Sight Word Sensory Hunt

We have recently begun a study on food and grocery store, so here is one of our activities. In the sensory table, I placed spiral pasta, foam letters, and various scoops, shovels, etc. Then, I added some sight words onto a bulletin board right above. The children are to hunt out the letters to try to spell their sight words. Not only does this give them practice with sight words, but alphabet recognition as well.

Also, I chose these sight words intentionally to reinforce what they have been learning on the bus.

Easter Sensory Bin: Keeping it Simple

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!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Bubblegum Scented Water Bead Play

CAUTION! Before I begin, I want to warn you that these water beads are not meant for children to play with. The pack even says keep away from children. I am not sure what they are made of or how harmful they may be if ingested, so please use these at your own risk!

I have been seeing these water beads all over the blogosphere and wanted to try them out. I happened across some the other day at Joann's, so I decided to get some to make a sensory bin for my son.

Here is what I used: Bath Fizzy: $1 in dollar section of Target

Water Beads (about half a pack): 2.99 at Joann's

Medicine Dropper and Scoop: About $1.50 at Walmart

Here are some close-ups: 

As you can see, when I added the bath fizzy, the beads began to absorb it and shrink up. They were floating in the water, so I drained some of the water out. I am not sure how much scent there actually was since the beads were absorbing it!

 He LOVES pouring and the duckies are also faves of his!

He had lots of fun until he began to smack at the beads and make them fly all over the room, so we had to call it a day :)

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Rice Sensory Table

I am so sorry that Wishlist Wednesday got messed up this week! I made a scheduling mistake and accidentally reminded the wrong person to get their post ready, so I will hopefully be rescheduling the person who I thought was supposed to post for today.

Anyways, instead here is some things we've been doing with rice in the sensory table this week.

We measured and poured. Using the sand toy, we discovered how pouring something into the top makes the wheel spin.

We shoveled, raked and funneled.

We used seasoning shakers from the kitchen area to fill with rice and pretend it was salt or just to shake them up and hear the sound it makes.

Tomorrow, we will be having an ABC treasure hunt by digging in the rice to find some hidden letters!

What have you done with rice? Next time, I want to try to make the colored rice I have been seeing all over other blogs and Pinterest such as these... 

Share and Remember: Rainbow Rice and Garden Sensory Play

Just for Daisy: Playing with Rainbow Rice

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Storytime Sunday: Snow

Here is my selection of snow/winter books for this week. These are only few of the MANY great children's books about winter. They were just a few I happened to have in my personal collection that I have been using with my son this weekend as we have begun exploring snow. The Snowy Day is an older book that I'm sure most of you have read. I like it because it describes actions that children can replicate in the snow. While not particularly about snow, the book On the Night You Were Born is a wonderful book and there are some really awesome outdoor pictures including the polar bears in the snow.

Here are some photos of my sensory bin I used with my 1 year old. I actually left the blue lights in here from the light box I had made and covered it with a white towel then lined it with cotton balls. The blue lights shine through a little bit, just enough to give it that glow that ice sometimes gets when it's really thick. 

CAUTION: DO NOT TRY THIS WITH THE LIGHTS! I had to take my lights out today because they got nearly hot enough to melt the toys inside. Just use some tissue paper or foam under the towel or no towel at all. Just to eliminate the fire hazard completely. Sorry.

The snowflakes are cut out of wrapping paper. There is metallic wrapping paper for a frozen pond with a small snowman figure.

After L played awhile, I decided to give him another empty bin to transfer the cotton balls into since he mostly wanted to take them out of the bin. Also, we added some measuring cups for scooping and pouring.

 At school, we brought some snow inside as it was too cold to go outside. The kids had a blast with it and wanted some art materials to help them build their snowman. I also brought snow in for L to play with at home this weekend and some ice from our newly working ice maker, but as soon as I went to take the photo, L began to fuss. Figures!

We also made sparkly snowflakes with glitter. We used the printable pattern from here. I was going to let the kids cut them out, but once folded, it was too thick for their little scissors to cut through, so I did it for them.

What books have you been reading about winter?

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP