To continue from yesterday’s blogpost on all the learning and creativity that happens as children play in a sandbox, here is another kindergarten readiness activity. When kids play in the sand, besides digging, scooping and pouring they are also measuring.
A pail needs lots of scoops to fill it up. It holds more sand than just a scoopful. Some containers need more scoops than others. They hold more, too. Exploring with sand is readiness for kindergarten fun.
Have you ever scooped out left-overs into a container, only to discover that your container is too small? Or poured what looks likes lots of coffee into mugs only to see that the last cup has barely enough to cover the bottom? That’s the concept of volume.
Figuring out volume, that is how much something can hold, is much more challenging than figuring out long/short or wide/narrow. This is a concept that kids work on at school long past primary grades (and is even tricky for adults). But it starts with babies discovering that spaces can be filled and grows as toddlers experiment with the concept that some containers hold more than others. Lots of play and discovery now before children go to kindergarten makes learning about volume much easier to grasp. Okay, who was drinking my tea? This cup used to half-full and now it’s half-empty!