopy to fall rather than pulling it down hard.

Para-shuffle
Simply passing the chute round in a circle rather like hauling in a rope.

Para-ball
Place a light-weight football on the chute surface and experiment with moving it. What happens when you shake the parachute, can you flip the ball off over people's head? Can you develop a wave technique that will cause the ball to move in a circle? Using a small ball (tennis ball) can you drop the ball through the hole in the middle, can you stop the ball disappearing? These demand fairly sophisticated co-ordination skills, but in short spells can be fun.

Para-seek
One volunteer on top, one beneath, with the idea of the top one catching the other, a bit like cat and mouse only in a different dimension. This can be surprisingly difficult.

Para-sight
After lofting the chute several times everyone steps inside, bringing the fabric taut behind their body, either to shoulder height or to ground level with each person sitting on the edge of the chute, thus creating a sort of tent with everybody tinder the canopy.

Para-circle
Simply an adaptation of any circle game, fishes in the sea, 1 sent a letter etc. using the chute to maintain the circle form. These sort of games consist of one or more people racing around the circle and back to their space, or any free space.3

Para-ble
Using the parachute as an aid to story- telling. You have the attention of all because they are holding, the Chute, commence the story using the parachute as an aid. 'One day Jesus and his friends went out in a boat on the sea of Galilee, little waves lapped at the shore (up minute ripples in the taut chute). They all climbed into the boat and set out into deeper water, the sea was like glass, not a wave anywhere. (chute held taut and motionless.). The disciples, used to boats, soon settled down, but then a gentle wind began to blow ruffling the smooth water (chute gently moves.). Slowly the waves got a bit bigger, just a little tiny bit around on a rough sea (suit actions to story). Jesus struggled to his feet, the boat was pitching up and down. He looked at the boisterous waves and told them to be still, he commanded the wind to stop, and suddenly all was calm (chute held taut). The disciples were amazed, they had been frightened of the storm, but now they felt frightened of Jesus as they realised just how powerful their friend was.'
You will find that the children soon get the idea of following the story and they will almost automatically stop the storm actions at the appropriate time. You can add details, like hauling on ropes or rowing with appropriate actions. You can illustrate Peter's faith by a person walking on the chute surface.
Jonah's story - listening to parachute instructions - listening to God; obeying instructions - Jonah didn't; a storm at see, as above; man overboard, under chute; Jonah inside the fish, para-sight; out to Nineveh shade of the week etc.
It is possible to twist all sorts of stories to use the parachute, however a good idea soon palls if it is used continuously, and we need to be wary of using a parachute rather than telling the story, so it is very much a case of first find your story and then see if it is appropriate.

Shoe Shuffle
Number around the circle 1 or 6 as before. All of one number remove a shoe and throw it under the canopy. On a count of 3 the canopy is lifted, mushroomed up on the third lift and all those missing a shoe go into the middle, retrieve their shoe and get back to their place.

Round The Plughole
If your canopy has a hole in the centre place 3 or 4 light small balls (tennis balls) on the surface and keep them moving around the canopy avoiding dropping them through the holes.

Bouncing Balls
The canopy is held taut at chest height with 2 or 3 foam footballs on the surface. 3 or 4 children underneath the canopy have to try to knock the balls off whilst those around the canopy try to keep them on.

Football
This works best if the canopy is marked in segments or halves; i.e. 2,4 or 6 teams. Stand around the canopy holding the canopy in both hands at waist level. It can be rippled up and down whilst holding it. Roll a football under the canopy. The canopy must be held tight at all times and the ball kicked under the canopy, a goal being scored when it comes out on any side.

Lucky Seven
This is an adaptation of a country dance but works well with the canopy. Number off round the canopy A, B, A, B etc. Use a lively 'jig' tune which repeats AA BB AA BB etc. When the music starts: A Hold The parachute with booth hands, circle 8 paces clockwise B Holding the parachute with both hands, circle 8 paces anti-clockwise B A's turn to face clockwise; B's turn to face anti-clockwise. A's let go of parachute and to the music go under the arms of the B facing them. They do this seven times until they arrive facing, the eighth 'B'. B Holding the parachute with both hands all go into the middle twice mushrooming it each time. When You are tired on a count of 3 lift the canopy as high as possible, mushroom it and bring it down behind you and sit down. In this way you can make a rather hot airless tent supported on the heads.

