The first time I saw a light table was at a Reggio Emilia inspiried preschool in New York City. Every classroom had one and I began to wonder what they were all about. After researching the various ways these could benefit preschool age children in their learning process, we decided to get one for our own classroom.
Today as I walked by our light table I overheard a child saying, “Let’s count the squares! While the other child responded, “I’ll count the diamonds then we can count them together!” They were referring to various translucent geometric shapes that had been placed on the light table for the children to manipulate. We have been talking about classifying and sorting objects by different attributes (color, shape, size, number of sides, etc.) What I was witnessing was the children taking what they had learned in small groups and applying it to their other classroom experiences. Great work kids!
Our light table allows children to experience everyday objects in a whole new way. In the coming months we will be using the light table for a multitude of activities as well as free choice play with ever changing manipulatives. Here are some of the activities that may take place at our light table this year: building our names and sight words with special translucent letter tiles, exploring and creating colors with color paddles, using various stencils, using the light table to trace our letters and names, manipulating shapes to become more aware of spacial relationships through the use of translucent geometric pieces while discovering the basics of geometry, viewing x-rays of various types of animals and shells, and finger painting on parchment paper (just to name a few). These should be great experiences for your children and ones that they will not soon forget.
