Sand and dirt. Play with sand and dirt is as old as… well, as old as the hills. Children’s play is sensory, exploratory, creative, and imaginary.
On the sensory level, our whole bodies feel the texture and temperature of sand and dirt. Unless some gets into footwear, clothing, and eyes our skin enjoys the touch, especially on a beach. A handful is almost as light as air, but a bucketful is dense and heavy. At first, the color seems all the same, but a second look reveals contours, dry and damp, or perhaps small stones and crawly critters. Smelling doesn’t come into play very much and adults try and discourage tasting, but there are sounds from actions like digging, dumping, patting, shoveling, climbing, and more.
Children explore sand and dirt over and over. They discover how it pours when dry and makes cone-shaped piles. When wet, they explore how to shape and build with it. It’s easy to hide things by burying them and hard to find them again. Kids can make marks in sand and dirt and use them as they play. To help with exploring and creating only takes a few simple items, like a stick, shovel, pail, sieve or sifter, and containers and spoons of various sizes and shapes.
After creating roads, castles, or whatever they choose, kids get to imagine. The cars and trucks might be driving in a new city. Dinosaurs may be roaming the earth. Pirates could be digging for treasure. Perhaps, fairies are moving into a new home or space creatures are invading.
During play with sand and dirt, not only are imaginations engaged, so are emotions. For a child, trying to make sand or dirt do what the child wants can be frustrating. Kids have to accept how dirt behaves and let go of or adapt their wants in order to enjoy it. Sand walls don’t protect castles from the tide.
For kids, a hill of dirt or a beach of sand are pay dirt but neither of these needs to be in large amounts for play. A big bowl, plastic tub, old kiddie pool, large drawer, or old tire are possibilities for containers.
No matter how children play with sand and dirt, all the action isn’t on the outside. Inside, brains are problem-solving, observing, coordinating muscles to movement, comparing, measuring, and more. Filling up a bucket right to the top is goal-setting. 1,2,3—action. Ready for this play-of-the-day?