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What’s in your sand table and . . .A FREEBIE!

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I often wonder if I’m the only kindergarten classroom left that still has a housekeeping/dramatic play center AND a sand table.  The Early Childhood teacher in me just knows that my students still need that sense of play and fun.  So, of course, I spent the better part of yesterday dying rice in prepartion for a favorite game of ‘Searching for Leprechaun’s Gold.’

First of all, I assume you all know how to dye rice and macaroni but in case you don’t, let me just tell you, it IS the easiest thing ever and make HUGE brownie points with the kids.

What do you need? A good ziploc bag, a 1/4-1/2 cup rubbing alcohol, rice (or noodles) and several drops of food coloring.  That’s it!

Pour your bag about 2/3 full of rice or noodles, dump in the alcohol and then the dye. Close up the bag good and tight.  Mush it around (this is my 4 year old’s job).  And then I like to let it set for 1/2 hour or so to really get the rice covered with dye.  Lay out some tin foil and dump it all on there to dry.  And that is it!  Most of you probably already know this technique but for those of you that don’t, you won’t believe how easy it is.


Searching for nonsense and real gold!

Of course, your sensory driven little ones LOVE to feel it, to play in it, to mix it around.  And they’ll also love playing math or literacy games in it too.
One of favorite games, ‘Searching for Leprechaun’s Gold’ is a nonsense/cvc game (I also have a 4 lettered/ccvc/cvcc game for those kids who are working beyond 3 letters).  I was given a big bag of old gold takens a couple of years ago and on the backs of them I wrote cvc and nonsense words.  I hide about 50-60 of those in my sand table.  Then, using only tweezers (I am SO mean), they search for the gold and decide whether it’s real of nonsense and record their answer on a recording sheet. 
It’s all quite fun and theirs lots of giggles and laughing but also tons of work being done sounding out words and recording answers.
So I was thinking about how I could make this game available to EVERYONE that falls upon my little website and here is what I came up with:
Instead of a sand table, you can use a pot, bucket or whatever you have handy. And instead of gold tokens, you can use these cute little shamrocks I’ve made up for you.
Of course I have tiered this activity to meet the needs of various learners’ readiness.  There are 3 lettered cvc and nonsense word cards and a set of 4 lettered nonsense/cvcc/ccvc cards.  You can click on the picture above or HERE to download a copy.
If you enjoy this activity, I hope you’ll drop me a line, follow me or tell a friend. 
By the way, next on my list is a PERMISSION TO PIN button, but until then, feel free to pin anything on my blog. 

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Marsha Moffit McGuire

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