Easter Sensory Bin

So I've been wanting to make the boys' Easter sensory bin for awhile now and today I finally assembled it! Better late than never, right?

I had a lot of fun making this bin for them! I colored rice for the first time and it was so fun and easy! The boys even helped with the food coloring and shaking of the ziploc bag!

Items in the Sensory Bin:

• Colored Rice for scooping, pouring, dumping
• Easter/Spring Erasers-Target $1 section
• Easter themed measuring spoons- a gift from my sweet mama
• Plastic Easter eggs- recycled from last year

JP's first exploration of the bin. At first he was tentative, but then he enjoyed hiding the erasers.

Little brother joined the fun! Both of them enjoyed scooping the rice.

I think CA likes it!

 I look forward to watching them explore, scoop, dump, pour,make patterns, and just have fun!

Linked up to these awesome parties!

Valentine's Day Sensory Bin

Here is our Valentine's Day/February Sensory Bin! I am having a lot of fun making sensory bins for my boys!

Here is a picture and list of the materials I used before I assembled the bin.

Materials:
Red Mail Box from Target
Heart Foam Shaped stickers from Walmart
Valentine theme Erasers from Walmart
Heart erasers from Target
Heart shaped ice cube trays from Target
Heart shaped boxes from The Dollar Tree
Red, Purple, and White pom poms

The boys were so excited to watch me take these pictures and then assemble the bin that they wanted to "play" with the bin right away! Here they are exploring it for the first time. JP quickly got the tongs out to use also.

I see many activities of sorting, tonging, transferring, patterns, and so much more in our future with this bin. I also plan to leave them a message in the mail box too each day in Feb. Looking forward to so many fun activities for Valentine's Day in February with these two sweet love bugs!

Check out the awesome Linky Parties that I linked up to this week! 
I consider this activity frugal and thrifty as I bought most or all of the items at the $1 section of Target or at The Dollar Tree. I will also use many of the items in the bin for other activities in the 2 weeks to come. I also reuse my pom poms in each sensory bin. :)

Snowman/Winter Activities

We have had a fabulous week exploring our winter and snowmen theme! Here are a few (ok maybe more than a few) pictures from our week.

So to be real honest, Monday morning didn't quite go as I had hoped. JP didn't really want to do the activities I had planned.  So I decided to lay low and not push it. I then laid out our sensory bin and left it while I cut another activity. Before I knew it they were enthralled with it!

This time around I laid out our favorite blanket and instructed them to keep all sensory bin items on the blanket. :) This worked much better to try to keep the items contained.

JP made a cave for the polar bears.

Before I knew it they were both beading the pipe cleaners all on their own. 

One thing I really enjoy is to sit back and watch them explore the sensory bins on their own. At times, the "teacher" in me wants to direct their learning and thinking right away, but it is so much more rewarding and fun to watch them learn on their own.My goals for the sensory bin are for the boys to sort objects, make and extend patterns, work on fine motor skills by scooping, pouring and transferring. Some days they have their own agenda and that is ok too!

Next we began working on the Snowman, Snowman, What do you See printable from Playing with Words 365, which is awesome! The boys LOVED it! First I read the book to the boys and then they glued the pictures on each page. The winter vocabulary in this activity is awesome. I also love all the questions that are provided in the "lesson guide".

 Lately, the boys have loved taking a few pictures with my camera. So here is the real mama on a weekday with no make up and comfy clothes. Please tell me the rest of you awesome mamas look the same daily?!?! Why put on my face, if I'm not leaving the house?!

CA LOVED putting his pictures in his book. Then he "read" the book to me numerous times. So precious! 

Then out of the blue JP says to me, "Mommy, wouldn't it be cool if I could draw a picture of myself with winter clothes on?!" Well to his surprise that is an extension activity provided with this printable!

He was so excited and proud of himself when he finished!

Then we pulled out all of our "winter gear" and pretended to dress up. This kept them occupied and engaged for a long amount of time! They loved this and wanted to do it first thing Tuesday morning too!

Nice pink scarf, son! 

All in all Monday morning was a blast, even if didn't quite start as I had hoped, but as I've said before I am learning to be flexible! And let my kiddos lead the learning!


