Polar Sensory Bin

Ooooooh YES, it’s messy!

(but so much fun, Mom!)

We couldn’t possibly do a polar unit study without a polar sensory bin, could we?

Above is a picture of the one I put together for my crew. I used Insta-Snow as the base material, and added metal and plastic spoons, colored flat marbles, a couple of animals from our Ocean TOOB , the globe from the top of the Toob packaging, some test tubes & mini petri dishes that we'd used before, and some small winter themed tubs.

So that was toobs, tubes, & tubs. Got it? ;)

The Insta-Snow is a bit messy, but with that comes some unique possibilities.
These southern boys got to make snowballs!

And scoop, and pour

And mold, and dig, & bury their fingers

and generally make….

  

a mess themselves smile!
Which makes this mama smile.

(The Insta-Snow actually does vacuum up really easily.)


Do you enjoy sensory bins in your home?
If so, what have been some of your favorites?

Planning on sharing this post at one or more of the following places:

Tot School @ 1+1+1=1, Tree Valley Academy

Hearts for Home Blog Hop, Learn & Play LinkUp, Littles Learning LinkUp
& Everything Early Childhood

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Football Sensory / Imagination Bin

HI ALL!

It’s been far too long since I’ve had the time or energy to post to this blog, but I’m excited to say that I’m finally ready to get back with it! I’ve got lots of fun things planned to keep these little ones busy over the summer and we’ll also be continuing with our preschool & tot school at home. The posts will probably be short and sweet from here on out, but I hope you enjoy seeing what we’re up to!

First up I’d like to tell you about the sensory bin we have out right now.
It’s all about FOOTBALL!

The contents include:

Green rice (I colored mine by mixing the rice with rubbing alcohol & green food coloring in a ziploc bag.)
Straws cut to 3 different lengths (hash lines)
Little connecting figures in 2 colors to represent the 2 teams. (These were a Target $1 section purchase awhile back, but you could also use colored clothespins.)
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 number cards
Green pipe cleaners with 10 white beads on each (field lines)
A coffee scoop
& a toy flag we had from a play golf set

As always I put the bin in the middle of a blanket along with some random containers and let the boys have at it.

They spent quite a while stacking, scooping, pouring, sorting, ordering, and observing the sound of the rice on the various containers.

I also used this as an opportunity to discuss some math concepts with Dude. We talked about the total football field length and the yard lines & hash lines. (I didn’t even know they were called hash lines until I was making this bin!) We also used the number cards and 10 bead bars to practice counting to 50 by 1s, by 10s, and just talking about the ones and tens place values. Dude is not quite 4 and can count, but still has a way to go in actually understanding the relationship between numbers. I think this was some good hands on practice though!

This coming week I’ll be sharing our letter W and water unit study activities, but until then you can check out our previous sensory bins, letter of the week activities, tot tray ideas, and boredom busters by using the tabs at the top of the Fumbling Through Parenthood homepage.

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Space Themed Sensory & Pretend Play

After we completed our Making Moon Craters activity, I decided to keep rolling with the pretend play and turn it into more of a sensory experience. My son’s always been particular about tactile sensations, so I’m trying to provide him with frequent opportunities for sensory play.

 

It was nothing too fancy, but Dude played with it for quite awhile.

It basically consisted of:

A black piece of fabric

DIY moon sand & cake pan “Moon”

Rocks (asteroids)

Bouncy Balls (planets)

Some dollar store plastic and foam stars

Space TOOB (This has a great variety of figures, even a space monkey!)

 

I also put together a pretend Earth out of stuff we had on hand. The blue base is actually the boys old changing pad cover. (I liked the soft velvety texture of this.) I topped that with some green Easter grass and a plastic piece of “land” from another playset we have.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ….Blastoff!

There was lots of blasting off, flying around other planets, exploring the moon, making craters, and even fixing the Hubble telescope.

I just love watching little imaginations at work!


Sharing this post over at:
Preschool Corner

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May Sensory Bin - Bugs!

Ok, so I wasn't really planning on having a sensory bin this month since we're away from home, BUT when the materials presented themselves so perfectly I just couldn't resist. The theme for this bin is BUGS!

Here's the finished bin:

And the under layer:

Not the most realistic bugs, I know. But still lots of fun!

(You can buy more realistic bugs on Amazon: HERE.)

The Contents Include:

Pinto Beans

Lava Landscaping Rocks (We're borrowing these from a flowerless flower bed outside our room. I couldn't resist the opportunity to play with these unique rocks.)

Plastic Bugs and a Snake (purchased on Easter clearance at walmart for 10 cents!)

Easter Grass (also on clearance at walmart)

    

Dude actually helped me with the rock collecting for this bin and that turned out to be a great activity in and of itself. One day while Spudder was with his Papa at the store, I explained to Dude that we were going to make a Bugs Sensory Bin and I needed his help. We actually call ours an Imagination Bin at home, mostly because of the way that Dude used to pronounce "imagination." It was just too adorable to not be repeated, so the name stuck!