And to Finish....
When you have finished quickly grasp the canopy at the centre, twist it slightly into a rope, wind it round your arm and stow it in the bag. This can be done very quickly and very cleanly even on damp ground. Or ... (indoors), tell everyone that on 3 they are to let the canopy go and STAND STILL. Mushroom it to a count of three, let go when it is fullest so that it soars to the ceiling. You should be able to step into the middle, catch the centre and deftly stow it before anyone moves!

Brother's Are for Making Mud Pies

Can you remember making mud pies and daisy chains , rolling down grassy hills , drawing with
sticks in the dirt , creating fairy perfumes from flowers and building bush cubbies? These are some of the experiences we had as children that connected us with the natural environment. While they may not be part of our conscious thought as adults, they are significant nonetheless in shaping who we are and our values about the natural environment. Direct experiences with the natural environment are important for sensory development. These experiences cannot be described verbally or portrayed by images in picture storybooks or on television and computer screens; they must be explored up close and personal!

How to aid Sensory development in your child:

Though sensory development is natural process in kids, you can certainly make the entire procedure fast by helping him in coming out of the complex hurdles in the way. But before that you yourself need to understand few things.

• Do not over burden your kid with knowledge at an initiating point. This will do nothing but irritate your kid.


• Try to help him where he feels hindered otherwise let him explore the world on his own.


• Do not be overprotective about your kid. Draw a line between being caring and over caring.


• Let him go out of the way to explore the world. Do not safeguard him so much that you start limiting his desires and capabilities.


• Try to understand the world from a kid's point of view before you start telling all complex things together. It's not a kid who will become mature to understand you, remember you will have to become a kid to understand him.

As educators we have an active and significant role to play ensuring children experience connections with the natural environment in meaningful ways — ways that will assist their understanding of connectedness both with and in the natural environment, and ultimately, promote action for sustainability. So when you are looking at Childcare/Daycare/Kinders for your child be sure to ask how they provide these learning experiences for the children in their care.

One of my favourite childhood memories comes from making mud pies in the backyard with my brother. So today Master 4 and Master 2 put on their boots and got out in the mud and made some mud pies! Wow what fun did they have, and even better the language that I heard coming from the two was great. As a bedtime favourite "The Little Yellow Digger" both boys know this story inside out and back the front, so it was wonderful to hear them chatting away and using the language they have picked up from our story time. A couple of muffin tins, spoons, bucket and diggers provided the stage for an hour long outdoor play session that provide them with so many valuable skills. All of which was easily packed up with a warm bath and LOTS of soap!!!

Sand and Water Table Play

Sand/Water Table

Even children who don't ordinarily dig in the sand at the beach will find it fun to measure, sift, and pour the sand from one container to another. When it's filled with water, the basin becomes a doll bathtub or a sink for toy china.

What's Learned through sand an water table play?

A child has a practical math lesson in fractions when she pours a cup full of sand into a two-cup container. It explains the concept faster and more clearly than a detailed discussion or drawing. Her fine-motor skills are also being developed as she washes a tea set or maneuvers a cup full of sand into a sifter. Her eye-hand coordination is helped. Sand and water play can be important for a child’s development. They learn science from pouring and measuring and seeing the consistency of how the water changes. Plus you get so much cooperative play. Sand and water is completely a hands-on experience that is open-ended. You’re only limited by the things you don’t put out. The kids can put toys to fish in, or they can make mountains and islands. They can put rocks in the water and work with density and weight.

As anyone who has sat on a beach knows, sand and water play is soothing. It encourages children to explore and learn about cause and effect. (For example, what happens if I put a sponge in the water? What happens if I then squeeze the sponge?).

There is no right or wrong way to play with sand and water (except to throw it out of the basin), so each child experiences success. If you don't have a table at home think outside the box... use your baby bath, sandpit cover (clam shell lids), small blow up ball from the cheap shop etc Also vary what you put in to your table, don't just think it has to be sand and water. Turn your table into a discovery table by using:

Instead of sand, try one of the following:
Shredded paper
Popcorn
Rice, white or dyed with food coloring
Cornmeal
Easter grass
Cotton balls, plain or scented with flavoring extracts like peppermint
Potting soil with no chemical additives
Hay or straw
Small pine cones
Salt
Different kinds of pasta

Instead of water, try one of these:
Snow or ice, while children wear mittens or gloves
Mud
Water mixed with mild dish washing liquid to make bubbles
Goop

Flavored gelatin
Shaving

Nature Play

In the big scheme of things, living in houses, in cities and towns is a pretty recent development for humans, as are the mass-produced, brightly coloured plastic objects we've come to think of as toys. For thousands of years children played with whatever was on hand - sticks, water, rocks, leaves, feathers, mud and shells - nature's toys. These natural materials are some of the best play things as they require imagination and encourage creativity, thinking outside-the-square and problem solving skills (and they're free!) Playing with natural objects helps children make sense of their world and fosters a respect for nature and ultimately (hopefully) an environmental conscience.

