This is the second lesson on DRY Pouring from our Practical Life 🙌 Activities 101 🎥 Series 🎇. The first lesson was 1:1 pouring: where a child pours from one spouted pitcher to the other, keeping it very simple (see the post here). After the child had mastered the one-to-one pouring and is comfortable, you can add some variety. This lesson is DRY Pouring 1:2 (one-to-two), where a child pours from one pitcher evenly into two cups, and then pours everything back into the one pitcher.
When you are showing this lesson to a child, make sure that you demonstrate using both hands. A child has small hands and might not have enough strength to use just one hand for pouring, so using both hands helps them with control.
Levels of Difficulty of Introducing Pouring 1:2 in a Nutshell:
- 📊 EASY: WIDE spout & MEDIUM non-spouted cups, while pouring SMALL objects;
- 📊 MEDIUM: SMALL spout & SMALL non-spouted cups, while pouring SMALL objects, and using a FUNNEL.
- 📊 HARD will same pouring as above, but without using a funnel.
📊 EASY: Adrian is using WIDE spout (larger pitcher) & MEDIUM non-spouted cups using SMALL pouring objects:
What you will need for this lesson:
- one large glass pitcher with wide mouth (we are using this 18 oz pitcher, which is comfortable to grasp);
- two other items that a child can pour into (we are using these glass mugs without a spout);
- pouring objects (I have chosen green beads to add visual stimulation as well as auditory – Adrian loved the way the beads sounded when they hit the glass);
- a tray (buy here).
With this pouring lesson, when a child is to pour back into the pitcher, make sure that the pitcher has a wide-mouth. I also highly recommend, as you are preparing the environment, for you to try each of these lessons out first. Make sure that everything works for your child, that you do not have more beads than will fit into both cups; and that the spout is larger enough. If the pitcher is too small, and a child is trying to pour back into it, frustration is inevitable. So, practice the lesson yourself first, and make sure that it works successfully, to guarantee your child's success.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/218676313
A child pours from one large pitcher half of the beads into one cup, and then the other half into the other cup evenly. A child then pours from both cups back into the large pitcher.
📊 MEDIUM: Adrian is using SMALL spout & SMALL NON-spouted cups while pouring SMALL objects (amaranth). He is also using a funnel.
What you will need for this lesson:
- one small-spouted pitcher (we are using this 4.5 oz sake pot); also non-transparency of this pouring set increases the level of difficulty;
- two other items that a child can pour into (we are using these small ceramic sake cups without a spout);
- small pouring objects (here, Adrian is pouring amaranth – tiny grain);
- a funnel (we are using this stainless steel one);
- a tray (buy here).
p.s. you can buy here the entire Sake pouring activity which can also be used for wet/water pouring.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/218684509
Just like with prior pouring activity, a child pours from one pitcher evenly into two cups, and then pours everything back into the one pitcher, but here pouring back is done with a help of a funnel.
The purpose of pouring activities is to help a child to use fine-motor skills such as picking up a pitcher or a creamer and pouring. Also, during this activity problem-solving skills will be triggered as inevitably some of the things a child pours will spill, or a child will have to figure out whether to use one hand or both while holding a pitcher or a cup. Lastly, a child will be learning the order: if things spill, what to do next; as well as the cycle of the activity: taking the material from the shelf, beginning the task, doing it, completing and putting the material back on the shelf.
In addition to fine-motor control that all these Practical Life 🙌 Activities offer when children learn to carefully pour, there is also a lot of gross-motor body control required for them to carry a tray with these pouring lessons. For example, when taking a tray (which can be heavy) off the shelf and caring it to the work space, a child has to use all those gross-motor skills, while working their muscles, balancing the tray and practicing caring things to and from.
See here DRY Spout Pouring 1:1, which is the 1st Lesson in Practical Life 🙌 Activities 101 🎥 Series 🎇.
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