My son loves to play with his water table and it provides us hours worth of entertainment in the warm weather. We have this Step 2 one that has been great for 2 summers now. But the downside is that once it gets too cold for water play it just is something to take up space in the garage until it warms up again. But this year I decided to try out a way to make it usable during other months of the year. We live in the south so while it does get cold enough to prevent outdoor water play there isn’t that much time of the year where we can’t be outside at all. So I turned our water table into a fall sensory table and so far it’s been a hit! Here’s what I did…
Step 1
I got a 40lb bag of corn from Tractor Supply– it was only $8! Also you definitely do not need all 40lbs to fill this table, I used probably 1/3 of the bag.
Step 2
Next step was to gather up some fun fall add ins…of to Hobby Lobby we went! I picked up some small pine cones, mini velvet pumpkins, fabric leaves and some fake acorns. I mixed some of each in with the corn and then pulled out some of his usual sensory tools- a shovel, cups, scoops etc and let him go to town.
Step 3
One last step! I gave him 2 important guidelines- we do our very very best to keep the corn in the table and we absolutely do NOT eat the corn.
Important Notes to Remember
- The corn will need to stay dry so you’ll want to set it up either somewhere it is protected from rain OR get one of these handy dandy covers to put on it when you’re not using it.
- Don’t sweat it too much when corn gets on the ground, it’s super easy to sweep up. And if you bought the big bag like me you have plenty to refill it.
- Make sure your water table drain is plugged when you put the corn in- don’t ask me how I know to tell you this.
I hope to let it change with different add ins as the seasons continue to change but for now it is keeping us outside while staying dry and my boy is loving it. I hope your little one loves it too!