Discovery Center

Providing children with a discovery center gives children the opportunity to play cooperatively with others, see a task through to completion, make observations, learn about cause and effect, develop problem-solving skills, develop creativity, strengthen fine motor control, improve coordination and eye and hand movements, and more.

The discovery center needs to be placed in an area that will allow a large group of children access.  This is a social center.  Choose an area that can be cleaned up easily as spills are likely to happen.  As with the art area, a nearby water source is ideal for clean up.

There are many commercial products that can be purchased and used as a discovery center.  You may also choose to make your own "discovery table."  Plastic storage containers can work if they are big enough.  Consider using large metal bowls- they make magnetic play interesting.   Mainly you need a container or containers that can hold items such as sand or water.  You may want to offer some cleaning supplies for the children to do their own clean up such as small handheld brooms and dust pans.  Some kind of protective covering for clothing can be offered too, maybe paint shirts or simply towels with a hole cut in the center for children to slip their heads through.

Supplies For Use With a Discovery Table/Center:

There is a never ending amount of supplies you can have for the discovery table.  You may choose to use just sand and water or you may want to add a variety of mediums choosing to change them every week or two.  What ever type of medium you use these supplies will be of benefit to have on hand.

• Bowls

• Buckets & Shovels

• Cookie Cutters

• Rolling Pins

• Plastic Pizza Cutters

• Scoops

• Car & trucks

• Shells

• Plastic Animals

• Squirt Fish

• Magnetic Items (Magnet Wands)

• Scales

• Muffin Tins and other various containers

• Pie Tins

• Measuring Cups

• Plastic Tweezers

• Tongs

• Magnifying Glass

• Marbles

• Pipettes

• Egg Beaters

• Sponges

• Water Wheels

• Wire Whisks

• Sifters

• Strainers

Other Medium Ideas:

• Food Coloring

• Corn Starch

• Corn Meal

• A Variety of Noodles

• Shaving Cream 

• Oatmeal

• Bubbles

• Dish Soap

• Liquid Starch or Borax (For Flubber and Glurch recipes)

• Cream of Tarter, Flour, and Salt (For Play Dough recipes)

*Be aware of any allergies or cultural objections to the previous items.  Some cultures are very offended by the use of food as a play item.

Activities:

When you start a discovery table start with just the basics.  For example, when using sand, let the children explore just sand for a while before adding water or other props.  Once they have become acquainted with the sand then begin adding different items for them to explore with such as buckets, sifters, etc.  Once they have had ample time to use these props try adding water to the sand.  Observe and ask open ended questions during all the exploration.   When you are ready to try some new ideas for your discovery table consider these:

• Place small plastic animals in the discovery table with leaves, twigs and other items along with your sand.  *Animals are fun to uncover in shredded paper too!

• Plastic dinosaurs can be excavated from the sand using small paint brushes and magnifying glasses.

• You can bury just about anything in the sand for kids to try to uncover.  try burying magnetic balls or items and the kids can use magnetic wands to pull them out of the sand.

• Try filling your discovery table with Flubber and small plastic alphabet beads for them to find and make into word or place in order.  *Add a small plastic organizer that you find in many household supply stores and label each box with a letter for them to sort the letters into that they find.

• Plastic babies, ponies, or similar items are great for giving baths to.

• Play dough and cookie cutters, rolling pins, and various other items are sure to provide hours of fun.  Try making scented play dough by adding some Kool-Aid to your recipe.

• Add a couple drops of food coloring to water in your discovery table for added interest.  You can even sent the water with things like peppermint extract or vanilla.

• Bubbles!!!

• Corn Starch and Water mixed in equal parts makes a great discovery table activity because the mixture has such changing properties.

• Shaving cream is fun, add food coloring to this too.  Give kids cookie sheets they can spread the shaving cream on and let them practice writing letters or their names in the cream.

•  Fill the discovery table with a variety of noodles and small containers for them to sort the noodles into.  Provide them with plastic tweezers or small tongs to pick up the noodles with.

• Bring in dried corn stalks during the fall for the kids to shuck and pop the corn off the cobs.

• Cut up a pumpkin in the discovery table.

• Fill it with snow in the winter.

• How about mud?

• Experiment with Sinking and Floating properties of any items!  Do a science experiment and observe which items sink or float...why?

Tips:

• Limit the number of tools/props you put out at one time but be sure to have enough of the items to prevent conflicts.  For example if you put out play dough you don't need every container, cookie cutter, etc. that you have but you better have more then one rolling pin or your are going to have conflicts.  *We have also had this issue with the "Tongs"  we have only one pair of tongs and there is often an argument about them.  Really we should have two or three.

• Watch for kids that will eat your noodles, play dough, etc.  even at three years old and older their are some kids who will just eat these items any way

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