Friday, November 6, 2015

Exploring Paint with Hands and Brushes

Fingerpaint is a delightful multi-sensory experience for all ages. It's a tactile (touch) sensation that's very appealing. It's colorful and makes visually interesting patterns on the paper, the table, and our bodies. It smells nice, it tastes interesting (mmmm!), and it even makes a sound when it squelches through my fingers. How delightful!


It's smooth and squishy...


It feels colder than most of us expected at first!

Why does my hand look different?

Our hands make excellent natural built-in paint brushes!


Tearing the paper makes a fun sound too!




Sometimes two hands are better than one...


Painting works our fine motor muscles when we control our fingers in the paint or hold a small paintbrush. We also work on our gross motor skills when we stretch our arms to paint big marks!


Painting together makes this a fun social time too. Look what we made!


Even the smallest details are interesting at this age. After exploring the paint, R became fixated on the tape holding the paper to the table. She ran her fingertips over its edges and its texture, maybe noticing that its bright blue color didn't move under her touch like the bright blue paint did. Where adults see tape, babies see something new to explore. We are so lucky to spend our days with these amazing babies!



Exploring Ice

Teacher Richa brought ice cubes into the classroom today as a sensory activity. Naturally this requires close supervision, but the children had a wonderful time exploring this new material!

Ice feels cold and hard, yet watery at the same time...

Ice is slippery and hard to hold!

Ooh, it feels so nice and cold in my mouth!

As with any sensory activity, some children jump right in while others like to observe for a while first.

Even our youngest friends were curious about this natural sensory experience.