Jungle Sensory Bin

Our most recent sensory bin we've been playing with is jungle animals! My son is starting to say the names of the animals, so I thought this would be a good reinforcement. 

The materials I used include dry oatmeal for the base, a jungle animal play set ($3.00 at Walmart), and a cutout circle for a pond. I used scrapbook paper that looks like water.

He really enjoyed playing in it until the oatmeal started flying. Then it was time for clean-up!

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Texture Book

We made texture books a couple of weeks ago. Very simple idea. Here are some photos of things we put in them. The children glued whatever they wanted in it and then we dictated as they described what it was or what it felt like.

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Thinky Linky Thursday

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Featured this week on Thinky Linky Thursday:

The 5 Senses from Mama of Many Blessings

And both from Criss-Cross Applesauce

Jelly Bean Color Game

Jelly Bean Pattern Mats

Congrats! Seeing as both the ladies at Criss-Cross and Mama of Many Blessings already have my featured button, I won't post it up this week.

Shaving Cream Fun

This week, we have been revisiting the 5 senses, specifically our sense of touch. So, we began exploring with shaving cream. 

I just placed some on a tray with a small amount of paint and encouraged the children to mix it up with their hands. Surprisingly, some did not want to get their hands messy and some wouldn't touch it at all.

Then we smoothed it out and tried writing in it with our finger or a popsicle stick. 

Then, the kids got the idea to make their hand prints on paper with the colored shaving cream still on them.

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Week in Review:Making Noise!

This week we have been studying the sense: hearing. We learned about letter-sounds, animal sounds and sounds we hear in the environment. Also, I checked out a sounds kit from our resource room and here are some of the activities included in it:

1-Rubber Band Music

We used a peg board similar to this with different size and width rubber bands to compare the different sounds they make.

2-Sound Matching Blocks

These are really cool. Children shake wooden cubes to hear each unique rattling sound and find its match.

3-Whistling Tube

Spin these bad boys around real fast and they make a whistling sound. The kids love it!

4-Sorting (Makes noise vs. doesn't)

This activity is pretty self-explanatory.

Storytime Sunday: Hearing and Sounds

The children in my class have shown interest in the 5 senses which we introduced 2 weeks ago, so we are now going to break it down and study a different sense each week. This week we are starting with hearing. So, here are some excellent books we will be reading that are about sounds.

Of course, you know I will include my requisite Eric Carle book. This is a great book where all the animals make their sounds, but the baby cricket can't figure out how to make his wings rub together to make his sound until the end where the book actually makes a cricket sound (if your batteries aren't dead like mine are, LOL)

Another good Eric Carle book about sounds is The Very Busy Spider. Here is a Youtube video of someone reading it with all the animal sounds included.

LOVE LOVE LOVE Sandra Boynton. This book is about the animal sounds too, but one animal says la la la instead. This book is great especially for younger kids because there are very few words and it's a board book.

Awesome for ABC recognition and the descriptive words provide a lot of imagery and allow the students to use their creativity and imagination when listening to the story.

Great book for rhyming and sounds. Includes things children might hear in everyday life. It also has great illustrations that lend themselves to discussion.

 

This book I was a little worried about when I picked it up from the library (I had ordered it online), because it was so thick and looked like a book for older children, but look below at some of the poems in it. Very short and use wonderful sound words.

HAPPY READING FRIENDS!

My 5 Senses

This week we are studying our 5 senses. Here is the post with the books we read and here is the Texture Sequencing Sticks activity that we worked on. We also had the kids do tree bark rubbings, a chart in our science observation notebook about how different items feel and each day we made a list for one of the senses. For example, Wednesday we named something you can hear with your ears. This was used also as a great transition tool as when the child names something, they can choose an area or go wash their hands. We also sang the Peanut Butter and Jelly song and the Make a Pizza song during which we discussed how each flavor tastes and what toppings we would put on our pizzas. During mealtimes we also discussed how different foods tasted. We will most likely be breaking down this topic into individual lessons on some of the senses, especially hearing as the children love to play musical instruments and sing!

And, if that's not enough content for you to begin your 5 senses unit, here is a great resource with TONS of ideas.

Storytime Sunday: 5 Senses

This week's study topic is The 5 Senses. Here are the books we will be reading. Again, all big books.

I love how this book uses such great descriptive words.

Love the rhyming words in this book!