WINTER SENSORY BINS

This is the second year I include seasons-themed sensory bins in my lessons, and I’m really happy about the way they work in the classroom. My kids have fun playing with them while developing their language and fine motor skills. Also, I´ve been reading about the importance of providing kids with sensory stimuli, so I plan a sensory play lesson for every season (autumn, winter, spring and summer) with my 3-year-olds.

This time I prepared two winter-themed bins. The first one was filled with cotton balls, cotton filling, different-sized porexpan balls, some white stones and a few animal figurines (penguins, polar bears and seals). I also put some clothespins in there in case they wanted to use them for moving the cotton balls around.

The second bin was filled with Epsom salt. You can see animals and some glittery strips in the picture here, but I took them out later as they were a bit of a distraction from the sensory experience I wanted it to be. Kids just loooved burying their hands in the “snow” and making “snow castles”. Epsom salt is a great material for this as it has a very pleasant touch and the colour is just like real snow. You can store it and use it again later, as long as you put several net pouches (the ones used for small gifts) with rice in it to absorb the humidity.

We have 25 kids in each class so you have to plan and organize this kind of activities really well. My kids played in each bin in groups of five for about 10 minutes. While 2 groups were playing, the rest were doing something else with another teacher.

To learn about the importance of sensory play you can read THIS. You can also read about my AUTUMN and SPRING sensory bins.

AUTUMN SENSORY BINS

Last year I tried sensory play in my English class and it was a great success. You can read about it HERE. Also, since then I´ve been reading a lot about the importance of providing kids with sensory stimuli, so this year I planned a sensory play lesson for every season (autumn, winter, spring and summer) with my 3-year-olds.

I prepared two autumn-themed sensory bins. The first one was filled with corn and pasta as a base, and enriched with leaves, conkers, chestnuts, walnuts, acorns, pinecones and forest animals’ figurines. I also provided several containers so that the kids could fill them up and empty them as they liked.

The other bin required more preparation time. It was basically stawberry, lemon, orange and coke jelly I prepared at home the previous day. I used these flavours for their autumn colours, obviously.  I made two different-coloured layers in each container which aloud me to insert tiny objects between them and make it even more exciting for the kids to dig their hands in as they would find these little “treasures” (mostly buttons and pointy balls) inside.

We have 25 kids in each class so you have to plan and organize this kind of activities really well. My kids played in each bin in groups of five for about 10 minutes. While 2 groups were playing, the rest were doing something else with another teacher.

To learn about the importance of sensory play you can read THIS.

SENSORY PLAY: IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?

Several months ago I posted THIS ENTRY about two sensory activities I carried out in the classroom with my 3-year-olds. Now I found this article that sums up nicely the importance that sensory play has for today’s kids.

“If you frequent kids activity blogs, you know that “sensory play” has been a hot topic for quite awhile now.  There are even entire websites devoted to sensory play for your tots, and while they are super fun to read and full of creative (and sometimes elaborate) ideas, you may find yourself asking, “Is all this REALLY necessary for my child’s development?”

To answer this question, let’s first look at what we know about sensory play.

 

What is sensory play?

Sensory play is simply play that encourages children to use one or more of the senses.  Often called “messy play,” sensory play experiences focus on stimulating children’s senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, balance, and movement.

Research tells us…

• Young children rely on sensory input to learn about their environment.
• Sensory play helps build neural connections that support thought, learning, and creativity.
• Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine/gross motor skills, problem solving/reasoning, and social interaction.
• Children’s exposure to sensory play opportunities is declining.

What does this mean to us?

The first three points on the list above are pretty self-explanatory. In a nutshell, sensory experiences are like food for the brain…they provide valuable input that allows the brain to build new pathways that in turn support growth in crucial areas of development.

The fourth point, however, is what sheds some light on the answer to our original question, “Is all this REALLY necessary?”  You may be thinking, “My parents didn’t do sensory play with me, and I turned out ok!”  The fact is, our little ones spend much less time outdoors than their parents and certainly grandparents did as children.  Since the outdoors is naturally full of sensory play opportunities, this has definitely had a part in the decline of sensory play.  Secondly, although children can definitely fulfill their need for sensory play indoors when given periods of unstructured playtime with stimulating materials, the truth is that indoor time is often monopolized by television, battery operated toys, or toddler/preschool programs that focus on drilling academics rather than fostering important play skills.  This has resulted in a generation of children who may not even know how to play when given the opportunity…how sad is that?

So in short, the answer to your question is yes, sensory play is crucial for your child’s development. And since children today are no longer given ample opportunities for naturally occurring sensory play, it is up to us as parents to be sure their needs are met.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

SPRING SENSORY BINS

This week I tried an activity with sensory bins for the first time. It was a total success! My 3 year-olds loved it.

The first bin was a “flower garden”. I used plastic flowers, painted cups as flower pots, plastic spoons, some real stones and 3 kg of black beans. The kids loved filling the cups, the sound the beans made, and “planting” the colourful flowers over and over again.

The second bin was a “frog pond”. I used 3 toy frogs, some small fish, several smooth river stones, a plastic water lily and water beads you can buy in any flower shop. To make it more exciting for the kids I hid the stones and most of the fish under the water beads so they could discover the “little treasures” by themselves.

We have 25 kids in a class so you have to plan and organize this kind of activities really well. My kids played in each bin in groups of five for 6-7 minutes. While 2 groups were playing, the rest were doing something else. In this case, I had another teacher with me through the whole class and she was making a flower mural with the rest of the kids, using plastic bottles. When they had finished playing they drew a picture of spring on a sheet of paper.

Why use sensory bins?

Kids look at,  touch, smell, and taste just about anything they come in contact with- this is how they learn. When their senses are stimulated, messages are sent to their brain which builds neural pathways that are needed for future learning. Sensory bins are a means of getting all the benefits of sensory play (language development, concentration, confidence, etc..) without having to clean up a huge mess! Because the aspects of the play are generally confined to the bin, clean up is a breeze! Sensory bins are also fantastic for fine motor practice.