Discovery Trays

Whether you call them STEM Trays, Tinker Trays, Loose Parts, or in our case Discovery Trays, the Preschoolers call them FUN!

What are they?

Simply put, they are individual trays filled with any number of materials that the children can use to create. 

Create what??

Create anything they want!

We used…

Here’s what we put together to finish off 2 weeks of learning about dinosaurs.

We started with a 12X18 inch tray with shallow sides. This size gives the children ample works space and keeps the pieces contained.

We added:

mini dinosaurs (of course!), wood pieces (These were from a dollar tree), small rocks, medium rocks, jumbo craft sticks, plastic eggs, black beans (we used these as a base in our dinosaur sensory bin!), and play dough (You can use old mixed up playdough that’s turning brown or gray, then throw it away afterwards!)

Introducing the Activity

To introduce the activity, the teacher (in her best super animated excited tone) said, “Look! Look at all the things in this tray!”

Of course EVERY SINGLE CHILD hurried to the circle time area to find out what was happening.

She said, ” I WONDER what I could do with this.” She began to hold up the materials (to inspect them, very obviously perplexed) while the preschoolers began offering ideas.

“Make a dinosaur!”

“There’s an egg? Make a baby dinosaur!”

“What about a nest? Can I show you?”

“You could make a dinosaur world!”

THEY WERE HOOKED!

As the ideas kept rolling, the teacher began breaking up some of the playdough.

“You could make a volcano!”
“Maybe you could make a fossil!”

“Can we try?”

Great idea! Of course, we had a tray for everyone in the class. The teacher said, “I have a question. Do we all have to make the same thing?”

“No!”

Can we make something then change it?

“Yes!” 

More Trays in Action

This activity was super engaging. The children were using a ton of skills…motor planning, problem solving, oral language just to name a few. While they each had their own materials, this was a very social activity. They shared ideas, asked questions, offered compliments. Although they were engaged with their own ideas, they took time to look around and saw all kinds of possibilities. They used other ideas and built on those too.

Teachers can use this time to facilitate learning but also as an informal assessment on how much the children knew about the topic.