DIY Light Table

During the school year, I brought the boys to a playgroup at one of the local grammar schools and there was a light table with some fun magnetic shapes and translucent legos.  The thing was so neat!  Since then, I've seen some creative and frugal ways to make your own light table (the word table being used loosely) on Pinterest.  

After seeing THIS POST on dollar store finds for light tables, I was inspired to make one and go finish off the gift card to the Dollar Tree that my mom gave me for my birthday...ummm best gift ever? yeah I think so! Three easy steps to make a light table: 1. Get a storage container with a clear lid.  I used an under the bed type container.  I've seen pins using taller ones, and even ones with a white lid (in this case they attached lights to the inside of the lid and used the box upside down). 2. Tape white tissue paper to the inside of the lid to diffuse the light.  I guess this is optional, I've seen posts that skip this step, and I've seen posts that go all out and use spray paint to frost the lid. 3. Add lights to the bottom.  I used white Christmas lights and taped them to the bottom of the container.   Voila! Best part is.... I already had all of these things! Didn't spend a dime! My Dollar Tree Treasures I couldn't find everything listed in the post that inspired this shopping trip, plus I dragged my sister along with me and so doing 15 laps through the store was out of the question... a solo trip is much needed (and while you may think a dollar store intervention is much needed, I assure you... I don't have a problem, I can stop at any time).

• Decorative glass stones in different sizes (I liked the assorted color bags)
• Linking jewelry shapes
• Brightly colored storage boxes
• Glow in the dark ceiling shapes
• Translucent rulers
• Plastic shot glasses
• Multi-colored stacking pill case
• Subject dividers (for binders...to cut into shapes)
• Hair gel (to put into ziplock baggies and add color or glitter for sensory play)
• Shaving cream (another sensory play idea from my sister)

Not from the Dollar Tree, but worth mentioning: I ordered tangrams and orbeez off ebay and I can't wait for them to get here!

Introducing the Light Table

Once breakfast was said and done, I told the boys I had a surprise for them.  They got excited as I closed the curtains and got the room dark and ready.  To introduce the idea of light play to the boys, and to see how well my purchases worked out, we spent a little bit of time with everything instead of focusing on one thing.  In the future I hope to have more structured play as well as free play... but today we just worked our way through all the different "toys." 

 We used the plastic shot glasses to create a pattern.  Blue, green, blue green.  It was very serious work.

 The boys stacked and unstacked the little cups over and over and over and over....

... I introduced a new way to stack the cups which was very well received by Oliver.

Owen had a grand ol' time counting things. 

They both liked filling and pouring the little cups.

We used the storage containers to experiment with color mixing.  Red and blue made a good purple, and the blue and yellow did a good job demonstrating green, but the red and yellow did not make a distinct enough orange.  Oliver then had fun seeing what happened to the colors when stacking 3 or even all 4 of them.

These were also fun to fill with other things.

We made a dinosaur scene featuring a T-Rex standing in front of a volcano, an Elasmosaurus swimming in water, and a Stegosaurus and Triceratops chowing down on some green plants. 

And here is Brachiosaurus eating leaves from the top of a tree.

 Oliver then had a terrific idea to create museum cases to put the dinosaurs in for everyone to see.

We used a ruler to measure and compare the dinosaurs, and later some zoo animals.

I just love this light table... it was so easy and so fun!  I'm trying to think of a cheap and easy way to build an actual TABLE for us, maybe put some pallets to use?  I mean you can make just about anything out of pallets, right!?  But this is certainly good enough, and it doesn't take up too much space.  Fits right under the bed!

Mud Art

One messy, squishy Saturday I invited my kids to Get Dirty.

While they were enjoying their sensory play with mud, I invited them to create some art that would further demonstrate the physical properties of mud.

I put out some construction paper for them to splatter with mud.  They got to see what happened they dropped mud, threw mud, and stamped the paper with their muddy hands.  A great visual element to their sensory play.

Even the dog "helped".

While the art sat in the sun, they got to see the mud dry and become dirt once more.

What, exactly, do you DO with mud art?  Hang it in the mud room of course!!!!

LINKING UP AT

Playing With Worms

Playing with mud in the backyard on a gorgeous Saturday, we came upon some worms.  

Big ol' worms just loving life in the compost pile!

Sensory discovery ensued...

The worms were cool, and slimy, and dirty, and tickley in our palms.  

Some moved fast, some slow.  

They changed shape as the moved- from fat and short, to long and thin.

So proud of my kids for being down with worms.  I loved digging for worms as a kid... and I still get a little too excited when we find a big one.

We've found worms before, but never really spent time exploring and playing with them in this scale.  Smarty Pants 3 Year Old and I talked about how worms eat dirt and make tunnels that are good for the plants.

I felt secretly kind of sad for the worms as the kids dropped them into a container to take on their first ever fishing trip.  But I was honest with them about what we were doing with the worms... a little Circle of Life/Food Chain lesson.  And the next day they had no problem seeing their friends from the yard put on a hook for the fish.

Go on...Get Messy!

We were playing in the yard this weekend, and one thing led to another... we made a mud table.

I always promised myself I wouldn't be a mother who would shy away from a mess.  But lately I have been doing just that.  At the playground, after a rainstorm, my poor kid looked on longingly while the other kids were practically swimming through the sand box.  As grossed out as I was, I felt bad that I could just not commit to the mess at that moment. 

So on a day when there was nothing else we had to do, and a leaky hose making puddles and muddy patches in the yard anyway.... I invited the boys to GET DIRTY!

It was funny to see them hesitate at first.  I had to dig on in and give it a squeeze and a squish...even hand some over to them to get them started.  They soon got the hang of it as, I knew they would.

Elements of Sensory Exploration:

• Scoop and pour dirt into a bucket. We had some great dirt to use from our composted leaves.
• Explore the texture of the dirt.  Slightly moist, crumbly, sifts through fingers.
• More pouring, this time into shallow water. Added more dirt/water and observed the changes.
• More texture exploration, this time of the mud.  Squishy and schloppy and wet, doesn't sift through fingers, sometimes moldable. Pour it, rake it, pound it!
• Wash away mud in clear water.  The water becomes more and more dirty...hmmmm interesting observation kiddos!
• Talk about it.  We chatted about what happened to our dirt, and how rain makes our whole yard muddy!

We also turned our mud play into MUD ART!

And had some interesting sensory playmates... WORMS!!!!

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