Wednesday 6 June 2012

Sandbox Learning

 I have found our little sandbox to be a great way to bring certain school lessons to life.  We have built dams, created a Japanese Zen garden and this week based on our WWI lesson created a war zone building trenches complete with a "No man's land" so the children could understand the working of the trench fighting.  We have been reading the book Truces by J Murphy about the First World War.
 
Kids getting to work building trenches for both sides

Kids adding lots of water to the trenches because we read about the rains and then the dreaded disease trench foot disease

We used a slinky for the barb wire

Kids even added a few soldiers caught in the barb wire

Showing the soldiers climbing over the parapets

A soldier caught in the barb wire



Our sand box war zone

We even had a solider with a shovel digging the trench

Little Man taking his time and really contemplating where he should put his soldiers

We had a good discussion about no man's land and trench warfare while doing this activity

Princess even constructed wooden ladders the soldiers needed to climb

Recreating a raid








We had a great morning of creating and learning.  I think this activity help the children to understand the term "No Man's Land" a little better. As soon as Daddy got home, Little Man showed him the sand box and excitedly explained all the parts.  Makes a Mommy proud that this lesson was a hit:)!!!!

What lessons have you done in your sand box lately:)?
Posted by The Adventurer at 06:00
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8 comments:

  1. Maureensk6 June 2012 at 07:19

    Wow! That is soooo cool! What fun! I wish I was there to learn more about trench fighting? Like what happened to people with trench foot (as soon as finish this comment, I am going to go Google the it)? And did people really get caught in the barbed wire?

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  2. Maureensk6 June 2012 at 07:21

    P.S. - I pinned this, but not one of the photos with your kids in it. I hope that this was okay. If not, please let me know and I'll remove the pin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Adventurer10 June 2012 at 15:03

      Pinning is fine but thanks for not using one with the kids picture in it:)

      Delete
  3. MommyKuehner6 June 2012 at 13:26

    Makes me want to run out and play!!!

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  4. Susie7 June 2012 at 00:37

    Wow! That's fantastic, what a great idea!!

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  5. Susan10 June 2012 at 19:51

    Awesome idea to reenact history lessons in the sandbox! The kids were very creative...love it! Thanks for linking up at Favorite Resources.

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  6. Unknown22 June 2012 at 06:38

    I love this idea. We just built a fence and one of the first things we put in the backyard was a sandbox. I will have to come up with some ways of using it in my lessons this summer with the kids. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Ticia19 March 2013 at 17:15

    I wanted to do this same thing when we studied WW1, but we don't have a sand box.

    ReplyDelete

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