Today's play involves coffee grounds and spaghetti (I used linguine for our worms). I just love using old coffee grounds as dirt in our sensory bins (like we did in our Insect World). It's free, it's easier than digging a hole in our yard, and it smells like coffee! Perfect. :) My system involves dumping and spreading the used grounds on a baking sheet and letting them air dry for a day. I then move the mostly dried grounds to an open container (in our case, a big plastic Gladware) and let them dry further.
To set up our bin, I grabbed my container of our old dried coffee grounds, dumped them in our sensory bin (we use a plastic underbed storage container), and then cooked a handful of spaghetti. Once the noodles were cooked, I rinsed them in cold water and patted them dry on a paper towel. I spread them out on top of the mound of "dirt" and presented the bin to the kids!
X was immediately intrigued by the "worms".
S thought they felt a lot like real worms and the coffee grounds stuck to them a little bit, making them look even more realistic!
X, as usual, carefully inspected the new sensory materials. First he had a good look at the coffee grounds on his fingers.
Next he poked and wiggled the worm he'd caught.
They were both eager to nose around and mix the worms and the dirt around.
X further investigated the worms in the background while S dug and buried some worms.
After awhile, X desperately needed to get inside the bin. He really loves to take a few minutes to kick his legs around and squish whatever happens to be in the bin between his toes.
Once X was done playing, S took out all the worms, made a big pile of dirt, and carefully lay out each of the worms on top of the mound. "Mama, I'm making art with the worms!" And here is her finished worm art masterpiece!
A. Citro is a SAHM to two young kids: X (an infant) and S (a preschooler). As a former science teacher, she knows how important it is for kids to be able to explore and ask questions about the world around them. She places a high value on creativity and being able to "think outside the box". To that end, she strives to engage her children in open-ended play that encourages exploration and fosters their creativity. Visit www.funathomewithkids.com or her Facebook or Google+ pages to follow along!
This post is part of the Brilliant Baby Play series here at Creative Playhouse.
