Spring / Easter Sensory Bin: Learning Colors & Sorting

Happy Spring! 

What's Inside?
I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased plastic eggs, flower gems, and jelly beans for this bin. My son was given the wind up chick and bunny as a gift and I thought they would be perfect to put into this bin as well. I placed green tissue paper beneath the jelly beans and flower gems to give a green grass effect.

 

Play & Learn

While exploring this exciting bin with his hands, my son was able to sort jelly beans and flower gems by color into the correct egg. This is great practice with learning colors, sorting, and fine motor skills. My son also loves to shake the eggs like maracas and listen to the noise when they are filled. So much fun! 

Pointing out the yellow egg:



 

Searching for and finding the purple jelly bean to put into the purple egg:

 

 

Each egg is labeled so my son can start to recognize color names:

 

My son also sorted the flower gems from the bin into the correct egg color:

 

Here he is sorting:

 

My son had so much fun with his new sensory bin!

He kept exploring the eggs by opening and closing them:

 

We are so excited to finally welcome Spring! This Spring / Easter sensory bin was so much fun and very inexpensive to create. There is so much for my son to explore and learn from this bin!

 

-Deborah

 

 

 

Many Busy Activities For Toddlers - Simple & Inexpensive

Today I am sharing an assortment of ideas to keep little ones engaged and entertained for hardly any cost at all. Here are some of my go-to activities that I use with my toddler:

Create patterns with an ice cube tray and pom poms

 

DIY sticker book with cardboard

I-spy flash card game ($1 pack at Michaels craft store)

 

I-spy animal recognition game using pictures from Baby Einstein book

 

Learning colors with play-dough balls

Learning shapes with play-dough

 

Painting with water

 

Pom Pom push through bucket holes

 

Toddler speech game - Have child choose an item from the bag and name each item

 

Sticky ball counting - Toss balls onto glass door and count (Sticky items were purchased at Michaels for $1 each)

 

These activities have been so helpful with keeping my son busy at home on days the weather was terrible or when I wasn't feeling well. These ideas are a nice break from watching television or movies. We often just put on some music and play!

 

-Deborah



Alphabet Match - Learning Letters Activity

 

Here is another simple introduction to the alphabet. I used my sons magna doodle and magnetic letters that came with a book to create another letter match activity. I started out basic, as shown above, by having him match only three letters at a time. Eventually, he will be able to complete the whole alphabet as he gets more familiar with saying and seeing each letter. 

 



Sometimes using different items in a new way will lead to a great activity to set up at home. This cost me no extra money and it is a wonderful go-to activity for my son who is starting to learn and say letters.

-Deborah

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Close Up

As I mentioned in the February Valentine's Day sensory bin post, my goal this year is to introduce my son to holidays and special occasions that we celebrate as a family. This St. Patrick's Day themed sensory bin was perfect to create for the month of March. I had so much fun making this bin for my son. I purchased all of the items in the bin from the dollar store. Here is what I included in this bin:

dry bean mix, foam shamrocks, gold tinsel, plastic shamrock necklace cut into pieces, rainbow pom pom mix, green cups to scoop and pour, colorful sequin mix

It is always so exciting to watch my son explore new sensory bins. Providing him with rich sensory experiences to manipulate in his own way makes these bins so much fun!

-Deborah

Ocean Sensory Bin Play

Recently, my son has shown a huge interest in the ocean and creatures that live in the ocean. I decided to make him a new ocean sensory bin. I purchased all of the materials that I included in the bin from the dollar store.

Here is what I included:
clear water beads, colorful glass beads, colorful sequin mix, glow in the dark ocean creature mix, one large shell to scoop and pour with (I made sure there were no sharp edges)

 

My son loves the feel of the water beads in his hands. He also likes when I go through and name all of the creatures in the bin. Instead of including a cup, I showed my son how to scoop and pour with the shell. This sensory bin would work wonderfully on a light table as well.

-Deborah

DIY Alphabet Learning Activity

Here is a great activity for young children that are beginning to recognize and name letters. I created this alphabet activity today for my son by upcycling a plastic apple container, attaching alphabet stickers, and using a box of Melissa & Doug letters. It was so easy to create!

 

One way to use this activity with children is to have them match the lowercase letters to the lowercase letter sticker. There were two spots left in the container so I filled it will the letters for my son to pick from as he completed the activity with me.

 

 

A second way to use this activity is to match the uppercase letters to the lowercase letter stickers. A third way is to match both uppercase and lowercase letters into the correct letter sticker spot.

This is an easy activity to keep on the shelf folded together with the letters inside for anytime my son wants to play with it. I happened to have alphabet stickers and the Melissa & Doug letters around the house so this fantastic learning activity cost me no extra money to create. I love the idea of upcycling something as simple as an apple container and watching my son gain such valuable learning experiences from it!

-Deborah

Toddler Bottle Cap Activity

 

I'm always trying to figure out what kind of activity I can create for my son with any large box I have saved at home. I also save caps from bottles and containers. I decided to use them along with a large coffee box I had saved to create a toddler bottle cap drop activity. The result was a great fine motor toddler activity that I modified for my son as he grew older.

The first way I used this box was with one size of caps. I cut an opening in the box that was the same size of the caps and he simply pushed the caps into the slot. He loved watching and listening to the caps drop into the box. When this seemed to get too easy for my son, I created a second way to play with the box. I used bottle and container caps of different sizes and added more openings to the box. My son had a great time figuring out which caps fit correctly into each slot. This was an easy activity that cost no extra money to create. It is amazing how often I find that trash can easily be turned into treasured play experiences as shown in the two pictures above.

-Deborah