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 during the month of January—–enjoy!
Since all the classes did not get a chance to explore it, we started the new year with our last cart from before the winter break—–The Nutcracker!
The students loved finding the ballerinas dancing among the snowflakes in our winter umbrella.
They found the mouse king and one of his soldiers in a box of icy blue beans.
The big mouse also squeaked when squeezed which made it a real hit.
There were lots of items to discover in the Christmas party box—–the Nutcracker ballet takes place during a holiday party.
This box was a real hit!
The box of shiny garland and tulle was very eye catching.
Very touchable also!
There was some fun “sugarplum fairy” kinetic sand and cool Insta-snow for interesting textures to explore.
More sugarplums in our sugarplum swirl scented water play!
The scoops and funnel were lots of fun.
Our next theme was Happy New Year. The book that accompanied the unit featured our students celebrating all around the world.
Lights are a huge part of New Year’s celebrations and our colorful light box was a huge hit with the students.
SO eye catching!
We also had 2 different confetti filled discovery bottles…..
……..and firework sounds recorded on a voice output device.
So much fascinating to watch the swirling glitter, confetti, and beads!
Fascinating and fun.
More color was found in a box of shiny beads.
These are always a hit with students!
There were the numbers 2-0-1-7 to find in a box of black eyed peas.
Black eyed peas are considered a lucky food to eat!
The students were fascinated by the sand sifting through the scooper.
We called this the “sands of time” box 🙂
There was lots of confetti to swirl around in the shaving cream.
Lots of fun!
We finished up with some firecrackers—-of the bubble wrap kind!
The students had a BLAST 🙂
Whether stomping, rolling, or jumping…..
or even just using fingers…..there were lots of giggles!!!!
Lots and lots
of smiles and giggles 🙂
The students learned about the way things were in the past and how they are different today in this next unit. This also compliments the Unique Curriculum theme for the month.
Fashion has totally changed over the years.
This box featured a variety of fashion props for the students to try on.
They had lots of fun!
The students were pretty intrigued with the board game pieces we put in this box.
Along with the board pieces, we made a dice shaker jar.
Transportation has certainly changed. There were a variety of vehicles from horses to rocket ships in this box.
It was pretty popular!
We really had fun seeing which items the students preferred.
Definitely a hit.
They also had fun exploring how fast the different vehicles could go.
While some things change, others remain the same……..
we still grow food in the ground!
They sorted green and blue pom pom “abacus” beads.
The abacus was once the height of math technology!
Our old fashioned water wheel was fun, as usual!
Another popular item.
We followed up with a fun Winnie the Pooh unit to celebrate Winnie the Pooh day!
The students had fun with our Owl box—–which contained a plush owl and a couple of feather boas.
They got pretty creative with the feather boas 🙂
Red and yellow Winnie the Pooh pom poms were counted……..
and sorted.
We had a 100 acre woods box with assorted figures and the Winnie the Pooh song recorded on a voice output device.
Lots to explore.
Our orange and black Tigger rice was very eye catching.
The students looked for letter T and a picture of Tigger hidden in the rice.
A little yellow food coloring turned our oobleck into “honey” and after rinsing hands, finished with honey scented lotion.
Yummy!
We had so much fun with the next unit which tied to our Literacy Week theme—–Super Heroes!
There were gold beads represented Wonder Woman’s lasso—-
—–you know the students had fun with these!
There was blue Superman moon sand, with a cookie cutter letter S.
Moon sand has a really soft texture which is quite appealing.
The Batman kinetic sand contained 4 bats to find.
Of course, watching it drip down from fingers is so fascinating.
Our super hero box contained comic book paper shred, action figures, and lots of fun props.
The students had a blast with these!
Spiderman’s box consisted of tacky Wikki Stix web strings and a little jiggly spider.
When his string was pulled, the little spider would wiggle across the table.
We put pop rocks in the Ninja Turtle ooze to make it crackle and sizzle—-pretty effective!
And fascinating!
Hands were rinsed in water containing some Iron Man power cells (lighted pool toys).
Water play is always a favorite.
Hope you enjoyed our After Party. See you next month for more fun and learning———
———————–Group by Group!
We’re taking another trip this week and finding some cool things out about the state of Louisiana. The book includes some facts about Louisiana such as what it’s nickname is, the state flower, and one of the state songs. Of course we had to include a little bit about Mardi Gras in there! One of our students is featured on the front next to a cool looking parade float while the back features one of our teachers with a student from her class.
Find out some new things about Louisiana by reading the book!
Here is a link to the book: lets-learn-about-louisiana
