Welcome to the After Party! Each week after the weekly blog featuring activities in the elementary department is posted, our sensory cart is parked in the media center where it is available for check out by the rest of the school. Here are photos teachers have sent of their students exploring the different sensory boxes—–enjoy!
Our first cart, about Kansas, was actually the last one from the previous school year. The teachers are want to quickly get their routines going so we always make sure to have one available since it takes us a couple of weeks to get up and running with our new themes for the year.
Sunflowers,cowboy hats, and yellow brick roads were pressed into this bright yellow moonsand box.
Another nod to the Wizard of Oz was our discovery bottle which had red Barbie shoes floating in green glitter.
The students were also pretty fascinated with our salt box—-Kansas has a salt mine that is open to the public!
Cowboy hats reminded us of Kansas’ wild west past.
The students really had fun with this box.
There were other fun things to discover in this box such as Amelia Earhart’s airplane
and cowboy figures.
They loved the American Buffalo plushies, especially the one that made noise when squeezed.
There were letter K’s to find in this corn filled box.
A popular box to explore.
Pool noodle pieces for scooping and a funnel added to our fun water play.
Kansas has the largest hand dug swimming pool!
Our first theme for this year was Brazil. After all the excitement of the Olympics, it was fun to learn a little more about the country.
Brazil is home to 60% of the rainforest, so of course we brought out our rainforest umbrella!
Always a big hit!
This box was filled with symbols of Brazil including citrus fruits, native animals, and a shiny boa—-perfect for wearing to Rio Carnival!
There were also discovery bottles filled with “gems” like those mined in Brazil.
Coffee is a major export from Brazil.
There was a map to find underneath the box along with a scoop and funnel.
There were letter B’s to find in this box. Beans are a favorite food of Brazilians.
Our oobleck was colored yellow and sprinkled with green glitter—-the colors of Brazil! Messy hands were rinsed in water filled with some toothless piranha 🙂
We traveled a little closer to home for our last unit—–Iowa.
The students found play food in a box of REAL cornflakes!
They also used a cookie cutter to cut out play dough apples. Red Delicious apples were first grown in Iowa.
Bellevue State Park has a fabulous butterfly garden. Our students sorted red pasta butterflies and green pasta caterpillars.
The looked for letter I’s in the rice and beans box—–the colors of the University of Iowa.
Then they wrote letter I’s in shaving cream.
What a great start to the school year. See you next month with more After Party fun!