Pom pom sensory bin

Easiest bin ever. Have I said that before? Well, I lied. This one is the winner.

Here's what Sam (14 months old) got out of this:

• Fine motor skill practice: scooping, turning his hand over to dump a pom out of the spoon, pincher grasp, coordination
• Transferring
• Colors: matching, sorting, putting poms in bowls
• Counting (hearing me do it!)
• One-to-one correspondence (in the ice cube tray)
• Vocabulary development: empty/full, more/less
• Size: sorting, sequencing, vocabulary
• Gravity lesson: rolling a bucket of poms down the tilted lid
• Throwing!
• Persistence (those tongs were way too hard)

And for Ellie (3 years, 10 months), I also worked on patterning and addition/subtraction. 

Sam will play with this for 45 minutes by himself. Ellie loves using it for pretend play -- the poms have been cookies/muffins/ice cream scoops, rain/snow, party confetti, etc. 

Pom Pom Sensory Bin: pom poms (multiple sizes/colors), ice cube tray, metal tongs, various bowls and buckets. 

Side benefit, I owned everything (and you probably do too), so it was free!

PS, have I quit blogging? Maybe a little.

Baby-safe red, white, and blue sensory bin for Memorial Day or Fourth of July

Pack of foam stars ($3 on clearance at Wal-Mart for 36 stars!), large red and white poms (Hobby Lobby), flag pinwheel (Hobby Lobby), toilet paper roll (with the really fantastic art added by me), muffin tin (in stock), tweezers (in stock), USA felt letters (got these from a friend for a sensory alphabet we're making)

Sam started banging things. That's a shocker! He quickly started playing in-and-out games, which is big for him right now at 10 months. Poms in the toilet paper roll, stars in the bin, poms in and out of the muffin tin, etc.

Exploring together

Ellie went straight to building. She's really into this right now and I love seeing what she comes up with. This was a bridge of stars and poms, and a tree for a fairy house.

This is a great bin for individual activities too. With Ellie, there's patterning (poms and stars, different colors, etc.), counting, designs (we were stacking the stars to make flowers, etc.), and tweezing (those thin stars are hard to get with the tweezers!). For Sam, this is a great one for color matching, in-and-out, and vocabulary development ("through," "in," "on," colors, shapes, counting, etc.).

Green sensory bin

I LOVE sensory bins. They have been one of Ellie's favorite things since she was old enough to not shove beans in her mouth.

But with Sam here, and mobile now, I've been stuck. No way am I putting out a bin full of uncooked pasta, or rice, or beans, or sand, or Easter grass, or water beads, or...

Confession: I am an organizational neat freak (this is not a confession for anyone who knows me in real life). Not everything in our house is picked up all the time (one of my mantras for this stage of life is from Pinterest: "Cleaning while you have kids is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos"), but everything DOES have a place to go. Like, it could all conceptually be picked up and uncluttered.

How does this relate to sensory bins? Well, I have seen color-based sensory bins for quite awhile, but my organizational neat freakishness has prevented me from trying it. My bin supplies are all organized by theme; my fillers are all packaged separately and labeled. The idea of breaking this system to haphazardly grab random toys of a certain color...not my cup of tea.

But I realized it was the perfect solution for Sam. I could skip the filler and just do non-choking toys of a particular color. Hesitatingly, I opened my supplies and started grabbing green things.

And look who scooted right over to check it out.

I won't make a list of supplies, because it was literally walking around our playroom and grabbing green things that were not choking hazards and wouldn't pull toys out that Ellie plays with regularly (e.g., no kitchen food, no dress up items). Generally, here are some things I found: Christmas bows, lids, foam blocks, cup stackers, plastic recorder whistle, scarf, magnetic letters and numbers, scrap fabric, shovel, silicone bowl, and tongs.

I can't believe I haven't done one of these sooner. It was super easy to throw together and Sam has played with it for about 15 minutes at a time on his own each day, plus some time with me talking about the objects. Ellie can use the bin too. We talk about shades (ordering from darkest green to lightest green), shapes (squares, rectangles, circles, spheres, cubes, etc. are all in the bin), and the letters and numerals that are in the bin. 

Also, a lot of the pieces make noise. AKA, a 7-month-old's dream.

