In my last post, I shared how we tried exploring baby bottles with a little baby bottle printing for one of our baby day activities. The purpose of our baby day was to celebrate, with one of my students, the arrival of his new baby sister and on becoming a big brother.
Art Center
The bottle painting that I previously shared was only one of our centers. Below are a few more of our activities…
Bathing Center
For a little sensory play, I set out baby dolls, water, wash cloths, and bubbly water. The children used the water table to give their babies a bath.
These children will make wonderful big sisters and brothers some day…
Baby Powder Center
We also had the baby powder center. I had collected several small bottles of baby powder and lotion for the children to explore. And boy did they explore…
The baby powder was quite popular. Some of our boys spent most of their time at this station…
And of course, goggles are always a fun way to add a little interesting spin on exploring the baby powder center…
And if you get too much baby powder on the baby dolls, no worries – just give the baby dolls another bath…
Diaper Science
Have you ever pulled the stuffing out of a diaper? I have heard that if you pull it out and add a little water, it can be used as fake “snow” in a sensory table…
For science, we explored the stuffing from a few diapers and added a little bit of water. The sensory experience is quite unique. Some of the children were not so sure they wanted to touch it at first but it didn’t take long before everyone gave it a try…
Then we decided to add a little food color to the stuffing and mix it in…
Some of the children decided they wanted to take some of the stuffing home so the children were invited to make their own diaper sensory bottles to take home.
I always have extra bottles around for the children to make into sensory bottles as they like…
Dramatic Play
And of course, mixed within all the centers was the opportunity just to play with the baby dolls. The children wrapped the babies in warm blankets, rocked them, held them, fed them, and cared for them…
This isn’t the only time we spend on play with baby dolls. My students ask for them often so I keep a basket of baby dolls in the classroom for daily play…
As a side note to the baby bottle printing activity that I shared in my previous post: When I first shared the baby bottle printing post on Facebook, I received a comment of concern that using baby bottles overshadow the option of breast feeding as way for feeding babies.
With all due respect, I am not so sure I know how to appropriately and adequately introduce breast feeding as a hands-on, interactive activity for young children to explore through their play – thus the reason for using baby bottles. My goal is always to offer my students the opportunity to explore the people and tools in their environment through interactive, fun, hands-on experiences – not to promote one method of child feeding or upbringing over another.