Image Source
Today we are having a lot off fun with salt. We will be doing various activities and experiments through out the day. Ultimately we will be making the pumpkin decorations for our classroom.

[Image Source]

Salt is such a vast item to use and to introduce to preschoolers, and oh boy, how much fun are they going to have. Today we are going to do group activities. There are quite a few reasons why we should include group activities at this early age, but for me, the most important one is that children learn to work together.

So here we go!!

Image Source

Set up four tables

1. Senses table
2. Water table
3. Writing table
4. Art table

Senses table

Image Source
You will need the following:

1. 4 small bowls (Depending on how many kids you have per group. There should be four bowls per 4 kids)
2. Something sweet (eg. sugar)
3. Something salty (eg. salt)
4. Something bitter (eg. coffee)
5. Something sour (eg. slice of lemon)

Let the learner's taste a little of each bowl at a time. It is important that they should identify each item before they are finished.

Water table

At the water table the learners are going to experiment with different types of water:

Image Source
You will need the following:

1. 4 glasses
2. Fill up each glass and throw in the following items, separately, in the glasses. One glass doesn't receive anything, it should stay as plain water. Baking soda, salt, sugar.
3. Beads or pebbles.

When doing this activity you can ask the learners the following questions:

1. What glasses water is clear?
2. What glas off water is murky?
3. In which one does the beads sink?
4. In which one does the beads float?

Writing table

Here the learners will be practicing their fine motor skills. They will be drawing different shapes, letters and patterns in the salt tray. This table will also show the teacher if there are children with possible Sensory Processing Disorder, because these kids won't be able to this activity.

Image Source
You will need the following:

1. Tray
2. Salt
3. Cards with letters, patterns, images.

Art activity

Image Source
Today the learners are going to have with with their names. Here we are going to put some glue on each learners name, after that the learners have to throw salt over the glue in order for the salt to cover the glue. They will then use food coloring to paint there names. This is a fun activity for the kids. Through this activity they will see how quickly salt absorbs water, because they will need to put a drop of colored water at a certain stage and then it will spread.
You will need the following:

1. Cards with all the learners names on.
2. Bottles of glue for the learners to cover the letters with glue.
3. Salt (The learners use their hands to throw the salt over the glue.
4. Little bowls with different colors of water.
5. Drippers to drip the colored water on the salt letters.

After they have experimented with the salt name activity hand each learner a template of the halloween pumpkin. It should already be drawn on a black paper. Let the learners put the glue and salt on, just like in the name activity. After they have done this, direct them to what color each piece should be. After the art piece is finished, decide where you are going to display the art pieces of each child.

REMEMBER: Children learns through the act of playing!!

Image Source

Created by Giphy

Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone

GIF