Since the first day that we discovered the water on the top of the sand box tarp we have enjoyed seeing how it changes on a daily basis. On the second day I removed the tarp, and the water flowed into the sandbox. We watched the water rush down the long river and down into the basin and collect. A small eddy found, pushing the sand and going under creating a tunnel. Soon the water began to soak into the sand. As the boys were splashing around in the water, it began to recede and eventually hit a saturation point where there was still a large pond of water at one end.
SC found a shovel and went to work scooping and 'dump!'ing the sand into the water with satisfying splash. GH and T followed suit.
The next week, Monday, gave us a new tarp full of water to dump in. I realized this was a great opportunities to create a provocation talking about landforms. "Look!" I said as the water rolled off of the tarp. "There's a lake forming next to the mountain." We continued playing and GW immediately started climbing into the deep lake saying, "Two tigers swimming. Two tigers in the water!" I felt pretty confused about this until the next day when we read one of our favorite books
The Water Hole by
Graeme Base. It is counting book that talks about how animals gather and drink from a water hole, but as the seasons change the water disappears.
Soon all of the water has saturated the ground, but there is a resovoir of water at one end. I begin to dig a channel around the mountain. The water begins to flow through and I talk about what I see, enticing the boys to watch how it changes: "Look! There's a river! It's flowing down to the lake!" We continued to talk about these different new language items, that without this spontaneous water and sand exporation would have been hard to come by in such a tactile, hands on sense: land vs. water ("We're standing on the land!"), Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Ponds. I look forward to continuing naming these different types of land and water forms as we continue to play in our new landscape in the sandbox.
Since the first day that we discovered the water on the top of the sand box tarp we have enjoyed seeing how it changes on a daily basis. On the second day I removed the tarp, and the water flowed into the sandbox. We watched the water rush down the long river and down into the basin and collect. A small eddy found, pushing the sand and going under creating a tunnel. Soon the water began to soak into the sand. As the boys were splashing around in the water, it began to recede and eventually hit a saturation point where there was still a large pond of water at one end. 
SC found a shovel and went to work scooping and 'dump!'ing the sand into the water with satisfying splash. GH and T followed suit.
The next week, Monday, gave us a new tarp full of water to dump in. I realized this was a great opportunities to create a provocation talking about landforms. "Look!" I said as the water rolled off of the tarp. "There's a lake forming next to the mountain." We continued playing and GW immediately started climbing into the deep lake saying, "Two tigers swimming. Two tigers in the water!" I felt pretty confused about this until the next day when we read one of our favorite books The Water Hole by Graeme Base. It is counting book that talks about how animals gather and drink from a water hole, but as the seasons change the water disappears. 
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