Do your preschool and pre-k children love the sensory table? This Veggie Sensory Table is perfect to set up during a Farm Theme. It’s very simple to set up: just add plastic vegetables and scrub brushes to soapy water in your sensory table for this fun activity!
Veggie Sensory Table
Children enjoy exploring a variety of textures in the sensory table. It’s beneficial to also use water at times rather than always using dry sensory fillers, such as sand, corn, or beans.
For this sensory table, you will need:
- Water
- Mild dish detergent or liquid Castile soap
- Plastic toy vegetables and fruits
- Scrub brushes
Farm Sensory Table: Make Connections with Your Theme
To make connections between this sensory table and our Farm Theme, I talked to the children about how farmers plant the seeds in the soil and the vegetables grow.
When vegetables are picked on the farm, they need to be cleaned before we can eat them. Vegetables can be dirty from the soil and may have pesticides on them. This is why they need to be scrubbed before eating.
The children really enjoyed this activity! Don’t they always love the chores we don’t like to do?
Fruits also have to be scrubbed before eating, so those are good to add to this sensory table as well.
You can use plastic toy vegetables and fruits like I did. You could even try some real vegetables and fruits. If using real ones, you might want to choose those with tough outer peels, such as bananas or mini pumpkins.
If your plastic vegetables have holes in them, use a glue gun to stop up the hole with hot glue. That way, water won’t get into them and grow mold or mildew.
Find more Farm Activities for Pre-K on the category page.
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Hi Karen
Thank you so much to share your wonderful ideas
Of course I’m going to use the sensory table game for my next theme
All the things you email are really useful
In my personal case I try to adapt them in my toddlers class so if you have ideas for this level let me know them
Have a great week
Thanks, Denise!
Where did you buy the play veggies and fruit.
I don’t know where they came from because they’ve been in my classroom since before I worked there. Many education supply companies have them, like Lakeshore, Kaplan, etc.
You are an amazing teacher. 🙂
Thank you, Anita!
Any ideas for sensory tables in classrooms for one and two year olds
Hello Maureen!
I teach late 2’s/early 3’s this year and we did large noodles (Which I put into small zip loc bags and added a few drops of food coloring for each child’s bag discussing what color we were adding, what is going to happen next, etc. and then let each child shake the bag). We put our rainbow noodles (in fall colors to match our theme!) into a sensory bin (formerly a sand table) with various size measuring cups and pails. We use this as a two person center, and it has helped our kids with their fine motor skills immensely! In just 2 weeks, I have noticed and improvement with their family style meal serving. Hope this helps!
Love your ideas, thank you for sharing!
p.s. what is the name of the fonts you used for the words..
“Scrub those Veggies” and “Sensory Table Play” they are adorable!
Thanks again
Thanks, Tiffany. The font for “Sensory Table Play” is “LDJ Forever Friends” by LetteringDelights.com. The font for “Scrub Those Veggies” is called “Second Breakfast” by Brittney Murphy, which you can get at fontspace.com. (I have the commercial use license on both, which is only needed if you are using them on a website.)
Wonderful!!!!!! Me encanta!
I’m Spanish teacher, and I use all of this resources for the vocabulary too!!!
Gracias!!!
Miriam
Thanks, Miriam!
I have purchased play food at Learning Resources and am happy with it.
Washing farm animals, especially those featured in “Mrs. Wishy Washy” is fun in a water table or wash tub inside or out!
That’s a cute idea, Mary! We read Mrs. Wishy Washy’s Farm last week. That would be perfect!
I love you are teaching a life skill through play. I am going to pin this post.
Another great hands on activity from you! I would like to use your idea and bury veggies and fruits in our sensory sandbox! Thank you Karen for all your ideas. I love your website!
Great idea. Just be aware. Some play food have itty bitty holes and it takes a long time for the inside to dry if the food has been immersed in water. It can actually develop mold or mildew.
Yes, I squeezed the water out of each one and put them out to air dry.
thank you for this great idea children love to give a bath to the veggis
Looking forward to using it in the classroom. Loving TPT.
karen,
Hi.The idea of srubbing is jst too amazing.im going to implement it in my classsroom.Thank u soooo very much.Children in ur class are blessed.
thank you so much for sharing, please how old are the kids in your class?
I teach 4 and 5 year olds.
You could also use the bags of potting soil and plant the vegetables for the children to dig up and then wash. Plastic veggies can often be found cheap at yard sales, dollar stores and places like Wal-Mart
thanx for the idea! i like that it is a new idea for sensory since i have a child that is allergic to the dust that sand generates.
will definatley use it for my next theme. can be used for other themes too; such as “family” or “personal hygene” and wash baby dolls or things like that.
i have one question. how do you organise a new center if/when all the kids want to try the new activity first?
Thanks, Kayla. I make a waiting list when all the kids want to do something new (I always have to make a waiting list for the sensory table, at least when it is new). You should look into Jurassic Sand for your sensory table. It’s the only kind of sand I use in mine. There is no dust and it’s great for people with allergies and asthma… and really anyone because no one needs to breathe dust into their lungs.
jsut saw your sensory table page. love it! great ideas one by one!
I love your ideas and thanks for sharing us.For me teaching is love and talent,keep going on good work.
My children really enjoy the word cards. Do you have any words for Thanksgiving?
Thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas.
Hi Linda,
I don’t have any for Thanksgiving, but it’s a great idea. I’ll have to add it to my to-do list.
Hi Karen,
I love your website, it is wonderful and I really appreciate all the great ideas and also your blog. I just disovered the matrix’s for the different developmental areas and it will be very helpful for me to use in assessment of small groups. Do you have any other ideas for how to differentiate activites since I have children 4-5 years and some are developmentaly delayed, autistic, and some are typical while others need more at a higher level.
Thank you so much,
Susan Singleton
Hello, how would you describe that activity in a lesson plain and what common core would you put for prek.
hi, that is an amazing idea, I love it so much, thanks for sharing,. question? if you have the farm theme for one week , do you do this sensory table everyday or just you do it one day in a week? thank you so much
I do most themes for a month, or at least 3 weeks. My sensory table stays the same as long as the kids are interested in it — usually around 2 weeks.