Ideas for Nature Play

• Put together a basket full of natural playthings toddlers will enjoy exploring with their senses - pine cone, shells, flax rope, lemon, lavender flowers tied in a cloth bag, some sheep skin, a leaf, small rock, dry sea pod. (Be sure to supervise activity)


• Children love magic potions so provide them with an old pot, a stirring stick and water and see what they concoct!


• Nowhere in Australia is far from a beach - an absolute wonderland for children. Leave the bucket and spade at home and let children play with whatever is on hand. See what they can create from seaweed, driftwood, shells, mangrove seeds or feathers.


• Clay is readily available and is a great material to have on hand. Set your child outside somewhere warm with some clay and a small container of water and a selection of natural materials to stick into the clay or make shapes with - leaves, twigs, shells and feathers for example.


• Make a volcano in the sandpit. Place a small container of baking soda and food colouring in the crater, and white vinegar and watch the lava flow.


• Let your child fill an ice-cream container with water plus anything that captures their imagination - flowers, shells, blades of grass, pebbles. Then freeze it and the kids can see their natural treasures suspended in the ice.


• Have a messy place in the garden, somewhere children can make mud pies and mud balls or build dams and construct highways to their hearts' content.


• If your child is interested in something - shells, feathers, horsehair, round pebbles, leaves, insects - let him arrange his collections indoors. This is the beginning of observation and classification skills that help children order and make sense of their world.

For 25 more Easy Nature Play Ideas be sure to check out http://www.greenheartsinc.org/uploads/25_Easy_Nature_Play_Ideas_for_Preschool_Yards.pdf

Nature Rocks is a national program to inspire and empower families to play and explore in nature. This wonderful site allows you to put in the ages of your children, time you are allocating to an activity and where you would like to do the activity... and then presents you with a range of choices! http://www.natureplaywa.org.au/

Children benefit from appropriate risk-taking during outdoor play, by helping them refine their motor skills and gain confidence in being physically active.

Gardening WIth Children

Gardening with children can be as simple or as complicated as we wish to make it. For the kids themselves, it can be not only an exciting adventure and experiment, but can also be a really good teaching tool and just gives LOADS of satisfaction - and kids love it, because it is an acceptable way to play with dirt!

If you have a big garden, finding space to make a special little garden plot for the kids will be easy, but even if you live in an apartment there are lots of options for growing plants of all kinds. You can devote a lot of time to a big plot or you can just spend a couple of minutes on something small.

Buy some gardening tools for kids which are designed specially for them. Your kids will love having their very own set of 'proper' gardening tools and be really keen to use them. It can also be discouraging for them to try, for instance, digging with a full-sized spade - it is just too heavy and cumbersome and almost certain to put them off even trying.

Gardening with kids is not just about planting seeds and watching flowers unfold, but also about recognising our place within nature and helping to conserve the world around us. It provides the best possible environment for learning all about:

• Composting - Make your own compost out of kitchen and garden waste by making or buying a compost bin.


• Encouraging wild life - encourage wild life into it and at the same time learn all about the beneficial insects and the important roles played by bees and birds.


• Recycling - While gardening with children we are provided with the perfect opportunity to introduce them to the concept of recycling. We can re-use plastic bottle as cloches, make our own seed pots out of newspaper, use old bits of furniture as gardening containers or to build raised beds, learn to differentiate between materials which will disintegrate over time and those which will not ... the learning opportunities just go on and on.

How to Grow Cress Egg men

This project is fun in that it is very fast to grow cress, so progress will be apparent within a matter of days, and your cress egg man will have a healthy bunch of hair which you can then eat in egg sandwiches! They look pretty neat on the windowsill too!

You will need:

an egg, some cotton wool or kitchen towel, felt tip pens and cress seeds.

