Assembling the Pumpkin Water Table
Looking for ways to get those hands ready for writing this fall? How about adding small pumpkins and droppers to your water table? Using droppers is one of my favorite ways to strengthen fine motor skills. Some examples:
Frog Water Table Spider Web Art Turkey Process Art Farm Animal Washing
During our pumpkin theme, I found a nice stash of party favor sized pumpkins and decided to place them in our water table along with droppers. Our toddlers loved filling the pumpkins with water and dumping the water out, over and over again!
Sensory Exploration Science Math Creativity Social Skills Language Development
And, by adding droppers, we can add fine motor development! Seriously, all you need to do is pour some water into the bin (or bins, as in our case). I keep the water level low for less spills. (Although I cannot say it all stayed inside the bins. It never does, so have towels nearby.) Then, add your pumpkins and droppers and anything else you think would work well. Droppers are one of my first choices when using water. The entire hand is being used as the children squeeze and release the bulb. For 2 year olds, I first introduce droppers using ones with larger bulbs, as pictured above. You will need to demonstrate how to hold the dropper, squeezing and releasing. It might take some time, but after showing them a few times, and then them practicing on their own, they will get it. Pipettes For 3 year olds and up, I then switch to the pipette, which has a much smaller bulb. These activities show our 3 year olds using pipettes:
Water Transfer Activity Dropping Watercolors On Paper Towels Watercolor Shamrock Art Watercolor Leaves
The photo below shows a 3 year old using a pipette: If you add cups, as I eventually did, the children can pour the water from the pumpkins into them. There’s still lots of fine motor going on here as the hand controls the movements of the pumpkin. The children are concentrating as they aim the water from the droppers into the opening of the small pumpkins. You can see the variety of ways it is used here:
Valentine’s Heart Water Activity Frozen Hearts Sensory Bin Apple Paint and Wash Activity Frog Puppet Craft Rainbow Collage Farm Animal Washing Frog Water Bin Gingerbread Art
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