Not too long ago we asked the families in our center to help with our mission to collect more loose parts. Our parent community rose to the task and donated lots of different items to our center. Among the variety of objects, turkey basters were included. These instantly became a hit, particularly with our preschool age children.
So, What Can We Do With These?
They are a fantastic tool to use in sensory play, especially with water. It is always fascinating to the children how they have to grip the baster tightly to control the flow of water in and out of it. Multiple skills are practiced with these. Fine motor skills are developed as the children are practicing their grip, as well as hand-eye coordination while they concentrate on pulling and squeezing the water from the tray. The children get to visually see how the tightness of their grip connects to the amount of water that will stay. Because of this basters and water play are a great lesson in cause and effect and even introduces children to early basic science.
Our Tykes 2 class loved filling and dumping with the basters and they have been a fan favorite since we received them. 
Post written by: Miss Juliann.
