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Sensory Activities: Fall Sensory Bin

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Sensory Activities: Fall Sensory Bin
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Sensory activities in the fall sensory bin

To start off, let me tell you that it was my toddler who had the maximum fun time with this sensory-bin. She is at that time in her childhood, where getting her hands into anything and to feel it is her idea of fun. At the same time, she does pop in (eat) that occasional 2 day old cereal from under the couch or that forgotten blueberry under my fridge. Hence, my base for the sensory-bin was not an edible product. It may be seem counter-intuitive. The reason it works for my toddler is she specifically pops in ONLY food items and I don’t want her snacking  on the sensory-bin Smile with tongue out So our base  was simply birdseed and it was perfect.

The girls got into the my sensory-bin stash before I get to it and they had their mini discovery session while discussing and labeling each item.

 Time for the set up

In a regular storage container, I dumped in some birdseed..Then spread around some silk fall leaves and some glass pebbles with spoons,forks and cups. There is no one set way to create a bin as it can be customized with the theme, what you have around the house, your kids’ interests. My toddler is into scooping and pouring. So I made sure that my base was easy to scoop and pour.

All the items which went into the bin were purchased from the dollar store. Putting together a sensory bin in itself is a fun and educational task if you involve your older kids to help you make a bin for their younger siblings to play with.

My older one’s interest in sensory bin is waning off while my younger one’s interest is peaking. Big A is through the roof excited for small world play which is what she transforms her sensory into anyway. For this activity she did join us for a bit and she started off her sister with some pretend play ideas. We set up a tunnel for the pumpkins to hide in..

 

We set out some chairs for the fairies to join us. The stories ran for a while it turned into small world play for Big A. While baby A is an out-and-out sensory play girl, she did occasionally giggle with her sister listening to her small world stories. We also popped in some of the glass gems in the ice-cube tray and did some counting.

As soon as the older one took off, the younger one did something she thoroughly enjoyed-cooking with the leaves.

It was such a fantastic experience for her picking up the leaves with her tongs and placing them on a fall platter and made a salad and served me up those leaves with some toasted pine nuts (birdseed) and a side of pumpkins.

While cooking there was so much scooping  and pouring happening which really aided her hand-eye co-ordination.

 

After all that play which also included sitting *inside* the box and playing, the bin looked like this.

 

I love it.

 

[box title=”Learning De Jour” color=”#b01212″]

  • Fine motor skills practice with scooping, using the tongs
  • Language and vocabulary via creative and imaginative play
  • Math via counting
  • Observation – minor differences in different colors of the leaves

[/box]

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. I found your blog from a pin on Pinterest. I really love the activities you create for/with your children. Thank you for sharing them in such great detail and with such lovely photographs.

  2. Visiting for Tuesday Tots, but I saw this on another hop? I really like how you present the box. I sort of just throw everything in and let my guy go wild. Maybe there is something to this presentation thing?

    • The bin was intended to be an invitation to play for both my pre schooler and toddler.The set up is to serve as a beginning point for imaginary play for my pre schooler. She loves small world play and I arrange mini play scenes inside the bin ( eg: tunnels using ribbon, a small fall center piece, pepper flakes packets as a fence) It is not to say she will follow along the same lines but it definitely helps in sparking her imagination for further pretend play along her own lines. Eg tunnels could become bear caves.. I see sensory bin as both small world play and a sensory activity because I have an older child with me. If a sensory bin is just for sensory activities or if you have a kid who is not into small world play (like my toddler – she is too young) you don’t have to focus much on laying out the bin. It’s all up to you and what your kids like. Even after laying out, my pre schooler was not too keen on my bin and did her own thing but my toddler cooked up a storm in my bin. You can never tell..and I just go with the flow.

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