Sharla Kostelyk

Alphabet Sensory Bin for Preschool Letter Recognition

Provide a fun hands-on way for your child or student to learn letter sounds with this Alphabet Sensory Bin. Learning the letters of the alphabet is an important early childhood skill. It is a precursor for both reading and writing. By giving children the opportunity to feel the shape of the letters and explore through their senses, you can help cement this skill for them in a fun and engaging way.

Setting up a sensory bin for this purpose is a great hands-on addition to your home or preschool or Kindergarten classroom. It’s easy to set up sensory bins that kids will love. They provide visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory input. In addition, they increase a child’s interest and curiosity in learning.

Alphabet Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

plastic bin
coloured rice
letters (we used alphabet cookie cutters, wooden ABCs, small alphabet beads, and foil die cut letters)
optional: scoops or funnels

Directions:

Dye rice in an assortment of colours. Read our full instructions on how to easily dye rice. You can also used coloured rice left over from other sensory play.
Toss the rice in a plastic bin.
Add letters. You can use anything shaped as letters. Suggestions include magnetic letters, cookie cutters, wooden letters, foam stickers with the backing left on, Scrabble tiles, foam bath letters, or alphabet beads.
Invite your child to play.

A note about adding multiple types of letters: if your child struggles with the alphabet, it can be best to only include one set of letters to reduce sensory overload and simplify things.

Ways to expand this alphabet learning activity:

Play a version of seek and find. Call out the names of letters and have your child find that letter in the rice. A more advanced variation on this is to display or write the lower case version of a letter and have the child find and identify the upper case match to it in the sensory bin.
When the child pulls out a letter, have them name something that starts with that letter to help them learn about beginning sounds.
Put a paper and crayons nearby so that kids can trace the letters or copy their shape on the paper.
Use alphabet playdough mats to provide another rich tactile sensory activity opportunity.
Set out alphabet books such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for kids to explore and compare the letters in the bin to.

Books to correspond with your ABC Sensory Bin:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Dr. Seuss’s ABC Animalia (MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE!)Touch and Trace ABC Board Book A is for Apple (Kids Trace-and-Flip)The Handmade Alphabet Eating the Alphabet M Is For Maple: A Canadian Alphabet

Looking for more easy sensory play ideas for hands-on learning? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Sensory Play Resources:

How to Dye Rice for Sensory Play

Huge List of Sensory Bin Fillers and Tools

Over 100 Sensory Bin Themes

What’s the Point of Sensory Bins, Bottles, and Bags?

An Open Letter to School Boards

By Sharla Kostelyk

My daughter was 8 when she started to lose her hearing. We didn’t notice at first because she became so good at reading lips that it wasn’t until we took a family camping trip that I clued in. In the van while I drove, I realized that she couldn’t hear me because she didn’t have those visual cues to help her discern what I was saying. All she could see was the back of my seat. When schools reopen in September, if you require masks to be work by staff or students, you will essentially be asking her to spend the year staring at the back of that seat again. Even with the use of adaptive equipment such as an FM system, she can’t understand what is being said without reading lips.

I know this for sure because of the times I’ve spent in an audio booth with tears streaming down my face as the audiologist said “ice cream” with her mouth covered with a paper and my daughter repeated “baseball”. Watching your child struggle to understand is heartbreaking.

I can’t imagine being in your position and all of the factors that need to be weighed in order to consider when reopening schools safely, but I need to give my daughter a voice. I urge you to also consider those who are deaf or hard of hearing when you sit down to make your new policies.

I have other fears as well about schools reopening as well as do many parents such as kids under heightened stress not being able to learn effectively and I’m losing sleep thinking about all the what ifs.

What if play and hands-on discovery are no longer part of the school day?
What if students are required to wear masks and those with lung conditions can hardly breathe?
What if the students with special needs – those on the autism spectrum or sensory processing disorder or attention deficit disorder or learning disabilities or anxiety fall further through the cracks as schools struggle to meet the physical, emotional and educational needs of even their “in-the-box” students?
What will childhood look like if restrictions continue but also what cost in lives may there be if they don’t?

These are challenging times and I can’t imagine that creating new policies is simple, but please do not make a blanket policy for teachers to wear face masks. To do so would condemn my daughter and others like her to certain failure.

How to Dye Rice for Sensory Play

By Sharla Kostelyk

You can easily make your own colourful rice for sensory play at home or in your preschool or classroom. This recipe for dying rice doesn’t use rubbing alcohol, making it safer in case you have kids who put things in their mouth. Simply follow our instructions for how to dye rice. Rice is one of my favourite sensory bin fillers. I always make extra of the green because I find that it looks like grass which makes it versatile for all kinds of sensory bins, bottles, and bags.

How to Dye Rice:

Supplies needed:

1 cup white rice per colour
1/2 tsp. vinegar per colour
coloured food gel or food colouring
optional: essential oils*

Wilton Food Gel White Vinegar White Rice

Directions:

Put 1 cup of rice in a resealable plastic bag.
Add 1/2 tsp. of vinegar and a bit of the icing gel or food colouring. You won’t get colours that are as vibrant if you use food colouring as opposed to the gel. If you want to add essential oil, add a few drops at this point.
Seal the bag and shake well.
Spread the coloured rice out on a baking tray to dry overnight.
Repeat with other colours.
Use in sensory play.

*A note about the essential oils:

Adding essential oil to the rice will create an extra sensory element as it creates olfactory (scent) input. There are some scents that are calming such as lavender, jasmine, or rose. Other scents are alerting such as lemon, peppermint, or cinnamon.

