Little Stars Learning: Christmas Sensory Bin

Monday, December 15, 2014

Christmas Sensory Bin

I was told, and I quote,
"This is the BEST sensory bin we have EVER had! It's SO pretty, too!"

It's also been one of the most played. I have to take it away, because they will play with it for HOURS. Seriously, if left down, it would be played with by someone one for the entire day.

What's included:

OLD apple cinnamon potpourri, so the oils have faded and the scent is just a hint of its original
Pine cones
Cinnamon sticks
Jingle bells of multiple sizes and colors for sorting*
Plastic candy canes*
Red tinsel*
Green curled ribbon
Bell garland*
Ornament garland*
Styrofoam packing chunks
Fabric snowflakes*
Chunk of fake pine garland
Snowy pine tree minis*

*From the dollar store

I really wanted some real pine bough, but I could only find them for $25, so...NO.

Note that all of these children are around 3 or older. Several items would not be age appropriate for children who still put things in their mouths.

Of course the tinsel became a boa first off..

They've been playing with this for the last two weeks now, so it's showing it's wear today, but often all you see is the "pretty" pictures of sensory, not the activeness of the activity.

The fine motor work of making "snow" out of the Styrofoam was a lot of work and one of the better fine motor activities they have done. They are STILL working at it, two weeks later.

They love scooping and stacking the jingle bells, placing them in containers to jingle, and using the scoop for centrifugal jingly movement.

With the leavings from mass deconstruction, they decorate the mini trees for Christmas.

A LOT of sorting has been going on, and off course, play feeding me some jingle bell soup.

While we have our standard containers they play with, I love seeing how they improvise. The bells are mostly used as vessels that get filled then poured one into the other.