Dominoes are a wonderful tool for play and I have a collection of dominoes that I pull out every school year for the children to explore. On this particular day, the children spent time tinkering with dominoes on our tinker table…
Dominoes have all kinds of wonderful qualities about them and my students spent time at the tinker table figuring out ways the dominoes can be tinkered with. Miss Cobb got the children started by showing them how you can line the dominoes up and then make them all fall over with one little push…
All throughout the morning the children came and went from the tinker table and each child had their own idea of what might be fun to do with the dominoes…
Some of the children enjoyed stacking the dominoes…
Some of the children prefered building with the dominoes like blocks…
Some of the children created their own game with the dominoes…
No matter how the children tinkered with the dominoes, there was always lots of conversation going on during the process…
And lots of concentrating…
Dominoes make a wonderful clicking sound when they are tapped against each other and they feel smooth to the touch which makes them fun to handle and slide around…
Some of the children took the time to notice and count the dots on their dominoes…
But mostly, the children just enjoyed tinkering with the dominoes any way they wished…
Around the classroom we did lots of other domino inspired activities which I will share in my next couple of posts with you so stay tuned!
Available on Amazon
Hi! I love this! Do you have any other posts about your Tinker Table? The name is so intriguing and inviting. Thanks
Hi Denise,
When I built the Tinker table (which you can read about here: https://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/07/diy-a-homemade-sensory-table-and-tinker-table/) I knew I wanted to use it for the children to explore all kinds of materials and all kinds of play. Really any table can be used as a tinker table. I use this particular table for sand play, tinkering, dramatic play and the list goes on. Pretty much any post where you see the blue table show up – it is the tinker table in action but I honestly only refer to the name of the table on occasion. I guess I should use the name more often so folks get the idea a little better.
Good morning, thank you for sharing all these wonderful posts! I have a question about your outdoor classroom. It has inspired me to build one of my own off the side of my house and I’m wondering what dimensions your room is? I’m trying to get an idea of a size that will function well. Thank you so much for your time.
Good morning, thank you for always sharing these wonderful posts and giving us new great ideas to build off of. I am actually wondering about your outdoor classroom. It has inspired me and I want to build one off of my home, I am curious about the dimensions of your classroom. Could you please tell me an approximate size that you have to work with. I am not quite sure which area of my yard to build one and would like to maximize space as much as possible. Thank you so much for your time.
Hi Erin,
My outdoor classroom is 16′ x 16′. It is more than enough space I need for 12 students but I have 18 that come on Thursdays only and the children still love it. I hope that helps.
I enjoyed this post, Deborah! As you say, there is just something very satisfying about dominoes–how they feel and how they click together. My kids (ages 2 and 4) are both big fans; nice to have some new ideas for them.
We have also explored dominoes in the classroom in many of the ways you have shown. I have an oil drip pan that I covered with flannel on one side which provides a nice (not quite so noisy :-D) work area. I am anxiously awaiting your follow-up posts on other classroom ideas with dominoes!