What Is This Unit About?
Sand play helps children develop many important skills: physical, social-emotional, and mental (cognitive). This unit will describe what toddlers and preschoolers learn and how you can help them gain the most from sand play.
What Do Children Learn from Sand Play?
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Imagine the feeling of dry sand pouring through your fingers, or packing wet, hard sand into a bucket, or wet sand dripping from your fingertips. Sand play delights the senses, but sand play is far more than simply pleasurable for young children. This type of sensory play is very important for the development of young children. Sand play gives children a chance to explore science concepts like wet and dry, volume, pouring, and sifting in a hands-on way. |
Sand play helps children develop in three areas: physical, cognitive, and social-emotional. Following are some of the many ways that sand play fosters development:
- Improves fine motor skills
- Improves eye-hand coordination
Cognitive Development
- Lets children explore changes, like how sand is different when it is wet or dry.
- Increases vocabulary - children learn words like wet, dry, molding, pouring, and sifting.
- Allows children to discover that the same amount of sand in different containers looks different.
- Lets children explore cause and effect - what happens when dry sand is added to wet sand, when water is added to dry sand, when wet sand is dumped out of a bucket, when dry sand is dumped out of a bucket.
Social-emotional Development
- Gives children a chance to imitate the play of others - children learn new ways to explore and build.
- Lets children explore what
adults do through dramatic play.
Age and Experience Affect Play
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Children play with sand differently and learn different things from sand play as they grow. Sand play is valuable for children from toddlerhood through the school-age years. |
The first stage is called functional play. At first children explore sand with their senses, discovering what sand is like, and what can be done with it. Toddlers often use functional play.
The next stage is constructive play. Now children can use what they know about sand to create. They might get the idea to build a tunnel or a building. This is often what young preschoolers do.
| Then comes dramatic play, as children use their creations to imagine a miniature world. You will often see four- and five-year-olds doing dramatic play. |  |
Indoor Sand Play
Sand play is so important for young children that it shouldn’t be offered only outdoors. Sand play (like all sensory play) can be messy, and many child care providers are concerned about the mess of bringing sand play indoors. Fortunately, there are ways to bring sand play inside without becoming overwhelmed by the mess.
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For indoor sand play, you can use just about any large plastic tub or container. Place it on the floor or on a table with a large plastic mat or sheet underneath. Fill the tub about half full (nine inches of sand or less) so children have room to use toys without spilling the sand outside the tub. Keep brooms and a dustpan on hand so the children can help keep the area clean. |
Bags of sterilized play sand can be purchased at building supply stores. This sand is preferred because dirty or coarse sand does not hold together as well as clean, fine sand.
Specially made sand tables are not necessary, but they can be ordered through educational supply catalogs. Put the sand table on a large plastic mat, old shower curtain, drop cloth, newspaper, or an old sheet to make cleanup easier.
| Super
Supplies |
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Selecting sandbox toys carefully can help the children in your care to get the most out of sand play. This is a list of some suggested supplies, but let the play of the children guide you to add new play props. For example, if children are interested in pretending to bake cookies, bring out an old cookie sheet.
Wooden or metal props (other than aluminum or stainless steel) are not recommended because they can crack or rust. Any worn and rusted materials should be removed and replaced.
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Setting Up
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Store these props where children can reach them easily–in bins, boxes, or drawers, on low shelves, or on a pegboard. Use picture labels to help the children be involved in keeping the area neat and organized. They can find the toys they want when they have an idea and can explore their ideas until they feel satisfied. |
Sand play can be both calm and quiet, or it can be noisy! Put your sand play areas near the other active play areas, such as blocks and housekeeping, and away from art and reading areas. This helps make sure that children who are looking at books or working on art are not likely to be disturbed by noisy or active sand play.
Outdoor Sand Play
| Making a place for sand play outdoors is much easier than providing sand indoors, but there are still some things to keep in mind. All sand outdoors should be covered so that cats can’t use the area as a litter box, which can be a source of disease. The same containers of sand that you use indoors can also be taken outdoors for playtime. |  |
Sandboxes that remain outdoors year-round must also be designed to drain properly. Ideally, the sand will be able to dry out from time to time.
Outdoor sand play toys and supplies will weather over time. Plastics will break and metal will rust, so remove and replace broken or unusable supplies as soon as possible. Store supplies indoors to help them last longer.
Discipline and Sand Play
Sand play is valuable for children from toddlerhood through the preschool years and into the early school years. When toddlers are introduced to sand play, most children will eat some sand. Most learn early that it doesn't taste good and soon stop putting it into their mouths. Eating sand is best handled by simply saying to the young child, "Sand doesn't taste good. It is for playing with, not eating." Since eating a mouthful of sand usually won't hurt anyone, it is best not to overreact by limiting sand play.
