I decided to make a very simple sensory bin for L. Just colored rice in pastel colors and easter eggs. They are empty because almost anything that will fit in them would be a choking hazard for his age, but for older children you can put some things inside such as erasers, small cars or balls, etc.
When putting together a sensory bin, it is important to think of what you want the child(ren) to learn from the experience. For this I chose scooping, pouring and filling. Mostly because those are things that L likes to do and are on his developmental level.
I have to admit I am guilty of this myself, but some sensory bins are bordering on sensory overload. I look at some of them and am not even sure I, as an adult, would know where to begin. So just make sure you think about the purpose, developmental level of the children, and ability when deciding on what materials to include in yours.
Here is what it looked like before.
L getting hands-on with the rice and eggs.
I'm pretty sure he was trying to climb right in there to get a better look!
Filling the eggs with rice.
More filling.
L could not close the eggs on his own, so I helped him and they formed sort of like shakers which he totally LOVED. He would pick each one up and shake it. If it didn't make any sound, he picked up another until he found one that made noise.
And here is the rice afterwards. All mixed up, the pastel colors still look just as pretty!
I appreciate your comment on how sometimes you feel like your sensory bins turn into sensory overload - when I was teaching kindergarten, I was very cautious about that also.
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