Purple Sand

This summer, in our community, a day care closed and had a great
              yard sale where I picked up lots of treasures.
          
       One item I bought was a big container of purple sand. 
      
      I placed it on trays with Halloween shapes and jewels.
 
It is a very fine sand and almost feels smooth.  The children enjoyed tracing through it with their fingers.  The Halloween shapes were a secondary interest
to the sand.
   
Then I moved it to the light table.  The light below added a fun effect and
         it looked like the children were painting with the sand.
 
The older children became interested in the jewels and started to sort and
                                      create designs.
            
The younger children continued to enjoy the feel and movement of the sand.  The larger surface gave them more freedom of movement causing the sand to spill onto the floor.  They were often so content on watching their hand move through the sand that they didn’t notice it fall.