A more serious problem is when children throw sand, sometimes getting it into the eyes of another child. Like all activities, sand play must be supervised. If a child does throw sand, tell him that sand in the eyes can hurt, and then redirect him to a toy that he can throw. Indoors, children can throw beanbags into a laundry basket, or shape aluminum foil into a ball and toss it into a wastepaper basket. Children who are eager to throw need to learn what can be safely thrown and what is not safe for throwing. |
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First Aid for Sand in Children's Eyes A child who gets a handful of sand in the face and some in the eye is usually frantic. Start by gently wiping off the sand from the face and hands and quickly take the child to a place with running water. Reassure the child that you can help. Once you reach the sink, pour water using your hand or a cup repeatedly over the eyes. Don't discourage the child from crying. Tears are the best way for the eye to clean itself. Encourage the child to blink repeatedly. Tears and blinking will usually move the sand to the corner of the eye, where it can be gently dabbed out. Tell the child not to rub her eye. Usually the eye flushes out the sand in two to three minutes. Watch the child afterwards to make sure there is no continuing redness, irritation, or discomfort. (If these are present, the child will need to see a doctor.) |
- Spilling Sand
Another common problem is spilling the sand. State the rules in a positive way: "Pour down low." Telling children what you want them to do--rather than what you don't want them to do--helps teach good behavior.
- Relieving Stress
For many children, sand play is calming and soothing. When a child seems stressed or is having trouble with other play, you might suggest sand play.
| Helping
Children Learn from Sand Play |
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- Talk about what the children are doing.
- Ask open-ended questions.
- Help children expand their play.
- Create teachable moments.
The most important way you can help children learn from sand play is to "sports announce." When you watch a sporting event on television, the announcer describes what you are seeing on the screen. Caregivers can play the role of sports announcer and describe what the children are doing. By putting the action into words, you help children learn new words like wet, dry, drippy, molding, sifting, pouring, mixing, and tunneling. Sports announcing can also encourage children to imitate and extend the ideas of others. When you say, "Kyle is digging a hole for his toy car," another child might get the idea of making a tunnel.
While the children are playing with sand, ask them open-ended questions. These questions do not have a right-or-wrong or a yes-or-no answer. One of the best open-ended statements is, "Tell me about what you are doing." This will get children to tell you more than anything else you could ask. Putting their play ideas into words is valuable for children and helps you understand what they are really thinking.
Watch the children at play to see what type of play they use most often: functional, constructive, or dramatic. Ask yourself how you can help children move to the next stage of play. If a child is playing functionally, you could simply offer her a toy car and an idea: "Would you like to make a garage for the car?" Likewise, you can help a child who is engaging in constructive play to move to dramatic play. Once you discover a child is making a castle, you could offer some plastic knights and horses and ask the child what he could do.
Surprise the children by wetting the indoor sand once in a while. Sand can be powdery dry, packably hard, or even drippy wet. These changes in sand would happen naturally outside, and can be a great opportunity to talk about wet, dry, weather, rain, sun, and evaporation. Ask questions and describe what you see and feel. You might say, "This sand is hard and sticks to the bucket. Why?" Listen to the children’s ideas. You might add more water to see what will happen: "Will the sand still be sticky?" Show that asking questions and wondering about the answers is interesting and fun.
Summary
Young children learn a great deal through play with sand. The role of the caregiver is to make an indoor sand play area in their child care. Caregivers can help children learn through sand play by describing the play and asking open-ended questions.
Assignments
- What do you do to include sand play in your child care program? Describe where the children play with sand and what play items you provide. If you do not have a place for sand play, describe what you could do to include sand play in your child care program.
- Michelle just turned three
and is busy using wet sand and a paper cup to build a birthday cake.
She is enjoying stacking the solid forms on top of each other and watching
her cake grow. What stage of play (functional, constructive, or dramatic)
is Michelle experiencing? What could you say and do to help Michelle
learn at this stage of play?
Terra, a two-year-old, likes to watch and feel the sand run through her fingers. What stage of play (functional, constructive, or dramatic) is Terra experiencing? What could you say and do to help Terra learn at this stage of play?
Jared, who proudly says he is four, has been working on a sand city complete with roads and buildings. His tiny cars are driving into the garage and he is busy talking with his friend, Pedro, about needing to have the oil changed. What stage of play (functional, constructive, or dramatic) are Jared and Pedro experiencing? What could you say and do to help Jared and Pedro learn at this stage of play?
- Describe a discipline problem you have had or think you could have with sand play. How did you or would you handle the problem?
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In the lesson, "sports announcing," "asking open-ended questions," "expanding play," and "creating teachable moments" were explained as ways to help children learn from sand play. Using one of these methods, describe a situation where you can help the children learn from sand play. What are the children doing and what would you do and say?