- dried beans
- toy shovels, rakes, etc.
- various bulbs
- bean
- bulb
- plant
MA Standards:
Language/L.PK.MA.5.a: Demonstrate understanding of concepts by sorting common objects into categories (e.g., sort objects by color, shape, or texture).
Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Initiative and Curiosity: Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature: Relate themes and information in books to personal experiences.
Mathematics/Patterns and Relations: Sort, categorize, or classify objects by more than one attribute.
Hidden Bulbs
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care. All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Fine Motor Skills, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Fill the sensory table with dried beans. Hide the objects in the table.
Tell children there are a number of different bulbs hidden in the beans. Explain that you want children to dig up as many bulbs as they can and then sort them into categories, for example, by size, color, texture, or shape. Have children use the tools to find as many bulbs as they can that are hidden in the beans. Encourage children to bury the bulbs back in the beans when they are finished.
Adaptation: For centers with limited space, you may want to fill a large plastic container with the beans. You can cover the container and store it out of the way.