Fine Motor Skills, Sensory

Use a Marble Run on the Water Table Sensory Play

Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

by Colleen Beck OTR/L
May 13, 2015

Recently, we posted an image on our instagram page of an outdoor sensory play activity. We pulled out our marble run toy and the water table for sensory and fine motor fun. This was such a hit on a hot day that we have played with the marble run and the water table many more times since. We wanted to share the fun with you!

Water table activity for kids: use a marble run and water beads for scooping and pouring fine motor and sensory fun this summer!

Use the marble run toy on the water table with waterbeads!

We’re including affiliate links for our convenience. We love our marble run (this is the one we have and I love it because it’s not too difficult that my kids can’t build runs themselves, but it does include a lot of different pieces.) We pulled it out one hot day and placed it in our
water table
with water and some expanded water beads. If you’ve never played with water beads before, these are a sensory must! The small beads are perfect for sensory play and go right down the shoots of the water table. We poured, scooped, and dumped water and water beads down the shoots and ramps and watched the beads pile up at the bottom of the marble run.

This sensory play activity was not only perfect summer fun on a hot day, it was a great fine motor and eye-hand coordination activity for preschoolers.