Sensory Bin Week!

Sensory Bin Ideas for Early Childhood

"A sensory what?" I was first introduced to the words "Sensory Bin" at a driveway distance visit with a friend. Having taught in mostly the junior division, I was aware of the idea behind it; play based learning and use of the senses, but I didn't have much experience in the area. The goal was to create some easy, fun, and educational bins for G to play with and explore, that could be stored afterward to be reused in the future.

We had such a fun time putting the bins together and then playing with them. I had lots of ideas for bins; Here are just a few gems:

DAY 1: Wash the Toys!

All we did was put out two bins; one to wash with dish soap and water, one to rinse with water only, and then a towel to dry. G loved this! It was so simple but she had so much fun playing in the water and cleaning any toys from outside that she deemed worthy. Did this Mama sit back and have a coffee? Yup. Win - win!



DAY 2: Play Dough Ice Cream Bin

This bin was very easy to put together! We used items we had at home. Essentially, we put in play dough, bowls, a play ice cream scoop, some pom poms, play dough utensils and just let her play. 



Rainbow ice cream with sprinkles, anyone?!

DAY 3: Pom Pom Sort

A bin of pom poms just looks so fun! This one didn't hold G's attention long but is a fun activity to do for a little while, especially if some redirection or quiet, focused time is in order. We used two bins; one full of pom poms and the other for muffin cups. G enjoyed sorting the pom poms by colour - at least until Daddy went to water the tomatoes! "See ya"!



DAY 4: Digging for Numbers

Who doesn't love digging in the dirt?! This bin is great because it can really change and adapt as you go. The idea was to dig for a number (magnet), wash it (because she loves to wash everything!), and then match it with the number on the paper. Once she masters this activity, we could move on to digging to find a specific number.




DAY 5: Rice Race

The rice bin is just an excuse to make and play with colourful rice! 

To make the rice, all we did was put one cup of rice in a container with a little bit of water and approximately twenty drops of food colouring. We then closed the container and shook it up. We put the rice on a baking sheet and repeated the same steps four times with four different colours. We then let it dry outside in the sun for a couple of hours and voila! Rainbow rice!

After it was dry, we put the rice in a bin and added some recyclable materials, funnels, and spoons/scoops. I was reminded very quickly that physics was never my strong suit and made a few adjustments here and there. The funnel holes were too small, the paper towel rolls needed a trim, etc. etc. This bin was just made for exploration and fun, so it really didn't matter. In the end, the rice made it "down the slide" and everyone was happy!


All in all, this week was very successful! We had lots of fun exploring the new bins and now we have ready-to-go activities I can pull out on rainy days or any time we need something fun to do.

*As always, the activities are only recommended at the parent/caregiver's discretion and with constant supervision of the child. We have used all of these items before and G is very aware of the rules for safety.

Tune in next week for our Alphabet Story!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Week of Toddler Activities: Where and How to Start!

Image
A Week of Toddler Activities: Where and How to Start! My "Why" This is my very first blog post so this is definitely an exciting day for me! On my About Me page, you can read all about my intentions for starting this blog. In a nutshell, I’m hoping it will help me to be more intentional with my activity planning for my toddler, G, and hopefully help others who may be in a similar situation; looking to plan fun and educational activities for their little ones. As a Momma currently on maternity leave, it’s important for me to have easy and affordable activities to set up and clean up. I try to use things we already have in the house or in our ever-expanding craft box, usually garnished with finds from the Dollar Store. So, this blog illustrates “Just a Few Gems” to hopefully spark some ideas for ceating with your little ones. When the pandemic began and daycares closed, I went from “Ok, let's make a detailed schedule for the day and get on track". Reality set in pretty
Read more

ABC's, Easy As 1, 2, 3

Image
A Continuation of Our Book of ABC's G and E's Book of ABC's is coming along wonderfully (see last week's post). It will still take us a couple of more weeks to finish. I wanted to also add a project for the week, even though we were still working on the book, so something very easy was a must. I thought adding the numbers at the end of the book would be something the girls would like to see. Each day, we worked on a number. I printed the number and G would find that number of items and put them on the paper for the photo. So far, we have used an apple, dolls, markers, books, and teddy bears. She enjoyed choosing the items and had fun counting. We will continue to work on numbers to 10 and letters in the coming weeks.
Read more

Book of ABC's

Image
 We Made Our Own Book of ABC's! Easy. Fun. Worth it. I LOVED this activity! I have always wanted to write a book (and have started but not finished many books, many times) but this time, I will actually finish one! Granted, this particular work may not be what you would consider a literary masterpiece and the editing was a breeze (hehe), but it is a book nonetheless and one that our whole family is excited for.  What We Did The prep was incredibly easy.  DAY 1: "A"is for Apple I drew out a capital letter "A" and a lower case letter "a". We talked about the letter, traced it with our finger, and talked about the sound it made. We used items we had around the house to help us to trace the letters. For the "A", we used stamps that G really likes. We then talked about words that began with the letter, such as "Apple" and "Animal". We took a photo of G with an apple and a photo of the letter sheet. I then edited them together t
Read more