"Play energizes and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities."
-Stuart Brown, MD, Contemporary American Psychiatrist
Our first day of camp this summer was themed around reading and rainbows. Because we know that children (and adults) learn best when they engage all the senses, we developed activities where the children had the opportunity to fully use all five of their senses in order to explore and learn about ways we use color in the world.
Activities included; rainbow spaghetti exploration,
rainbow watercoloring with spray bottles,
and rainbow manipulatives so we could discuss similarities and differences, problem solving (when building structures), and decision making.
This particular table was good for cooperation and collaboration which the older kids loved teaching the younger ones about!
We also had a rainbow science station. The kids loved experimenting with mixing various colored dye, glitter and flour. We supplied a lot of different tools for investigation, many of which also exercised fine motor skills.
The messier the activity, the more fun the kids had! I loved listening to observations the children made while exploring and how they taught each other what they had learned.
We took time to read lots and lots of books and sang some new songs (thank you Chelsea!).
One of the favorite activities of the day was the rainbow obstacle course. The object of the game was to climb through the maze without touching any of the streamers.
We finished off the day with rainbow painting using our feet first...
...and then the kids ventured on to painting with their hands, elbows and knees.
Watching the kids reiterated what I love most about sensory play--the delight children show when they are learning to love learning!
Looking forward to sharing more photos soon!
In the meantime, you can check out other camp days by clicking on the following:
Art & Sensory Summer Camp - Candyland
"I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things...
I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind."
-Leo F. Buscaglia
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