Aquarium sensory bin

We started with a simple bin of aquarium gravel and a LOT of scoops and containers -- including plastic, metal, glass and ceramic. This kept Ellie busy for about two weeks with nothing else in the bin. She loved filling the two glass jars -- we even talked about transparent, translucent and opaque, and she's used the words on other things since then! She also liked making a "shaker" with the lidded box, and of course just scooping, dumping and transferring. 

Later, I added more supplies for a second phase:

This included fish (Oriental Trading Company), "sea urchin" spiky balls (don't remember where I got these), shells (from our wedding six years ago!!), and sea glass beads (Hobby Lobby).

She loved the additions and switched to a lot of role play with the fish. She also liked matching the colors of the balls with the fish. 

Spring sensory bin

Easter grass (Hobby Lobby on sale), pinwheels (already purchased from Dollar Tree), two sizes of carrot ornaments (Dollar Tree), mini colored eggs (Dollar Tree), metal tin (already purchased from Hobby Lobby), silicone pinch cups (already purchased from Hobby Lobby), tongs (already purchased from Hobby Lobby)

She found chopsticks and used them to push the Easter grass away from the eggs and carrots

Sorting the eggs into the tin

Snow sensory bin

I'm in major catch-up mode, so forgive the lack of explanation!

This was just Insta-Snow. A little water and some of this powder, and all of us (Mommy, Daddy AND Ellie) were totally entertained. We brought in a couple scoops and containers eventually, but really, the "snow" itself kept us busy for a long time!

September sensory bin

Ellie is 21 months old

I really, really like this bin. So does Ellie. And I had the most obvious revelation, which is to do the bin outside. I know. Obvious. 

It contains: oatmeal, a basket (a great find in Target's dollar bin), four big apples (Dollar Tree), fake leaves (Dollar Tree), apple-cinnamon scented candles (Dollar Tree), acorns (from our backyard), red and green pom poms (Dollar Tree), a big scoop (already purchased), big measuring cup (already purchased), big tweezers (already purchased), and two of the silicone bowls.

I had a few activities in mind for this bin: using tweezers to sort the pom poms into the silicone bowls, scooping and pouring practice, and talking about apples and acorns.

Here's how Ellie used the bin:

"No leaves."

Hilarious.

Also hilarious.

Sort of scooping?

She plays with this bin for 30 minutes at a time, regularly, more or less by herself. AKA, I don't really care what she does with it!

July/August sensory bin

Ellie is 19/20 months old

Did you see what I did there? Just totally ignored the fact I didn't change my sensory bin at all in May or June. Moving right along...

July and August's theme (yeah, summer was busy...) was garden/backyard. 

It contains: mixed brown and green lentils, two small terracotta pots, a rock from our California trip, a pinwheel (from a set of three from the Dollar Tree), a wooden birdhouse from Michael's, a red cardinal (from a Christmas basket that fell apart), three felt butterflies (from Michael's clearance), three pinecones (from our yard), a bear claw (from Chik-Fil-A), and a rake and shovel (from Dollar Tree).

The first time Ellie was introduced to the bin, she was mostly concerned about getting the bird in the house.

Eventually, she got around to exploring other things. She loved the "atterbyes" (butterflies), how the rake felt on her legs, trying to blow the pinwheel and scooping (then scattering) the lentils in the pots.

By the end of the two months playing with this bin, she was still enamored with getting the bird in the house, she had gotten much better at raking and scooping, and I was SICK of lentils. Seriously. Those things stick to your feet, to the carpet, to everything. 

April sensory bin

Ellie is 16 months old

This has been a slower month projects and activity-wise because we're getting ready to move! This is great news but means I've had less time to plan things for Ellie.

March's bin may have been Ellie's favorite yet. The pasta was perfect for all the in-and-out in the different containers. 

Here's April's bin:

It contains: dried beans, wooden truck, six bouncy balls (two each with an airplane, car and train), two plastic submarines (these are from Dollar Tree and with baking soda in them, bubble and float), two cars (also from Dollar Tree -- you blow up the balloons and it propels the car), a set of tongs, one of the orange silicone cups (like an orange traffic cone maybe?), a small plastic box with a red lid, and some assorted scoopers.

March sensory bin and the end of the February bin

Ellie is 15 months old

By the end of February's bin, Ellie had become enamored with two new things: scooping and sorting. It was so much fun to watch her discover and initiate these on her own.

