Easter Sensory Bin with Learning Activities

Time to change out the sensory bin from March to April. Since we are doing a full-on regarding holidays this year, since the bigs are heading off to kindergarten in the fall, Easter is the theme.

I wanted to use birdseed as our fill-n-pour, but the girls insisted that we use the red/white/blue rice.

There are many learning activities available with this sensory bin.

What's in it?

1 egg carton

18 plastic eggs*

18 colored feathers

1 set of egg dying baskets*

1 package of small/medium/large colored pom poms*

3 bunny plastic eggs*

1 package pink/green/blue styrofoam glitter eggs*

8 chick plastic eggs*

1 package Easter erasers*

crimped paper shreds

colored rice

*From the dollar store

Additional: tools, baskets, containers

The Learning Games

Number Matching 1-18:

At the bottom of the 18 egg carton, I wrote the numbers in colored Sharpie. The colors give a visual clue of the color of the egg for those children less skilled. For the more advanced, they usually grab an egg then look for a number, often disregarding the color coordination. 

Color Matching - Eggs:

For children who don't know their numbers, the egg carton can be used a simple color matching game with the color of the written number to the color of the eggs.

Color Matching - Feathers:

18 colored feathers are included in the bin, allowing for the same color matching activity, but with feathers.

Which Chick Has the Egg?

One child places a small egg into a chick and puts it back into the "nest." The other child[ren] take turns picking out a chick by number, and looking inside to see if that the one. If not, the chick gets closed and replaced and another turn is taken until the egg is found. Works prediction and number recognition 1-8.

Color Sorting Bunny Tails:

Sorting the pom pom "bunny tails" into the egg dying cups. These cups aren't that sturdy, so I've wrapped them in packing tape this year to see if they hold up. If not, I'll be buying small metal buckets for this activity in the future. They count how many are in each cup after sorting. Since they can't usually find all of them, or appropriate them, at every session, the quantities should change every time. 

The feathers can be sorted into the cups as well, but there are only 3 feathers of each color on purpose for the egg carton, and there isn't an orange cup in this set. So sorting the feathers in this cup set has limited value.

Sorting Bunny Tails by Size:

These bunny plastic eggs came as a set of 3. It works, as the pom poms came in small/medium/large and this is a good observation, logic/reasoning, and fine motor activity. They fill up the bunny bottoms then count how many were in each one as they take them back out. A good volume measurement introduction as well.

Bunny Color Sorting:

These styrofoam eggs only come in the blue/pink/green, so sorting them in the bunnies works. Again, counting how many once done.

Matching:

This set of Easter erasers just happens to have two of each style. Perfect for a simple matching game.

When I introduce the new sensory bin, I let them go at it for a while, then I introduce the learning games that I don't see them incorporating into their play. I simply do them while we play, and they pick up on any they are interested in and developmentally ready to perform.

They also make baskets, do fill-n-pour and have fun.

You may also be interested in our Spring Sensory Bin.

Follow Connie -'s board Easter Theme on Pinterest.
Tags: daycare, child care, preschool, pre-k, sensory, sensory bin, math, early math, science, gross motor, fine motor, homeschooling, kids, child, Easter, holiday, spring, egg, eggs, theme, curriculum, unit

Duck / Bunny Easter Preschool Puppet Craft

We also made these darling ducky/bunnies.

I looked at several printables for these, and this one, FREE from Kay Sommer on TPT, I felt was not only the best of the lot, but that I couldn't create one any better. 

I did, however, resize them to fit on a single sheet of paper. You could simply change your printer settings to print 2 pages on 1 sheet landscape.

The poems read: 

"My little duck is really funny, turn him over and he is a bunny."                        "My little bunny brings me luck, I turn him over and he is a duck."

The older children could read these through fine. A lot of their sight words are included, which I loved.

These were surprisingly successful. 

The older children did a remarkable job of coloring in the lines and cutting out their own. They were also able to add a yellow feather for the duck's wing and a cotton ball for the bunny's tail. the little ones didn't get those choking hazards.

We did several rounds of "5 Little Ducks" as a puppet show. It works out great since we have 6 students here. Five ducks and one momma. Everyone had to have a turn playing momma.

They randomly played with them throughout the day, and I hear at home as well.
Tags: Easter, chick, chicken, bunny, rabbit, craft, cut, paste, color, coloring, puppet, glue, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, elementary, spring, farm, nature, kid, kid's, 

Chicks Hand Print Preschool Easter Craft

This ended up being a DARLING craft project, and I loved that it had so many different elements.

