Sensory/Tactile Play with Sand and Pre-writing Skills - by Jenny

My activity plan was Sensory/Tactile play with sand and to explore how children learn while playing with sand. This type of play has been something of interest to me and I wanted to combine it with pre-writing skills.

Sensory play stimulates the senses and children have always been intrigued by sand. Playing with sand helps in the development of skills that children need in order to function properly. This type of play helps to develop social, emotional and cognitive skills. It also encourages physical development in children such as gross motor and fine motor skills. Gainsely (2011, p.2) stated that “Stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that help to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning”.

The sand table in the classroom had always stood in the corner and the children just seem to walk past it without looking at it. I felt the reason for the children’s lack of interest was due to most houses having a paved yard and most children seem to spend more times indoors than playing outdoors. I believe also that our life styles have a lot to do with how children play. I recall as a child we spent a lot of time playing outside and our premises were not paved but filled with sand which we enjoyed playing with.  We would cook with sand, make miniature sand beds and place leaves on them to resemble a garden. It was even more fun after the rain, the ground would be damp, and then we made sand cakes and also drew simple images.

The sand table area before the changes

I re-arranged the area by setting up a resource table where different materials could be placed for the children to access easily - although my main interest in this area was to encourage pre-writing skills:

The sand table area after the changes

I observed that the children were engaged the following morning when they arrived and some of them were trying to make prints in the sand. I proceeded to show them how to copy numbers from the number cards and it was interesting to see the children displaying different areas of their developmental milestones.  Montessori (2007, p. 154) stated that “Children of this age are urged by the laws of nature to find active experiences in the world about them. For this they use their hands not only for practical purposes, but also for acquiring knowledge”.  The children even took turns at working and sharing the materials. 

Link to EYFS

Sensory play with sand can be linked to the EYFS curriculum as it covers the seven areas of development and learning (see diagram above). As children have a natural tendency to play with sand it is important that adults encourage them to explore this area of play by make provision for them, such as creating the right environment which can support learning. This type of activity can be both child and adult-led to ensure that the children get the support and encouragement that they need.

This activity has led me to research and plan more effective ways that children could benefit from sand play and I would like to enhance this type of continuous provision by changing the theme and putting out more resources that will further support learning e.g. having a sea theme where the children can use shells to create patterns and at the same time develop their mathematical skills through counting, and exploration of quantities.