For today’s learning about the letter J in my preschool class, we talked about jelly beans, because of course we did! Talk about a sweet learning experience.
I combined two of my favorite things: Sensory and jelly beans. The kids were OVER the moon.
First we read some books: Jack and the Jelly Bean Stalk, How Many Jelly Beans?, and Peacock Loves Jelly Beans were a few of our favorites.
Then we moved onto our project. I generally try to have at least one sensory project planned out for each week. I save it for the day the kids are coming unglued and we all need some help getting grounded again. Some weeks we do sensory on Monday and other weeks we make it to Friday. I always find that a good sensory project can bring them all back to earth again!
Today was a simple project, but a favorite. Just spray some shaving cream on a tray and let them play with it. Sometimes I add washable paint or other small objects. Today I added jelly beans, because of course I did! I also added a squirt of paint.
Some people use food coloring but since we are in preschool, I don’t take the chance and always stick with the tried and true washable paint! This Colorations washable paint is indeed washable. It is also nontoxic, which is important to me with preschoolers! I once had a little boy spray himself with blue paint that CLAIMED to be washable. He was blue for a few days. Since then I don’t mess around with my paint! We purchase ours in the gallon sizes.
The kids had a blast trying to find their jelly beans, and we talked about the colors they found and how many each of them found as well. If they were older I probably would have made them graph out how many of each color they had found, but since they are still learning to count we kept it simple.
These messy trays are an absolute life safer, one of my favorite purchases and get used daily in my class!
Tangled Thoughts 