Sensory Bins

Thanksgiving Sensory Bin

I used popcorn seeds for the base and added a pine cone, silk leaves, some plastic gourds pumpkins and berries, ornamental gourds, and a caramel scented candle.

Lately, I have been adding something scented into most of my sensory bins as it involves another sense and I find my kids really enjoy it. I am careful not to add anything that smells too intensely so as not to overwhelm them. In this case, the candle worked really well as the kids enjoyed filling the top of it with the popcorn and dumping it out. The bumpiest of the ornamental gourds was the favourite item in this year’s Thanksgiving sensory bin.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Puzzle Piece Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

The symbol for autism is a puzzle piece so that’s where the idea for this sensory bin came from. This is a great way to use puzzles you aren’t using anymore or those you’ve lost some of the pieces for.

I put a plea out on Facebook for mismatched puzzle pieces and my friend A. responded with two big bags filled with all shapes, colours and sizes of puzzle pieces!

I threw them into two bins and called them our sensory bin for the week! This was for sure the easiest sensory bin I’ve ever made!

Puzzle Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

assorted puzzle pieces
plastic bin

Directions:

Dump all the puzzle pieces in a plastic bin.
Invite your child to play.

We also used the puzzle piece in other ways too such as making paper puzzles and cardboard ones. We discussed how Aspergers makes some things a challenge for Einstein and makes some things easier. We watched some YouTube videos geared at explaining autism to kids.

For our lunch on Friday, we made a special a la Einstein plate for everyone. It had the puzzle piece tribute in the form of cheese and it was all orange, Einstein’s favourite colour.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Birthday Party Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

This week just for fun, we did a birthday party theme. It was a nice change of pace and easy to find activities for. I made a birthday party sensory bin to go with it.

Birthday Party Sensory Bin:

Materials needed:

party hats
blowouts
streamers
party horns
happy birthday glasses
ribbon curls
clown nose
birthday candles

Just dump everything in a plastic bin. Let your child play. That’s it!I was able to find all of the items for this sensory activity at the Dollar Store. With all the bright colours, this bin provides great visual sensory input. This activity also gives tactile (touch) sensory input and if the kids rip or scrunch the streamers, it provides proprioceptive input too.

The kids enjoyed this sensory bin a fair bit although the candles got broken pretty quickly and the streamers didn’t last long either.

The kids mostly enjoyed wearing the hats and glasses. The clown noses were especially popular! They produced a lot of laughs.

Birthday books that would pair well with this sensory bin:

Happy Birthday to You!Big Birthday Happy Birthday, Mouse!Birthday Monsters!How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party

If you’re doing a birthday party theme, you may also want to create this birthday cake sensory bin.

Rainbow Activity and Party Ideas

By Sharla Kostelyk

We have been learning the letter “Rr” and chose the theme of Rainbows. It’s a great theme, fun for the kids and easy to do.

Rainbow Sensory Bin:

foam packing peanuts
sensory balls
sponges
plastic ice cubes (the nice thing about these is that you can also have the option of freezing them first to add another sensory element with the play between cold and room temperature)
beads
pompoms
clips
blue moon
feathers
red cup
purple bath sponge
a squish ball
bow
a few toys.

Activity sheets:

I printed the colour by number sheet and the “Rr is for Rainbow” sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The other sheet I found here. I printed two sets for each of the kids. They used one sheet with Fruit Loops. Some of them chose to eat the cereal after while others chose to glue them on. The other sheet they completed with bingo dabbers. The kids also did a lot of rainbow colouring sheets.

Books we used:

We have long loved I Love You More Than Rainbows and I used Noah’s Ark to incorporate how rainbows are a reminder that God keeps his promises. The kids also watched the movie The Story of Noah.

Science:

We made our own rainbows using this idea.

Rainbow Theme Party:

But of course, the highlight of Rainbow week was having a Rainbow Party! We used the theme to celebrate the end of the homeschool year (even though we are going to be schooling year-round this year). There were 29 kids here with their moms…loud and messy, but so much fun!!!

My girls helped me make these treat bags to hand out to the party guests. I got the idea here. So simple, but super cute!

The kids made paper chains and strung them all over the house to use as our decorations.

The food was a very colourful array. I tried to think of as many edible rainbow things as I could. You can find details about how to make the rainbow theme food here.

Making the layered jello cups took a lot longer than I anticipated, so I’m glad I got a picture because it’s unlikely that I’ll ever make them again! If I did though, I would make them in smaller plastic cups or make them in a sheet pan and cut them into squares.

For crafts, I let imagination be the key. I put out paint, paintbrushes, clay, foam hands, coloured beads, scissors, glue, paper, bright feathers, markers, colouring sheets, paper, and markers. I also put out a bowl of Fruit Loops and string licorice and the kids made necklaces and bracelets with them, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

The decorate-your-own-cupcake area was popular, as evidenced from the expression on Dancing Queen’s face. Miss Optimism made vanilla cupcakes and added sprinkles before she cooked them so they had a bit of a rainbow on them. We set out four colours of icing, more sprinkles, and lots of candy for the kids to add.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Pirate Week Kick Off!

By Sharla Kostelyk

This week, we are going to be doing a pirate unit. I think I am even more excited than the kids are because there are so many really fun activities I’ve found to do! To kick off the week, I made a special pirate themed muffin tin lunch and set up a pirate sensory bin.

In the trays: cantaloupe pirate ship, ring pop, sweet potato swords with pirate toothpick, Babybel cheese cut with the red part cut to look like a bandana and face drawn with edible markers, teriyaki salmon, gold coins (chocolate) set in a pirate muffin tin liner and a gummy crocodile for Miss O. because she is allergic to the coins.
The sensory bin included a pirate toob, a compass, eye patch, doubloons, and two little pirate puzzles. I also set a pirate hat beside the bin in case the kids wanted to get into character while playing.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Magnets, Magnets, and More Magnets

By Sharla Kostelyk

For the past few weeks, we have been doing a study of magnets. It’s been interesting as well as fun.

For our magnet sensory bin, I paired it with worksheets for the kids to fill out with a spot for them to either write the name of the item or draw a picture of it (for my pre-readers) and then fill in whether it was magnetic or not.

The sensory bin is a very simple one of white rice and various household objects, not all of which are magnetic. I also included a strong magnet and a magnet wand.

I included magnet activities in the workbox rotation. These included:

magnetic wand and chips

cut up pipe cleaners in a plastic bottle that can be moved around using a magnet or magnetic wand on the outside was a very popular activity

file folder game of sorting objects into magnetic and non-magnetic categories

I gave the kids worksheets (you can get them here) with a pile of objects to kick start our magnet unit:

This was a fun activity and easy for all the kids to understand.

The kids did all kinds of activities and experiments using this Magnet Science kit. The one that the kids liked the best was when they could make it look like the little car was going on its own by moving a magnet under the table!

We also used Magnetic Marvels, a really neat kit that included lots of magnet tricks, which the boys loved and activities like extracting the iron from our cereal.

I also had plans to build a compass with the kids but the weather hasn’t been cooperating for that one, so we may pick that up when it gets nicer out. I think the neatest part about our magnet study was how easy it was to adapt to the different ages and ability levels of the kids. They made some great observations on their own and had a lot of fun with all of it!

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.