Boil the egg and eat for breakfast! Take care to slice off only the very top of the egg shell - fairly evenly if possible. Carefully place a wad of cotton wool or shredded kitchen towel in the base of the egg shell (now empty!). It should fill about half of the space available.
Place the egg shell in an egg cup and using felt tip pens, draw a face on one side of the egg - excluding any hair. Saturate the cotton wool or kitchen towel with water.
Sprinkle some seeds on to the cotton wool. Keep the cotton wool moist by watering every day, and within a matter of a couple of days, the cress will germinate and start to grow. To grow cress is a fairly quick experience, it will literally start showing above the egghead within only about 10 days, and hey presto! you have managed to provide your Egg men (or women, or monsters!) with a nice, edible mop of hair!

* You can vary it and grow cress in an empty egg carton and make a cress-a-pillar or plant seeds to make your child's name!

http://childhoodmagic.blogspot.com/2010/04/name-garden.html

The Benefits of Sandpit Play

The Little Yellow Digger is the house favourite! When little yellow digger gets stuck in the mud, a range of bigger diggers are sent to finish the job. The rhyming verse, with repetitions, makes it a pleasure to read aloud and my boys take great delight in joining in. After reading this to the boys this morning they were very keen to get outside and initiate their own role-play situation in the sandpit. As you can see from the photos they were very busy working together to help the digger that was stuck.... they even needed to call for the Fire Engine!

The sandpit is a great opportunity for Social, Emotional and Language development. While playing in the sand children use communication skills as they talk about what they are doing and how to do things. They share equipment and learn to get on with each other. As they role play and work together this also provides an opportunity for story telling in the sand.

Toddlers love the sand pit and will spend hours digging, building, scooping, carrying, molding, and scraping. There are dozens of great sand pit toys you can introduce, all of which help your child develop gross and fine motor skills. Playing in the sand provides opportunities for the children to develop their muscles when they dig, shovel, lift, carry, tunnel, and rake. These kinds of activities help develop the large muscles – gross motor. Pouring, sifting, moulding, drawing, patting, and decorating all help exercise the smaller muscles – fine motor.

Sand pit play develops an understanding of basic science and maths concepts. Sand play helps develop concepts such as exploring, classifying, estimating, experimenting, comparing, counting, measuring and constructing. Before long they will take their sandpit skills into the garden!

Good sandpit toys include:

Buckets of different shapes and sizes
Small spades for scooping
Large spades for digging
Rakes
Watering Cans
Plastic pipes which can be used for tunnels
Diggers and Dump Trucks
Old Kitchen utensils such as potato mashers, spoons, sifters, strainers, scales, funnels
Different sized containers like drink bottles, yoghurt containers, ice cream tubs, flower pots Natural materials like rocks, large shells, bits of wood, leafy branches, water

• Vary the objects that you leave in the sandpit for your children to play with and see where it takes their imagination!
  - leave shells, feather, bucket, spade (sandcastle play)
  - leave small cars and card board/cardboard tubes (motor way play/tunnel play)
  - cooking utensils and a big pot (witches brew)
  - paint brushes and dinosaur bones (create a dinosaur dig)
  
  
  How to take Care of your Sandpit
  
  Children can spend hours playing and having fun in the sandpit. If a sandpit is not looked after it could end up being a place that makes children sick. The following are some ideas on how to keep your sand pit clean and safe for the children to play in.
  
  • Rake the sandpit every morning and in the afternoon.
  • Keep the sandpit covered when it is not being used (shade cloth is good).
  • Rain can help to clean the sand but only if it can drain out of the sand. During the dry
  season wash the sand with tap water every now and then.
  
• Sunlight is the best way to sanitise a sandpit. If your sandpit is in the shade all day you could use a mild detergent or household disinfectant. Follow the instructions for washing floors and surfaces that are on the container. A watering can is a good tool to help spread the solution over the sandpit. Do not add bleach to the sand as this may cause allergic reactions in children.
• It is more important to keep the sandpit clean and dry than to regularly disinfect it.

Here’s a fun activity...

Sandpit volcanoes are a fun scientific activity to do with children in the sandpit.

You will need:
Bicarb soda
Vinegar
Food colouring

Rake the sandpit before you start
Add red food colouring to the Vinegar
Build a mound in the sand – this will be the volcano
Using your fingers put a hole in the top and fill with bicarb soda
Pour in some vinegar and watch it explode
Make a few volcanoes around your sandpit as the bicarb and vinegar can act as a mild cleaning agent.