Trying to figure out how to get those little, slippery beans onto the teaspoon (hint: turn it right side up)

I brought out a jar to store the beans in, and she started finding all the red jewels and dropping them in

Not super advanced sorting, but she was so deliberate!

Here's March's bin. 

It's mostly to work on transferring, scooping and fine motor skills. It was one of my more expensive bins, but that's because of the tools, which are all reusable. 

It includes bowtie pasta (three boxes of the cheapest brand, which was 97 cents a box I think), the silicone muffin tin from last month ($10 on Amazon), a 2-cup plastic measuring cup ($1 at the Dollar Store), a mini glass mug ($1 at the Dollar Store), a 6-pack of silicone mini pinch cups ($2 I think at Hobby Lobby), a large measuring scoop ($1 in a set from the Dollar Store), three different tongs ($1 each I think at Hobby Lobby) and a glass jar with a wooden spoon (a few bucks from Hobby Lobby) that I filled with coffee beans. 

Update: I took the coffee out because turns out it will stain white carpet. Whoops. I got out the stain but decided to keep those packed up until we're on the tile floor in our new house!

February sensory bin

Ellie is 14 months old

Big surprise, this month's sensory bin theme is Valentine's Day!

The bin contains: dried white beans, felt hearts in five different colors and sizes (pinned here), sparkly red pom poms, Valentine porcupine creatures (from Oriental Trading), heart poppers (Oriental Trading), red heart jewels (sold in the same pack as last month's snow bin) and a set of heart cookie cutters (Wilton) I got on sale at Michael's.

Tools this month are one of the coffee scoops and a small teaspoon. I also got a 6-cup silicone muffin tin (not pictured). I know it's too early for Ellie to sort, but I've been modeling sorting the felt hearts by color into the muffin cups. We're also practicing spooning into the cups, and she's not very good yet, but she works on it really hard and tends to grab the spoon right away.

She also loves grabbing a huge handful of beans and flinging them out of the bin. We're working on that :-)

Exploring with her cousin Samuel

Picking up beans from the floor (good fine motor activity!)

Snow sensory bin

Ellie is 13 months old

This is our January bin.

The bin contains: cotton balls, big crystals, sparkly silver pom-poms, polyfill (I have a feeling I'm going to regret this when it gets all over our carpet), the snowman from last month, and a felt tree ornament. 

I'm also introducing tools. I got the coffee scoops 2/$1 and the measuring cups in a set of eight (four cups and four measuring spoons) for $1, both at Dollar Tree. The big tweezers are from Amazon (this set of 12 was on sale for $5 with free shipping when I bought them!). This will be the first month she'll have tools on hand, so we'll see how it goes!

Here are some of the first few days with the bin. Favorite activities so far are picking out all the crystals and putting them in the big measuring cup and squeezing and smooshing the sparkly pom poms.

Collecting crystals

Putting them into the cup

Do you see any more?

She discovered the crystals made noise if she flung the cup around

Christmas sensory bin

Ellie is 12 months old

This was our first real sensory bin. I threw together some things we had around the house and introduced it at the beginning of December. She loved it and asked for it every single day. Her favorite activities this month were finding all the jingle bells, playing with the snowman figurine, crunching the bows in her hands and pulling everything out of the bin and putting it all back in again.

I was thrilled with her engagement and excitement over this bin. I'm definitely planning on doing one a month from now on.

Pointing out the snowman's nose (Do you see the vacuum in the background? It's a rare find in our house!)

Finding a bell!

The bin included: Christmas bows, floral picks (from Hobby Lobby; there were crystals, white balls and silver balls), beaded balls, some soft ornaments, a sparkly plastic ornament, snowman Santa figurine, jingle bells.

Newborn sensory bin

I made a beginning sensory bin for when Ellie was just a baby. I got a couple different kinds of fabric (satin, a see-through gauzy fabric and a fuzzy faux fur), some big fuzzy pom-poms, a big feather, a large fake flower and a string of beads.

At first, I would play with them on her bare belly, talking about each one -- whether it was smooth, fluffy, scratchy, soft, etc. When she started reaching, she loved grabbing ahold of each thing and feeling it on her own. I'd also go over different parts of her body and name them as we went -- "Do you feel the feather tickling your toes?"

She played with this until about 6 months or so, when she was too into putting stuff in her mouth and started pulling threads out of the satin!