Sensory Bin: Valentine

What's in the bin?

Rose petals (fabric)

Heart jewels (pink and red)

Glittery foam hearts (pink and red)

Heart-shaped cardboard boxes

Heart-shaped balloon

Red potpourri

Bobo helped with the construction of the bin this time from start to finish. We also purchased some Easter items, which explains the bunny ears. I love how this box smells! Bobo had lots of fun sorting the potpourri. He was heartily disappointed that everything wasn't for decorating. However, I think I appeased him with other activities.

Shared with Tuesday Tots, Share It Saturday and the Kids Co-Op.

Messy Learning Lab: Noodles

Vibrant, rainbow noodles, fun! I cooked four boxes of different types of  noodles with lots of oil Ooey Gooey Lady style. After I drained the noodles, I added liquid watercolor or food coloring. Either method creates brilliant colors. The blue noodles are neon blue food coloring.

Add some cooking utensils and you've got a great sensory experience.

I used two boxes of uncooked noodles mixed with liquid watercolors to set up a lacing activity. Every mom needs a macaroni necklace in her jewelry box. Plastic needles make lacing through the noodles easy for even the smallest hands.

I suggest tying a large bead on the end to prevent the noodles from sliding off. Penne noodles work the best as they have the largest openings. These necklaces make a wonderful homemade present.

Sharing with Tuesday Tots.

Messy Learning Lab: Rainbow Floam and Rice

Last week, I dumped the rice I had left from making raindrops for another craft into three ziplock bags and squirted some liquid watercolor paint into it. I rubbed the paint all around in the bag until I had a color I liked and spread it out to dry.

Scooping, dumping and pouring galore

Most of the rice ended up on the floor and that's fine because it's so easy to sweep up.

Floam is a foam substance that sticks together but doesn't make hands sticky. It is the biggest hit with parents so far! I ordered several bricks of floam from Discount School Supply for the library's playgroup last year. I don't think it dries out as I've kept it in the original bags with no problem.

As you can see, all the colors mix into a giant ball of floam. I think it looks beautiful. Plus, if you pack it tight enough, the pieces bounce! For clean-up, I simply break the floam apart into 6 bricks and stuff them back in the bags. I use the large pieces to "suck" up the rest. Easy peasy!

Sharing with Kids Co-Op and TGIF and For the Kids Friday

Messy Learning Lab: Packing Peanuts Sensory Bin

In anticipation for our Messy Learning Lab, I purchased several under the bed storage containers from Meijer. They are the perfect size for large sensory bins with several children playing at once. I filled this one with packing peanuts, magnetic letters and re-purposed puzzle piece magnets.

Again, the first couple of parents to observe this activity asked the children to keep the peanuts in the box. I quickly assured them that I expected peanuts to be everywhere. It is a messy learning experience after all. That is the only encouragement the little ones needed!

When everyone finished up, I swept up the peanuts on the floor and tossed them. They were flattened anyway. I put away the magnets and dumped the rest of the peanuts into a bag for later use. Easy clean-up for two hours of messy fun!

Sharing with Tuesday Tots and It's Playtime! and For the Kids Friday

Sensory Bin: Fall-o-ween

What's in the Bin?

Fabric leaves

Gourds

Wooden Fall food

Foam pumpkins and ghosts

Squishy eyeballs

Stretchy skeletons

Skull erasers

Jewel acorns and leaves

Test tubes with cinnamon and pumpkin spice

Red hots

When talking with co-workers about decorating this past week, I brought up our sensory bin (for the leaves). NG didn't know what a sensory bin was, so EC explained that it's a learning tool using the five senses. That statement got me thinking! In the past, I haven't focused on taste or smell within the bin so I added a couple of new things this year.

I added smell by covering cotton balls with Fall scents like cinnamon and pumpkin spice and putting them in test tubes in the bin. I added a layer of red hots for taste. YUM!

Sensory bins are always a favorite activity during school. He sorts, builds and uses his imagination to have epic battles. We also snacked on some delicious candy and made silly faces!

Happy Fall-o-ween!
Sharing at the Kids Co-Op.