You will want to choose the essential oil based on what you are trying to achieve. In a setting where you want your child to be learning, you may want to choose an alerting scent. If you are wanting to create more calming sensory play opportunities, then you’ll want to choose a calming scent for the rice. When not in use, be sure to store your coloured rice in a sealed plastic bag or an airtight container. You can reuse it over and over again as long as it’s properly stored.

Ways to use coloured rice in sensory play:

Coloured rice can be used in a variety of sensory play activities. If you use more than one colour at a time, the colours will obviously combine through play and create a different look altogether. That’s not a bad thing, but if you have a child prone to getting upset by things not looking the way they think they should, this is something you should warn them about before they begin to engage with their sensory play.

Here are some ideas:

Use coloured rice in a sensory bottle along with some small buttons or toys to create a Seek and Find Discovery Bottle.
Create a rainbow effect by lining up different colours in a sensory tub. Add some scoops and funnels for kids to explore and work on their fine motor skills by scooping and pouring.
Use green rice to look like grass for insect, butterfly, Spring, or other outdoor themed sensory bins.
Fill a resealable bag about halfway full with coloured rice and then add some small toys or alphabet letters to create an I-Spy type sensory bag.
Layer different colours in a jar or bottle.
Fill a plastic bottle with some of the rice and leave some space at the top to create a music shaker.

Other helpful information about sensory play:

Looking for more easy sensory play recipes to use with your kids? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Ocean Sensory Bag

By Sharla Kostelyk

When you can’t go to the ocean, bring it to you! That’s the sentiment behind this ocean sensory bag. It brings the feeling of the sea right into your home.

Ocean Sensory Bag:

Supplies needed:

small or medium resealable plastic bag
hand sanitizer or hair gel
blue food gel
glue glitter (optional)
Good Luck minis ocean pack
optional: duct tape (blue or mermaid duct tape look nice)

Directions:

Fill a small or medium sized resealable plastic bag less than halfway with hand sanitizer or hair gel.
Add some blue food gel. If you don’t have any, you can substitute drops of food colouring.
Sprinkle in some blue glitter.
Add the mini figures from the ocean pack.
Seal.
Squish to combine and especially to mix the colour in.
Open the bag again to remove any excess air and seal again.
If you want, you can fold duct tape over all four edges of the bag to secure.
Hand the bag to your child to play with.

Whether or not you secure the bag with duct tape, adult supervision should be used as this contains small parts that could present a choking hazard.

This ocean sensory bag pairs well with an ocean unit study. It’s a nice hands-on activity for kids who are interested in learning about sea life creatures. They can explore and discover through finding each of the aquatic animals.

If you want to expand this activity, you can write down the names of each of the items in the bag and have your child find each one and call out its name. They will delight in discovering the sea turtle, starfish, stingray, dolphin, shark, and fish.

Children get tactile, visual, and proprioceptive sensory input while playing with their sensory bag.

Looking for more easy sensory play recipes to cultivate fun? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Try out some of these other ocean themed sensory activities:

Seaside Sensory Bin

Squishy Shark Sensory Bag

Ocean Sensory Bottle

Bug Action Cube Gross Motor Fun

By Sharla Kostelyk

Using this simple bug action cube, kids can work on their gross motor skills and get that all important sensory input. It also of course gives them something to do. This activity can be done inside or outside and is easy to set up.

This is a great (and inexpensive) way for kids to burn off energy. If you do an insect learning unit in your classroom or homeschool, it’s also a cute addition to your unit study. You can also pair this cube with our Bug Action Cards.

If you use the cube as part of an insect unit study, one way to expand the learning is to have your child read or research or draw each of the bugs represented.

Bug Action Cube:

Supplies needed:

paper
printer
Bug Action Cube (download that here)
scissors
glue or tape

Directions:

Download the action cube.
Print it out.
Cut it.
Fold along the dotted lines into a cube and glue or tape to attach.
Have your child roll the cube and follow the instructions on the side that it lands on.

Sensory and learning opportunities:

exercise (endorphins, improved mood, health)
reading
gross motor practise
improving communication skills
engaging the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems
crossing the midline
provide a brain break

Breaking up schoolwork or screen time by providing a quick five minute brain break like this can actually make a significant difference in focus and concentration. These activities involve whole body movement so they are a wonderful reset to mood as well. You’ll be amazed the difference in your child after just a short brain break like this.

Add your email address to the box below to access your free Bug Action Cube to print off.

You may be interested in these other gross motor activities for kids:

Dinosaur Action Cube

Bug Action Cards

5 Trampoline Games

Button Stacking Fine Motor and Sensory Activities

By Sharla Kostelyk

With just a few simple supplies that you may already have kicking around the house, you can create all kinds of fun ways for your child to work on their fine motor skills. These button stacking activities are easy and effective. You can easily set these up at home or as a learning station in a preschool or Kindergarten classroom. It is inexpensive and fast to set up.

Button Stacking Activities:

Supplies needed:

dry spaghetti noodles
buttons of different sizes and colours
playdough (purchase it or make your own)

Directions for the noodles and buttons activity:

Make a ball of playdough and press down to flatten it.
Insert a few sticks of dry spaghetti into the playdough.
Lay out an assortment of buttons. It’s best to include as much variety as you can.
Show your child how to thread the buttons on the pasta and encourage them to try.
See how many buttons your child can stack without breaking the dry pasta.

Depending on the age and ability of your child you can have them insert the spaghetti noodles or you can set that part up for them.

Directions for the button tower building activity:

Roll playdough into small balls.
Set out an assortment of buttons in a variety of sizes and colours.
Invite your child to stack the buttons and the balls of playdough creating towers.

The playdough and buttons create a unique building material. What may seem like a simple activity is actually an introduction to engineering concepts. Kids can discover how many buttons they can stack before their tower tumbles or if stacking the buttons flat or sideways yields better results. They can also experiment with what building methods are most stable.