Pumpkin Sensory Activity

As a preschool teacher, I am always trying to come up with new ways to use our sensory table. This year I am putting navy beans and lima beans in our table with orange, yellow and brown pipe cleaners (cut at various lengths) to serve as the inside of a pumpkin.  

Before playing at the center, we will cut a pumpkin open and explore it’s insides so the students understand the correlation.  So often children do not like touching the yucky insides of a pumpkin so this will be a touch friendly version of pumpkin guts.   

My son, Payton, testing out the pumpkin sensory table.

I will add various-sized plastic pumpkins so the children can work on stuffing the pumpkins using size relationships.  We will work on stuffing small pumpkins with smaller seeds like navy beans and larger pumpkins with larger seeds like lima beans.  We can also add magnet wands for the student to pick up the pipe cleaners later in the week.

Teacher's Tip: I usually change what is in my sand table weekly, but as the week progresses we add more items, skills and concepts to the table.  To start the week, the goal is simply appropriate exploration, playing with the materials inside the table, getting used to the new textures and items in the table.  

Instructor's Insight:Many students with special needs need time to adjust to change.  Then as the week goes on, we add more items and skills.

 

Extra Credit:  The items in the table such as corn, beans and rice seem to be too loud and it bothers students’ sensory systems.  I place a soft padded carpet at the bottom of the table to make it less noisy.