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Exploring Physical Properties of Dry Sand, Wet Sand, and Sand Play-dough through Play and Tool Use
Alexandra LeeMay 19, 2011
Beginnings…
Plan: Build with blocks and observe/test strategies for creating stable structures
Purpose: Explore the concept of foundations and bases and the role they play in making stable, secure constructions
…Later that Day
Technology on the playground: Sandbox Tool use Construction Exploring of
materials
Redirection
New Plan: Explore construction techniques and purpose/use
of tools through a variation of the same material (dry sand, wet sand, sand play-dough, oobleck)
Observe similarities and differences in the way children approach the differing materials and how it influences their construction strategies, the way they utilize tools, and in which ways they explore the material
Learning outcomes: Discover and explore the properties of varied
materials How to adapt and expand schemas and strategies
to effectively and satisfactorily work with a new material
Dry Sand
Sifting Raking, molding Use of Shovels
Digging Filling buckets, sifters, etc.
Pouring Use of construction trucks to transport
sand Symbolic play
Water and Sand
Tool use: Watering pail Hands Shovel and Buckets
Construction: Molding Making impressions Mixing (all more effective with wet sand)
Exploring material: Where did all the water go? More heavy (harder to pick up full bucket) Feels different; a lot more exploring material with hands compared to
dry sand (swishing in puddle, scooping wet sand, squeezing in hands, letting it drip)
Can’t pour as easily as dry sand Less symbolic representation and play Hesitant to interact at first
Water and Sand
Sand Play-dough
Construction: Similar to play-dough (rolling balls/snakes,
pancakes) Tools:
Hands Exploring material:
Rolling Squeezing in hands Flattening Crumbling in fingers
Symbolic representation
Sand Play-dough
Sand Play-dough
Self-Initiation
A rainy day on the playground… Filling up buckets using shovels, with water
from puddles Little symbolic representation Transporting filled buckets to sandbox
In the sandbox: Symbolic play (unlike first interaction with
sand and water) Wet sand becomes incorporated with dry
sand Wet sand for molding, dry sand for pouring etc.
Combining varying amounts of water and sand to create a variety of textures
Observations
More explorative with unfamiliar materials
More purposeful, higher level of symbolic representation with familiar materials
Discovered new strategies/purposes to initiate and utilize in future situations Using wet sand for molding Using dry sand for pouring or transport
Next Steps…
Gardening; Cooking Apply similar materials
and tools in real-life context
Representational play mostly revolves around baking and cooking
Explore and incorporate more tools and more materials, their purposes, how they interplay, and the results they create
Connect symbolic (sandbox) experiences to real-life (cooking) counterpart
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