She is ready to dig in!
We got this idea from a blog that focuses on learning through play @ http://loveplayandlearn.com/. They always have great ideas for keeping a toddler busy, happy, and learning. In this activity we used Halloween related goodies from home to create a holiday related Sensory Bin. Sensory Bins are great for appealing to a child’s senses because they are visually, textural, and audibly appealing. They have a lot of developmental pluses too. For example, Fine motor skills are obtained from manipulating small objects and transferring objects from container to container. I can see my Little working on a steady hand to pour rice from a larger container into a smaller medicine cup. Color matching, sorting, counting, and pattern recognition also comes into play. It was fun to watch her discover new ways to incorporate different items into play. She was learning and didn’t even know it!
*Set up*
First thing you will need is a storage bin to contain all your sensory goodies. Using these containers are great because they can be reused all month and kept neat by putting on the lid for storing on off days. Most of the items in the bins were purchased from the local dollar store to decorate for the holiday. The things I decided to include in our box were:
- Orange and purple colored rice
- Craft pom-pom balls in Halloween colors
- Strips of scrap fabric in orange, black and white, and purple patterns.
- Plastic spiders, bats, a skeleton, and creepy crawly bugs.
- Halloween foam stickers with backing paper on.
You will also need small cups in various Halloween colors and measuring cups in different sizes.
Blondie loved this project. I swear she played with it quietly for over an hour the first time we brought it out. She creatively made up different games with the goodies from burying and rescuing spiders to color matching in cups. She loved helping me dye the rice to start too. I love how imagination lead her in all directions with this project. When curls woke up from her nap she dove right in too. She was drawn more to the plastic toys than the colored rice, but she did enjoy the rice waterfalls we made. We will definitely enjoy other sensory bins in the near future. I’m really looking forward to a Christmas themed one 🙂
Blondie & Curls 