A sensory activity housed in a box, tray or bowl is an invitation for your children to explore, learn, and play. While a sensory activity in a tray or box offers a wider space to explore, a sensory activity in a bowl offers a little more depth and takes up less room. (Unless the bowl in tipped over to explore the objects outside of the bowl.)
What was placed into the sensory bowl:
- Kidney beans
- Heart shaped skewers with flat ends
- Red plastic spoon
- Heart shaped straw
- Red, pink, and purple buttons
- Valentine’s Day themed erasers
Sensory Activity Exploration Ideas
While children can explore the bowl anyway they like, below you will find a list things they can do. You will also find a variety of other activities using similar tools on my Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin post.
- Dig through with your hands or one of the tools to find all the erasers, buttons, and plastic hearts.
- Try to slip the heart shaped ends of the skewers around, over or under the buttons, erasers or hearts.
- Try to push as many beans as you can out of the middle or the bowl. (Hint: You may to build a wall with some of the tools and the buttons and erasers.)
- Pick up objects with one hand or a tool. Then drop them through the heart end of one of the skewers.
- After finding all the buttons, try to create circle using only the tools.
- Try to build a tower of erasers on the bowl of beans that will not topple over.
- Create a border around the inside of the bowl in a AB pattern.
- See how many beans you can place in a spoon.
- Draw zig zag lines in the beans with one of the tools.
I bet your children will come up with more ways to explore the contents of the bowl. If they do, please leave their ideas in a comment below or on my Facebook page. I would love to read what they come up with.