For the next hour or so we wandered around with our bin collecting rocks and sticks and just doing a little exploring. Since we're not in any sort of a natural environment right now, I had scoped out the volcanic landscaping rocks ahead of time, and we just happened to find a grassy area where they were scattered far and wide. Dude was excited to be making his bin so he eagerly ran around collecting them, and helping me to wear him out in the process. I put the rest of the bin together by myself and ended up removing some of the rocks and all of the sticks (for safety reasons).  

   

   

Now that the boys have played with this bin for a few days I'm certainly not regretting the decision to put it together. They've both really enjoyed it! Other things I've added to facilitate play include: a measuring cup, a spoon, and recycled snack containers. And if their interest in this bin seems to lessen later in the month, my plan is to add in a surprise milk jug and a homemade funnel like we'd used on a previous tot tray.

Hopefully this will help me keep these busy boys busy!

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April Sensory Bin - Spring has arrived!

We finally broke out our April Sensory/Activity Bin yesterday and I thought I'd share. It's sort of a mix between an Easter and Spring theme. I'll admit I didn't put much planning into this one, but that hasn't seemed to matter to my little guy. He played with this for at least 30 minutes today!

The contents include:

2 bags of split peas (the same base as for our March bin)

A bag of small stones

Some flower beads from a bracelet making kit from Dollar Tree

Easter erasers from Dollar Tree (There are 12 total, 2 each of 6 different designs. I thought that these would be perfect for counting, matching up, and hiding.)

6 plastic eggs

A small shovel 

Outside of the bin there's also a plastic jar (Dollar Tree), a metal bucket (Target $ spot), & I plan to add a pair of tongs later in the month.

This has only been out for two days but so far Dude has:

     

Made egg shakers

Sorted noisy eggs & quiet eggs

Done lots & lots of scooping & pouring

And observed how the smaller peas and rocks fell through the eggs and to the bottom of the jar. (I'm sure we'll be talking about this more another day.)

I can't wait to see what other fun & discoveries come out of this simple bin!

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March Sensory Bin - St. Patrick's Day

I'm not sure who was more excited about the reveal of our new sensory bin, Dude or myself. Dude was thrilled to clean up after breakfast when I told him what we'd be doing next!

I generally went with a green, gold, & silver theme for this bin.

What's Inside:

2 bags split peas

Gold coins from Dollar Tree

Wooden disks painted gold

Green poker chips

Soda can pull tabs (for some silver coloring)

A coffee scoop

A random green shovel, cup, and shaving can lid

A few silver and gold bottle caps

Green crayon bank

Green glitter & water ball

Green & gold small clips (from coffee bags)

Yellow & greenish flat marbles (jewels)

Some real coins

And a few action shots from reveal day:

Spudder was quite intrigued. I let him play in the bin for about a minute before I had to move him on to another activity. He was too excited and there were just too many small items. I do plan on letting him play in it again another day.

Dude really enjoyed searching through the contents and finding the different "treasures."  Yes, yes, as you can see I let him dump it out! He was just having such a good time with it that when he gave he that questioning look and started to tilt it I nodded my approval. What I was thinking! I guess I was overwhelmed by cuteness! But with the blanket at least the cleanup was fairly easy.

And doing a little poker chip stacking.

That's all the photos I managed to get on reveal day, but I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this bin in our weekly posts for March. It's already a big hit in this house!

 

I'm linking this post up at Sensory Tub Sensations over at Homeschool Mo. You can check it out for more great sensory tub ideas!

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February Sensory Bin - Valentine's Day

D is 31 months.
S is 12 months.

Our very first Sensory/Activity bin!

For a long while now I've intended to make a sensory bin for Dude. But up until now I've resisted because I didn't want to spend money on something that I assumed could only be used for a short while. Well, I finally caught on to the fact that I really didn't have to spend much money and the contents could be reusable. Sooo...this month we have our very first sensory/activity bin!

Looking at this pictures I'm thinking I may have gone a little overboard :)

In it you'll find:

• Lots of lids (red, pink, white, & clear from our collection)
• Heart boxes & bracelets (from Dollar Tree) These were the only 2 things I actually purchased for this bin.
• Straws
• Red counting links (from Oriental Trading)
• Red Lacing beads (from Dollar Tree)
• Red pom-poms
• A couple of squares of flashy fabric
• Red number magnets
• And it's hard to tell in this picture, but the "base" of the bin is actually strings of various lengths cut from a new mop head that we didn't need. Perfect for Vanlentine's day, don't you think?

I intentionally tried to make my bin out of things that both boys could investigate. Not that the contents were in any way safe for someone Spudder's age, but under my close supervision I was confident that he would be safe exploring the contents.

 Well I have to say that so far the boys have LOVED it! Dude has asked for it several times since I first brought it out.

And as intended we're finding various ways to use the contents.

 



I definitely think that the sensory/activity bin is something we'll be doing again! After how fun it was to make, not to mention play with, I'm already getting excited about next months bin!

  

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