Sensory Bins – Page 5 – Butterbees and Bumbleflies

Apple Theme Center

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your participation!

I’m all about quick, easy ideas that I can throw together in just a few minutes. This center was not one of those ideas. So if you are just starting with sensory activities for your kiddos, this is not the place to start. BUT – any one of these ideas on their own IS a fabulous start. You just might not be ready to put them all together on one day to create a center.

If you’ve read my blog much, you know that Becca is typically satisfied for quite a little bit the first time I intro an activity, and then beyond that, it usually only gets about 5-10 mins of play in a day, every now and again. The great thing about this center is that she has really been glued to it for quite a while, and will go and select a different activity different times… which makes me happy since I did take about an hour to put it all together. (As an aside – I’ve started this week going around and putting away old activities – storing them in labeled Ziploc bags – so that in a couple months I can pull them back out and they will be new again. Sneaky Mommy! 😉 )

The first thing you’ll need for your center is a place to put everything. Maybe you have an adorable little bookshelf that everything goes on fabulously. Or maybe you have a water table like ours (aff link) that is just waiting to be filled…

Here are the activities in my Apple Theme Center:

Word Building/Reading
Apple Sorting/Tossing
Rock Dumping/Shaking
Ten Apples Up On Top Reading/Building

Word Building/Reading
This activity has been in my brain for a while, but I hesitated to do it with her because I actually don’t have a set of magnetic letters. And then it hit me – I DO have magnet tape! So, I wrote the words I wanted on index cards, and cut out the letters. Then I stuck tiny pieces of magnet tape on the back! This little sheet tray I got at Dollar Tree in the cooking section. It’s also the perfect size for her little hands to haul out of the center and over the automan or couch for more intense play just focused on this activity. She has begun to try to read the words as sight words, and is doing really well.

Apple Sorting/Tossing
Again with Dollar Tree – I found these little green and red apples in the home decor section, and then I pulled the red and green buckets from her Farmer’s Market Set (Get Yours Here – Aff Link) and she can sort them. She has also enjoyed setting the bucket on the ground and stepping back to toss the apples into the correct bucket – making it a great gross motor activity, as well.

Rock Dumping/Shaking
I read somewhere that you could make rocks or other hard materials scented by adding tea leaves to them (I honestly don’t remember where), so I got these green rocks, again, at Dollar Tree in the home decor section – literally right next to the apples – and I added Apple Crumble Black Tea to it – so they smell like apples! I had thoroughly cleaned and dried out a coffee creamer bottle, which is absolutely perfect for this activity. She loves to use the funnel and scoop to put the rocks into the bottle, then close the lid, shake it, and then open the lid and shake the rocks back into the bowl. It’s turned into a super fun activity that covers several of the senses. (SO IF YOU’RE JUST SELECTING ONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES TO START WITH, THIS IS A GREAT ONE!)

Ten Apples Up On Top Reading/Building
We LOVE the book Ten Apples Up On Top. So when I saw this idea from Ellen over at Cutting Tiny Bites, I just new we HAD to do it. Here’s how we extended her activity a tad. I printed up this sheet (FREE PRINTABLE HERE!) of ten apples, and let Becca paint them. (I had planned to do red, green, and yellow, and then discovered we were out of paint. So that might be an extension you’d want to add.. so that as you build, you can build a pattern!) After they had dried, I cut them out and taped them onto ten blocks. We only had nine that matched, so the tenth one is the “roof,” as Becca calls it. So here’s how you do it – as you read the book, you stack an apple block on top each time that the animals in the book add an apple. It’s super fun. Although if you pick a heavy top block like we did, you’ll end up with all ten apples up… and then dropping. But, that just adds to the fun!
Looking for the Ten Apples Up On Top Board Book? Here you go! (aff link)
Looking for wooden blocks? Try this set! (aff link)

Fyi – your Apple Theme Center will not stay looking like my top picture for very long. After lots of love, it might look something like this… but just know that this means its being well loved, and your child is getting lots of benefit from it… and if your magnet board looks like ours, you’ll know your hubby has been playing as well. 😉

Total Mommy Prep Time: All told, it probably took about an hour to put it all together – maybe a little longer?
Total Becca Play Time: She spent about 45 minutes here the first day, and has easily spent 15 minutes every day since then on these activities. VERY beneficial and well worth my time to put it together!

Traveling Tuesday – Sensory Bins for Grandma’s House

As a travel agent, I often look for tips to help my clients have a better experience wherever they are going. Even on road trips. Especially on road trips. Especially on road trips… with kids. Our own children are far from easy to deal with on the road. Grayson is NOT fond of his car seat. On many levels… but especially if the car isn’t moving. Sadly, there’s not a whole lot I can do for him. BUT – the other thing he’s not fond of, I do have more control over – that being Becca’s volume. When she gets tired and frustrated, she gets LOUD. Really, really LOUD. And then Brother starts crying even harder and louder. And then Mommy and Daddy really just need ear plugs because there’s nothing we can do. We have been known to pull into a Burger King parking lot way after dark and attempt to tame the savage beasts a little by reading books and feeding a bottle. But honestly, we are still on the search for what works for us in the car. (And yes, I’ve tried a million cute games and magazines and magna doodle things. But, when it’s bed time, it’s just bed time, and nothing can change that.) So, my “Traveling Tuesday” posts the next few weeks leading up to your holiday travels for Thanksgiving will have tips and tricks for traveling with your kids, but it may be a while before they include anything for on the road… B/c we are still searching for that secret.

