We’ve been playing with A.’s snow-themed sensory bin for a few weeks now. It’s been a crazy winter, so for a while, her pretend snow was all we had seen for the season!
Of course, now that the snow finally hit the ground, she’s over it. That sent me back to the drawing board for a new theme.
I’ve noticed that A. still enjoys the basic “scoopers” – rice and beans – the most, so I built her newest bin against a backdrop of black beans. I noticed some yellow gemstone-shaped beads at the dollar store during a recent excursion and my wheels really started turning. I spotted a set of glow-in-the-dark stars (the kind you stick on the ceiling in a kids room) and my idea came together: a starry night sky sensory bin!
A. really loves this one. She asked to play with it several times today and it kept her busy for longer than almost any other theme we’ve tried. I like the contrast of the beans, the see-through gems and the bright stars. My favorite thing about this is that it took relatively few items but is still super interesting.
Stars are one of the shapes she can consistently name right now and she’s working on counting and colors, so I love that we can reinforce all of those things through this theme.
I think we’ll work on some more seasonal themes next, like Valentine’s Day (more shape recognition) and Spring. These are just as much an exercise in my creativity as they are play and learning for A.!
Tiny Leaf 