What did I put in it?
- Valentine’s Day themed stencil
- Heart shaped cookie cutters
- Heart shaped doilies
- Heart shaped sunglasses
- Red funnels
- Red and pink buttons
- Ribbon
- Heart shaped Straw
- Heart shaped skewers
- Red beans
- Dice with hearts on them
- Pink Spoon
While children just love to explore and create their own activities with sensory bins, I like to guide JDaniel just a little bit. After he had checked everything out and played with it for awhile, I suggested we try the activities below.
Sunglass Weaving
He simply wove a couple of strand of ribbon through the slats in the sunglasses. It was a great small motor skill and in took some concentration to do. He couldn’t see through them when he was done, but it was a fun activity.
Estimating Beans
How many beans did JDaniel think would fit into each cookie cutter? Did the same number of beans fill the large cookie cutter as they did the small one? In this case the large one did not get filled up by the same number of beans. It didn’t even fill one layer of beans.
Heart Skewer Shuffleboard
The heart shaped skewers made perfect shuffle board sticks. I had JDaniel test out whether the bean or the button made it farther when it was shuffled across the kitchen table. I think he added a little more force behind the that he wanted to win. He had picked the bean. Either way it was a fun activity.
Straw Blowing Activity
JDaniel also worked on blowing a button and a bean across the table with a straw. The skewers were much easier to use to get the bean and button moving. It took a lot of blowing to get the button across the table.
Funneling Buttons
Which buttons could be sent through the small funnel? Which ones went through the larger one? Really on the smallest buttons made it through the funnels. A few of the buttons got struck and we had to use the skewer to pop them back up through the top.
Slinky Measurements
JDaniel has the most fun with this plastic heart shaped slinky. He loved trying to get it to flop and and spring back up. I had him place it on the end of the sensory bin and count how many hearts across the bin was. That got him thinking about other things he could measure the length of. He ended up measuring chair, tables and even his bear. They were accurate measurements due to the fact that the slinky had to be stretched out to measure the length of some things, but it was great counting practice.
As I mentioned a sensory bin is mostly for exploring, but I did want to share with you six activities we did with the contents of this bin.
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Plastic slinkies are fun – the boys got them at the doctor last week and have had a blast with them.
LOVE <3
These are all great for motor skills and using the brain! As for slinkies, they are always so much fun!
what a great idea – both the bin and what to do with them. I like the shuffleboard. Fun.
LisaDay
Genius to thread the ribbon through the slotted glasses!!
What a fun bin! Love the idea of threading the ribbon through the glasses.
Hayley loves sensory bins! What a great idea!
very cute, great selection of in your bin!
Sensory bins are so fun! I like the items you selected and how they teach different skills. My itty bitty is too small I think for some of these but we may try this next year.
great selection of items in there!
Your ideas are always so cute!!!! You must be so busy! Love it!
I have never done these with my kids….but I can see them fighting for the slinky!!
That’s a fun sensory bin. I admit to loving funnels even at my age! And we’ve been playing with beads at my house. We all just love running our fingers through them and looking at the different colors and shapes
This is such a neat idea and something I’ve never tried with my little one. I’m sure she would get a kick out of it.
I love the shuffle board heart sticks!! That would be so fun for the kids! 🙂
You always seem to take the commonplace a step further…in a good direction!
=)
What a great activity for the senses and to challenge the brain! So creative!
That’s so fun!! 🙂
This is a really great list of extension activities for your sensory bin. Thanks for sharing some wonderful ideas!