So today’s tip is about once you get to your destination – our trip was to the Grandparent’s house. The grandparents have great toys that are different from what we have, but I also know that it’s good to bring something familiar just in case little Miss Picky decides she doesn’t like any of the toys and the “I’m BORED!” statement comes out. Thankfully, we did really well on this trip – I think because Mommy packed lots of stuff to do in addition to all the fun stuff already there.

Becca loves sensory bins. And she loves sorting. She played with this bin a little bit there, and then has played with it a lot at home. So… how do you travel with a sensory bin? Because you’re probably thinking of a large tub with a lot of messy junk in it, right? WRONG. A traveling sensory bin should be something basic and simple, and not very messy. And most importantly, it needs to go in a traveling container that has a lid. You need something like this. (aff link – thank you!) I found some that were different colors, so mine is purple, not white like this one. But the important features are the lid, the clips to hold it closed, and the handle.

So what did I put inside mine? I got paper flower petals from www.consumercrafts.com (not an affiliate link, but it seriously should be as much as I love their stuff and tell everyone in the world about their website…), threw in some little white shiny poms for a different texture, and then did what I’m starting to become famous for – took foam butterfly stickers and stuck them together to create some nice thick, cushy foam butterflies.

Here’s one way she can interact with the bin – by sorting the flower petals by color, and putting the poms in a bowl. She seems to enjoy pulling out the butterflies and flying them around the room more, though. I’m good with that. In a couple days, I plan to throw all this stuff in a big ziploc bag, and hide it in the cabinet til Spring comes around. But with a little girl who loves flowers and butterflies, it’s NEVER off-season to make a butterfly/flower petal sensory bin! 🙂 I’m already starting to contemplate what sort of non-horribly-messy fall stuff I can throw in a bin… pictures will no doubt come later.

Total Prep Time for Mommy: This one took a tad longer than it should have b/c I had the darndest time peeling the back off of some of the butterflies to stick them together! I had estimated it’d take me about three minutes to dump it all together into the box, but with my sticker issues, it took more like 10 minutes.
Total Play Time for Becca: The first time, she was highly distracted (at grandparent’s house, remember), so she played with it off and on over the course of 30-45 minutes. At home, she has played with it exclusively for up to 15 minutes.

Apple Volcano

There are LOTS of blog posts out there about how to make apple volcanoes, but if you haven’t done this with your kids, you really really should. It’s super fun to make the apple “explode.” Simply cut the core out, leaving the bottom in tact. Pour baking soda down inside the apple, and replace the core. Then, place it on a tray and pour vinegar over top! That simple! Becca enjoyed sticking her hands inside the “bubbles” and feeling the volcano. Then, she found the vinegar smell interesting, and enjoyed playing in the soap in the sink to help her hands smell better. All in all, it was a super fun after dinner activity!

Melting Beads

For those reading this who have already had snow this month, this activity might not be for you… but for those in South Texas, where it’s still hitting 90+ every day, this activity is still quite in season. To set it up, I hauled our water table inside, dumped in a bunch of water beads into the table, and let her play for a while. Then, we added ice cubes of various shapes, and she played for a while – but she wanted a spoon b/c they were just “too too cold, Mommy!” HA! Over the course of about an hour, she kept coming back to the table. Then, we decided (mutually – mainly her idea) to see if we could melt the ice cubes faster. I suggested that we could try Mommy’s hair dryer. She said, “no, probably not.” So I said, “well, we could try salt!” She thought that was the silliest idea she’d ever heard. So, I got out the ice cream salt and she helped me dump the salt on top. The ice, of course, started to immediately melt. And so did the beads. It was really cool – they started to split and dissolve, and we were both really into it. It was fun. A mess to clean up later, but fun. 🙂

Jack-o-Lantern Sensory Art

So I decided to go WAY out of my comfort zone, and do a spin off of this activity from Hands on: as we grow and make jack-o-lanterns! So glad we did… it was a BLAST! Not something we’ll do every day, by any means, but it was super fun.

Like Jamie did in her activity with her son, George, I gave Becca a tray of shaving creme, let her mix the yellow and red food coloring, and just play. Then, I added glue and gold glitter. Man, she loved it! She most enjoyed when I got my hands in it too and we could hold hands and do finger play together in the goop. (Meant that I didn’t get very many pictures, but I know you’ll pardon that since it just means we were having so much fun!) Then, true to form, she started spreading it on her legs, tummy, arms… and when Daddy got home from work and saw what we were doing and said it was shaving creme, she proceeded to “shave” her legs. Ya’ll, this must be some innate sense that is born into little girls b/c she has NEVER SEEN ME DO THIS! HA! She doesn’t even know about shaving her legs. Ha! Hilarity ensued. I’ve cropped a pic here so you can see just a glimpse of how much shaving creme she had on herself. It was just too much fun.

Once she started to get a little “done” with the activity, I pulled out four paper plates – two large and two small – and let her cover the plates in the foamy paint she had mixed up. We let them dry, and went to the bath tub for a wash down. The next morning, after they were totally dry, I cut out black triangles and rectangles and let her glue them on for eyes, nose, and mouths for her jack-o-lanterns. She really enjoyed squeezing the glue, but needed help. Gotta work on that pincer grip still! Then, the next day, I attached them to our butcher paper, and we sounded out some words to make our label for the page. Super fun project that took a while to complete, but that’s ok… we need all the entertainment we can get around here! HA!