When we visited Kurburoo Kindergarten, Ellie V Pullen Preschool and Kallista Kindergartens this year, we noticed that they had their inside sand play in old drawers.

'Kallista'

'Kurboroo'

'Ellie V.'

What a great idea! The perfect size for moving around and fitting into corners or on tables.

We decided to have a go with our children as we coincidently had a few spare drawers we found under the house (as you do!).

Because the weather was so amazing we took our drawers outside. We set them up near the small sandpit so the children could add as much or as little sand as they wanted.

They gathered up a pile of props – pine cones, bark, logs and rocks from the open shelving …

 as well as an assortment of characters and vehicles.

It wasn’t long before they raided the garden for flowers, leaves …

and large rocks.

What we really loved about the drawers was …

they are so much deeper than the regular trays we’ve been using …

as well as much larger.

Finding a couple of old drawers meant we could provide the smallest of our children with their own play area …

alongside the bigger children.

This not only meant the bigger children’s imaginative play was free to take off without the smaller children ‘crashing the party’ …

but the smallest of our friends got to enjoy the wonderful sensory experience of the cool damp sand simply because it was so irresistible to play with …

without an abundance of props!

Oh joy – sand and water!!! The children were having fun outside with sand and sticks (naturally) and we suggested they could perhaps wet the sand and write their names or draw in it.

We gave them a squirter bottle each filled with water to dampen down the sand.

Well they started off wetting the sand, then the fun of the squirter bottles took over!

The path was watered and the ants were given a drink (lucky them).

The walls were cleaned …

and the plants were drenched.

They did eventually head back to the sand …

and were interested to discover that only the top layer was wet when they started to draw in it.

Hmmm, sand does need a lot of water …

to get all the way through!

While had some lovely clean, dry, sifted sand left over from a workshop, so we asked the children if they would like to make some musical instruments with it.

We found some pop top bottles and funnels.

They half filled the bottles with sand …

then chose some bright cellophane to pop on the top with an elastic band.

Away they went, dancing to their own tunes!

The sound was quite muted – pretty nice for a change. It would be interesting to hear the difference in sound using a tin or cardboard container. Next time maybe.

As we have been running some workshops on sand recently, it has caused us to think widely about uses we can find for this wonderful, cheap and accessible product.

All children love playdough and all children love sand (well nearly all!) …

so why not combine them?

We found an uncooked recipe that is very successful.

4 cups clean sand

3 cups flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup oil

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl. Knead it until it forms a ball. Add more water if it is too dry or more flour if it is too wet.

It combines sand table play and playdough, and children never want to put it away.

It is good for children that are very tactile.

We also like to adapt our mini playdough recipe to include sand so the children can make individual batches of dough. They love mixing up their own.

1 tablespoon clean sand

4 tablespoons plain flour

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Additional sand to roll playdough through for added texture

Alternatively you could make up your regular playdough recipe, a little wetter than usual, and provide the children with containers of sand to roll and mix the playdough through!

We have enjoyed doing casting of objects using clay and plaster in the past …

particularly when the children have been on a bit of a fossil and dinosaur kick.

We have found lately that using damp sand as the base instead of clay is really effective, simple, and always available.

It produces a lovely rough finish to the plaster cast.

You could go large, or on a smaller scale like we did at our Messy Play workshop.

Place some sand into your container, adding water if it is too dry.

Press your object firmly into it. Damp sand means the sand won’t fall into the impression as you remove your object.

Mix up some Plaster of Paris with water, like you would icing sugar, until it is thick …

pour it into the impression and spread it on top of the sand.

Leave it to dry before carefully lifting it off to see the gorgeous detail in your new plaster shape!

Sand is so wonderful for all sorts of play and what better than the basis for imaginative play?

In the past we used it many times in our kindergarten with cars, Australian animals, dinosaurs, jungle animals and so on.

We had it outside in a clam shell (actually trying to dry it off in the sun for a sifting activity) and the children thought it would be a good spot to set up a bush scene for their trucks and boats.

How simple – some rocks, pinecones, sticks …

parsley wrenched from the herb garden and other plant bits and pieces.

The joy of the clam shell is that everything in it is within easy reach for all participants!

At Syndal Preschool we saw a group of children playing in the sandpit with plastic piping a parent had donated to the centre.

They are great pipes for the children to build with as there are different lengths and lots of joiners.

We saw a wonderful example of cooperative play the day we were there.

They were wanting to build a structure with the pipes but had trouble making it all stand up.

There was lots of talking, negotiating and problem solving happening.

It was decided that the pipes should be placed into some holes …

which took a lot of digging …

and tamping down of the sand …

building it up …

and connecting it together.

We don’t know if they were ever actually content with what they made as it didn’t get completed while were there observing, but we loved the teamwork!

Don’t you just love those bottles of coloured sand stacked in drifting layers?

We wanted to have a go ourselves and tried to find a way that would be child friendly. We found recipes for using paint, but are not too keen on that idea as if the sand gets wet (and lets face it it always does), the children’s hands become heavily stained from the dye.

Then we thought that perhaps pavement chalk could be a good alternative.

First of all we placed some sand on a piece of paper, then rubbed a stick of chalk back and forth through it.

It coloured up beautifully.

Then we grated some chalk and added it to the sand. Again a beautiful result.

Two easy fine motor activities for little hands!

::: POST SCRIPT :::

Bridget commented on this post … I am so excited to try this! I am a daycare provider and think my kids will really enjoy this. A few ?’s though- how hard do you have to roll the chalk and when you grated the chalk what did you use?

As we did not get a photo at the time of the children grating the chalk to colour the sand this is one we took this week of the small cheese/garlic grater we used at our ‘More Than Just a Sandpit Workshop’. As for how hard was it for the children … not at all. The child rubbing the sand on the paper in the photo above was four years old and managed very well. The grating however was more popular!

We hope that helps.

The children made up a mixture of sand and flour and water. They didn’t measure the quantities,  just made a sloppy mix until it was like icing.

They poured it into ziplock bags …

and empty sauce bottles …

It was so thick and oozy!

Then they squeezed and squeezed – a great activity to strengthen those hands!

It came out in a long squishy snake …

and then it was lovely just to get their fingers and hands into it …

and proved a great medium for writing and drawing.

You’ve got to love messy play!

We found that children who don’t like to get mess on their hands can still enjoy the feeling of squishiness if something such as finger paint is popped into a ziplock bag.

We thought we might try a more natural filling and added water and sand to some bags.

They had a different feeling from the finger paint …

a bit gritty, a lot more dense, not so smooth but still beautifully cool to the touch.

We added some hidden treasures to give the children a bit of a challenge.

In this case it was ten marbles …

but the possibilities for added sensory fun are endless!