Dry Pouring

Dry Pouring, from the Practical Life area, helps children refine skills that will help them in every day life.

Pouring cereal into a bowl? Transferring baking soda and salt into a flour mixture? These daily tasks can seem daunting to a child, but in reality, present no problem with a little bit of practice. This is where Dry Pouring (and Wet Pouring) come in.

Dry Pouring appeals to a child’s love of materials with tiny components, such as grains of rice or small beads. They carefully pour these materials from a bigger vessel into one or more smaller containers. It’s powerful to witness when even one grain of rice spills, how carefully a child will return it to its proper place.

In the Practical Life area, there are typically several different trays for dry pouring, ranging in difficulty. As a child masters pouring large objects such as dry white beans, they will progress to pouring smaller objects into ever decreasing sizes of containers.

Having a good command over pouring both wet and dry objects will help the child with other work in the classroom. For example, washing floors or dishes requires pouring large amounts of water into a bucket to then be poured in the sink or wastewater area. This takes precision, but is no problem for a child who has already mastered pouring skills from early Practical Life materials such as Dry Pouring.

Try incorporating more ‘transferring’ type jobs at home with your child. Transferring water, or when baking, or merely just as an exercise on a tray like the one shown above.