Tuesday morning was a ton of fun too! I decided to try something new by allowing CA to work on a few activities/trays on his own while JP worked at the table. I've seen a lot of tot school activities on trays for younger learners and thought I would give this a try. So far CA did well with it.

CA is working on his colors so I allowed him to sort the new magnetic wooden letters by color. 

Then he laced his new Melissa and Doug Lace and Trace animal cards.

 We then began working on the Snowman Tot Pack from Royalbaloo.

Cutting practice

Tracing practice

Tracing practice for CA

 Then we pulled out salt to make shapes and letters in! Such fun!

 Then JP wanted to get the polar bears out of the sensory bin to play in the "snow" as he called it. So off he went to find them. Again, this one was all his idea. Love that!

We also played with white and blue playdoh to top off the fun for the day!

I also made snowman shaped sandwiches one day for lunch.

So here are a few more trays with activities on them that we used this week. I found this awesome Snowman Colors printable at The "Kids Place ".

 I modified this activity for CA today by only putting out 7 upper case and lower case letters to match. He aced it and I will have to add more for him next week.I am enjoying the "tray" idea and will need to do it more often. :)

 Here are the books we've been reading. Remember I have a little bit of a book/library addiction. :) Please tell me I am not the only one? :)

Then CA blew me away with the next activity by laying out all the alphabet cards (on his own initiative)  and then he matched Leap Frog letters to the cards. He did a great job and was so proud of himself and so was his mama!

 

We also painted snow pictures with cotton balls to wrap up the learning!  

Overall we have had a great week!
Feel free to leave me comments about what you've been up to with your littles!
I LOVE reading each comment and really try to respond to each one!
Happy Learning!
Trina

Linking up here:
Thrifty Thursday-Playing with Words 365
What's on the Tray Wed-H is for Homeschooling
Thinky Linky Thursday- Cachey Mama's Classroom
Preschool Corner- Homeschool Creations
Fun Stuff Fridays-Toys in the Dryer
Sharing Saturday

Winter Sensory Bin

So I am having a lot of fun making these sensory bins and my boys LOVE them, which is even better. Prior to blogging about our preschool learning adventure, I didn't know what a sensory bin was and my learning curve has been straight up! I am just having fun with it and allowing my boys to explore the items in it.

The next two weeks we are going to be learning about winter and snow. I have a ton of ideas floating in my head and bookmarked already. It should be a ton of fun.

Here is our winter sensory bin that we will explore first thing on Monday.

In it the boys will find:

cotton balls

stryofoam balls(Dollar Tree)

snowman and polar bear erasers(Dollar Tree)

blue and white beads

blue and white pom poms

blue and white pipe cleaners

a few silver snowflake stickers

winter sight words

I can't wait to watch them sort, make patterns, and have fun with this bin! 

 Linked up at:

Thrifty Thursday at Playing with Words
Thinky Linky Thursday: A Day in Preschool
TGIF-Living Life Intentionally
What's on the Tray Wednesday-H is for Homeschooling
Fun Stuff Friday-Toys in the Dryer
Sharing Saturday-Crafty Moms Share
Show and Share Saturday- I Can Teach My Child
Sensory Tub Ideas-Our Worldwide Classroom

New Year's Sensory Bin and Plans/Activities...

We are getting ready to ring in 2012 together as a family! 

I saw this great idea for a New Year's number sensory bin at Mom's Heart and decided to recreate it for my boys. They loved it.

I used foam numbers from a puzzle, numbers from our play doh set, pom poms, curly string ribbons, and party blow horns from the Dollar Tree. The boys loved the new bin!


Here are two books we will read this weekend. P.Bear's New Year's Party is a sweet, counting book about a polar bear who has a new year's party with all of his friends.

We are planning our own New Year's Eve party at home this year. I decided to write  the activities on the back of party hat cut outs(that I also found at the Dollar Tree). During our family night together I will let each child choose a hat/activity for us to do. It should be a ton of fun!

Happy New Year! May God bless you all in 2012!

Linked up at:
Preschool Corner
Living Life Intentionally-TGIF 
Playing with Words--Thrifty Thursday
Show and Share Sat. -I Can Teach My Child