It was also easy to differentiate for the older and little ones. For instance, the 4s had the option of tracing and cutting out their own circles. They also were allowed to use google eyes, and the littles used fingertip prints.

We started out with 1 sheet of white construction paper and 1/2 sheet of yellow.

I found two lids that would fit appropriately on the paper. These were 5 inches and 3 inches.

After gluing down the yellow circles with glue sticks, we did yellow handprints for the wings and orange handprints for the feet.

The older children cut yellow and orange yarn snips about 1 inch long and glued them on with white glue. The little ones helped me cut them with teacher-assist scissors. I helped them place the glue and they laid the yarn pieces down themselves.

While these are cute like this, I felt it needed some more.

So we used some of our crimped paper Easter grass to add to the bottom. They patted it onto a bed of white glue. After it dried, I trimmed the pieces even with the paper.

To make the black eye finger prints on the little one's chick look less soulless, I added in a small circle to each eye with a silver sharpie, since I couldn't find my white-out. 

I found this idea on Pinterest from funhandprintart.com. Other great ideas are available on my Pinterest Easter Theme board.
Tags: Easter, chick, chicken, bunny, rabbit, craft, cut, paste, color, coloring, puppet, glue, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, elementary, spring, farm, nature, kid, kid's, 

Spring/Garden Sensory Bin

Little Stars Learning

The children have loved our spring sensory bin.

Potting soil is heated to kill bacteria and other organisms, so it is great as a sensory bin filler, AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING ADDED such as fertilizer or water gel. You want the cheap-o kind.

The components and their learning activities:

FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES:

• Matching by color
• Grouping
• Pretend pollination
• Flower pot creation
• Fine motor
• Plant physiology
• Botany
• Biology

We tried making tissue paper flowers, but it was a craft FAIL, so I went ahead and bought silk ones at the dollar store. We made the butterflies, instructions at the end.

FRUITS & VEGETABLES with LABELS 

I gathered the plastic fruits and vegetables from the play kitchen. I went on-line and pulled images listed as FREE from the internet, printed them out, laminated, and adhered to craft sticks. I tried to make sure every growing type [vine, underground, above ground, etc.], and every type of edible part [root, leaf, seed, flower, etc.] was represented at least once, and preferably more than once.

• Sorting by item
• Sorting by type 
• Graphing
• Fine motor

FLOWER POTS

For ideas, I suggested that they could sort the plastic items into the pots by the size they actually become, or the plant labels. "Which pot would a watermelon go into? A radish?"

• Sizing
• Sorting
• Describing
• Fine motor

TOOLS

Scoops, cups, spoons, tweezers, containers, scrapers...

Tongs, funnels...and they had access to all our other sensory bin tools as well. These were just the ones I initially placed in there.

• Fine and gross motor
• Quantities
• Logic/reasoning
• Observation
  

SUN

Since the purpose is to discuss growing plants, I dropped a yellow balloon from the ceiling over where they played with the sensory bin as the sun. They thought that was great. We also got out the spray bottles and "rained" on the garden a few times.

• Biology
• Botony

BUTTERFLIES
We didn't have a fuse bead butterfly template, and I wanted them to be large enough not to easily break, so we used our heart template.

I fused one side, then they did the other. I fused that one. We made a circle for the head out of black beads which I fused and removed, then fused them all together between parchment paper.

It's a wonderful fine motor activity.

There are many activities they can do with this sensory bin, and they are still wanting to play with it a month after I first put it out...

Tags: sensory, bin, fine, motor, spring, spring sensory bin, garden, theme, unit, plants, growing, planting, gradening, farm, farming, crops, vegetables, fruits, labels, signs, flowers, child, care, daycare, preschool, pre-k, camp, summer 

Hand Print Flower Bouquet with Printable

These handprint flower bouquets turned out DARLING!

They were more teacher-assisted than I prefer for the under-4 crowd, but they make a cute keepsake of hand and finger print art. I believe 4 and over could do independently. 

We used them as a Mother's Day card on a 1/2 sheet of cardstock, but they would be a good craft for a Grandparent's Day card or garden, spring, or flower theme as well.

I loved the poem, but wanted a different font and pot design than the ones I found. So I re-did it in a 4 set to print out on the colored paper of the child's choice. I made the outside lines much wider to make it easier for little ones to cut out. 

My file has 4 different font styles and one page of blank pots. 

CLICK HERE TO PRINT OR DOWNLOAD

1. We did the handprint first, let dry 

2. Decided on the pot colors, printed out poem and cut out and glued on with a glue stick

3. Decided as a group on the flower colors we would use, and then stamped the flowers one color at a time using finger prints, let dry

4. Stamped the yellow centers using thumb prints

5. Wrote the child's name and the year at the bottom

I found the craft on Pinterest and followed the links to funhandprintart.blogspot.com and on to the poem from Tip Junkie.

SKILLS:
Social: following directions, taking turns
Math: counting fingers/stems, flowers, petals and centers; who has the tallest/widest/smallest handprint; left/right hand
Art: creative expression, color choice, mixed media, process art
Language and Literacy: poetry, headings, vocabulary, sentiment, writing name and date
Science: flower physiology
Fine Motor: hand and finger prints, cut, glue, writing
Tags: spring, Mother's Day, flower, garden, theme, unit, craft, art, handprint, hand, print, flower pot, bouquet, flowers, fingerprint, fine motor, daycare, childcare, preschool, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, first grade, 1st grade, paint, cut, paste, glue, poetry, poem

Cupcake Liner Garden Theme Craft

We did a cupcake liner flowers scene as a cut and paste craft for our spring theme. They turned out REALLY cute!

And the older one did another one, preschool level, for our Garden Theme.

Click HERE for printable.

For the first one...

We folded a piece of cardstock at the one-third mark to create a dividing line for the children to color the top two-thirds blue and the bottom one-third green.

I place a variety of green and blue crayons in the middle of the table for them to choose from. This is a good color recognition assessment. 

3 1/2 years old

2 1/2 years old

Obviously some skill differences between the ages, but even the just turned 2s were able to do blue on top and green on bottom for the most part.

Then we glued on the cupcake liners. As a fine motor skill, they helped in separating them out and placing them on the table. I asked if they wanted two or three flowers and then they counted out the spots to glue and number of liners to choose. Stick glue was best for this. School glue would have soaked up the liners.

In discussing flowers, it was decided they needed pollen in the middle, so a golden crayon was carefully sought out and utilized.

Then we added shelled sunflower seeds to the centers.

There was more fine motor dexterity involved than I had anticipated. Even the older girls had to work at picking up the little seeds and placing each one. It was an excellent fine motor activity.

Just turned 2 year old.

Since it is a CUT and paste activity, I let the 3 year old go at it with the scissors. I simply told her to cut a straight line to the end. She did REALLy well at it. If she had a piece too wide, I just asked her to cut it in half. We measured length on her picture and she cut them to size. 

She decided to cutting up one of her strips and ended up with a bunch of smaller pieces. So, she used these for leaves.

The younger children worked with me using teacher-assist scissors for their cutting.

One of them noticed the green crimped grass in the crafts bin, and wanted some. So, we added that to their grass areas. It made for a nicely textured art piece.

For the second one...

I printed out my template and folded the side and bottom back and let her paint blue, mixing the paint to her desired color.

Once dry, I folded it back and let her paint the bottom fourth brown. Then proceeded along in the same manner as the first one. However, I did draw out ovals for her to cut out for leaves, adding an additional fine motor skill of cutting on a curve.

For this one, she cut white yarn to glue on as roots. She got a little carried away with the glue, so I helped spread it out. Didn't she do an amazing job of getting the pieces the same size? I didn't tell her to do that. I actually wanted them different lengths, but hey, her project. We discussed how her yarn pieces were about one inch long and measured them with a ruler.

While I'm not into worksheets much, they do provide some good fine motor, spelling, letter recognition and writing practice occasionally, along with kindergarten readiness. At almost 4, she was able to sound out all these words, with me reminding her that oo says "oo" in roots.

We could have added a sun and cloud in the sky as an added science add-on. We just didn't. I used this to cover the parts of a plant, rather than what they need.

SKILLS:
Math: one-third, two-thirds, one-fourth, counting flowers, stems, seeds, length measurement
Science: parts of a plant, natural elements
Fine Motor: cut, glue, crayon grasp, painting, separating the cupcake liners, placing of the seeds/stem/grass/etc.  
Art: creative expression, mixed media, texture, 3D art, color recognition, color choice
Language: parts of a flower, fraction terms, 
Social: following directions
Tags: flower, craft, cupcake liner, flower craft, spring, mother's day, may, april, flowers, science, art, texture, mixed media, worksheet, parts of a flower, preschool, childcare, daycare, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, first grade, 1st grade, plant physiology, fine motor, skills, painting, cut, paste, glue, writing, spelling, word wall, printable, free