Recommended Age: 3 to 4 years
Level of Parent Involvement: Medium, this exercise requires the adult to work with the child during the initial presentation, once the child has been shown they may complete the exercise independently with low supervision and providing assistance with spills if necessary
Prerequisites
- The child should have had some experience in pouring water from a jug
- The child should have some level of control of movement and be able to carry objects level
- This activity entails a sequence of steps, when the young child begins this exercise they may not necessarily be able to complete the activity in sequence from beginning to end, this takes time or is more expected from an older child. Work which requires the child to participate in a sequence of steps builds the child’s concentration
Materials
* Apron
* 1 large vinyl mat or 2 vinyl mats, 1 large 1 small (OPTIONAL, use only if the child’s table is on carpet)
* Bucket
* Jug
* Tray
* Bowl/basin
* Soap in a dish
* Sponge
* Scrubbing brush
* Drying cloth
* Hand towel
* A Large tray with shallow handles to place the above materials
Preparation
- NOTE: You will need to use the child’s table for this exercise. This exercise indirectly prepares the child’s hand for reading through the small and large circular movements their wrist engages in using the scrubbing brush. In order for the child to be able to manoeuvre around the table and scrub the table effectively the table must be at the child’s height.
- Place the large vinyl mat under the child’s table if the table is on carpet
- Set up the tray, place the jug inside the bucket then place the bucket in the bowl/basin and place on the tray, place the soap, sponge and scrubbing brush on the tray
Steps
- Invite the child, letting them know you are going to show them how to scrub their table
- Move the child’s chair from under the table to the side and put on an apron, invite the child to put their apron on
- Show the child the table washing tray, the child may bring the tray to the table, show the child where to place the tray (in front of the chair)
- Show the child the drying cloth and place the drying cloth on the seat of the chair, place the bucket from the tray under the table
- Remove the jug from the tray and invite the child to get some water in the jug, the child may pour half of the water from the jug into the bowl
- Take the sponge and dip into the water in the bowl, giving it a gentle squeeze so it isn’t dripping but you want it to still be quite wet
- Take the sponge to the top left corner of the table
- Using the sponge, wipe the table from the top left corner of the table across to the top right corner of the table, using a hook motion at the end as to not wipe water onto the floor
- Repeat wiping from left to right a couple of times then invite the child to have a turn wiping
- Rinse the sponge and squeeze out then put back on the tray
- Pick up the scrubbing brush and dip into the water in the bowl, using a sharp flicking motion remove any excess water
- Place the scrubbing brush onto the soap and move the scrubbing brush bac and forth a couple of times until there is soap on the scrubbing brush
- Bring the scrubbing brush to the centre of the table and scrub using a circular motion in the middle of the table
- Move you hand with the scrubbing brush to the top left corner and scrub in circular motions from the top left corner of the table to the top right
- Stop when you reach the end of the top right of the table
- Move your hand slightly down and return to the left side of the table, again scrubbing in circular motions from left to right
- Invite the child to have a turn
- Rinse the brush and give it a sharp flick to remove any excess water, replace the scrubbing brush onto the tray
- Pick up the sponge from the tray and move to the top left corner of the table
- Wipe the soap off the table from left to right, using the same motion above as used to wet the table to ensure no soap is being wiped off the table onto the floor (show the child the soap on the sponge at the end of each row, you may show how to rinse the sponge if needed)
- Invite the child to have a turn
- Rinse the sponge, squeeze out and replace on the tray
- Pick up the drying cloth from the chair and dry the table from left to right, top to bottom in circular movements
- Invite the child to have a turn
- Pour the water from the bowl into the bucket, indicate where the child may empty the dirty water
- Pour the remaining water into the bowl, rinse the scrubbing brush, using a sharp flick to remove excess water
- Rinse the sponge and squeeze out
- Empty the water from the bowl into the bucket, child may empty the bucket
- Dry all equipment with the drying cloth showing the child how to lift the bowl to dry the tray if needed
- Invite the child to wash the table independently, letting them know that this is an activity they may do if the notice their table is dirty (from paint, food, glue etc)
Variations
- Washing a chair
- Scrubbing the floor
Notes (points of interest to bring to the child’s attention)
- Ensuring the child wets the table enough so that it soaps up when using the scrubbing brush
- Ensuring water and soap are not wiped onto the floor (hence why the hook motion is used)