Ocean Sensory Bin

This should be called the Super Simple Sensory Box, but you may get tongue-tied. 

What's in the Box?

Starfish ice- yellow, blue and green

Gems- green and blue

Glow-in-the-dark sea creatures

Water- tinted green with food coloring

Squirt gun

Linked with Tuesday Tots.

Sensory Bin: The Moon

We made moon sand a few weeks ago. As part of our Outer Space theme, I made it into the Moon Sensory Bin. I added glowing rocks, aliens and Kryptonite.

Bobo added Monkey from Kung Fu Panda and the Green Lantern's house. His favorite activity is hiding the aliens in the moon sand.

As with everything this month, the bin has a glowing aspect. I'm trying very hard to help Bobo be more comfortable with the dark. I remember, as a child (and after watching scary movies even now), being terrified of the dark. By giving him some control over it, whether through a flashlight, glow sticks or glowing crafts, he should start to feel less afraid.

Sensory Bin: Egg Surprise!

"What's in the eggs?" queries Bobo. "Is it candy?"

No candy this time, just lots of these little guys.

The duck and dinosaur, or the good guys, in jail. Everything somehow turns into superhero imaginative play.

Bobo exploring the Easter grass.

Rainbow Sensory Bin

Hidden goodies lie underneath the colorful feathers and flowers of the Rainbow Sensory Bin. You can see the colorful craft sticks, penguins, bath toys and cups. The heavier items fell to the bottom: googly eyes, gems and mosaic plastic shapes. So far, the feathers have been the favorite.

A few activities that have been inspired by the bin:

1. Feather on a Stick Race: Bobo balanced a feather on a stick. I challenged him to a race to the end of the hall. Think egg on a spoon race.

2. Play dough people.

3. Tickle game with feathers.

4. Extreme Makeover Feather Edition: I don't know how he gets so many feathers to stay in his hair.

5. Dump and Pour: The animal cups were very hungry.

Tot School: Superheroes

Month: January
Theme: Superheroes

I held off on the Superheroes theme until we got into school and now I'm not sure why that was a good idea. We are having so much fun with the superhero theme. Bobo constantly asks to do school or projects. We've been using preschool packs from Carisa and Michelle (no longer available).

The Lessons

From left to right, top to bottom:
Sorting Batman characters (cut from the back of a coloring book)
Sorting letter "S"
Building firetruck
Tag Ben 10
Lacing foam stars
Playdough letter "S" with stamper


Pre-writing exercise helping the good guys catch the bad guys.
Superman magnet page with homemade pom pom magnets
Stamping with letter "S" and star and smiley face
Counting to 5 with superheroes
Cutting help good guy get to supercar
Color by number Batman symbol

The Activities

Bobo received lots of building blocks and Legos for Christmas. I am very bad at following directions and putting things together. I can do it, but it takes FOREVER. Bobo said he was proud of me for helping him with this firetruck. After we put it together, we played for an hour or so with it and the superheroes.


Bobo loves magnets and rainbows, so these letter magnets I ordered from Oriental Trading are just perfect. We sorted upper and lowercase letters, matched colors and made a rainbow snake on the big magnet board.


More letter "S" fun with stamping. Play dough is one of Bobo's favorite activities. I can't imagine a week without it. He had fun making a mustache with the green dough.



As soon as he got the Batman coloring/activity book, Bobo has been begging to do the activity on the back. He had fun sorting and pretending with all the Batman characters.


You may notice some of our pictures taking place out of the school room. There is a simple reason. Bobo couldn't wait to get to these lessons, so as soon as I was putting something together, he would ask to do it. I said yes.


I did not plan this photo opp, but it did turn out cute! Superbobo magnet dotting superman.

The Projects

Bobo prefers the black suit of Ironman, but the costume he has did not come with gloves or boots. He asked if we could make some and I said yes. I'm still working out the logistics of the boots. I want to use spray paint and rain boots, but have not found any boots yet. We cut out white circles from felt and glued them on black gloves. As a side note, I'm going to have to sew the circles to get them to stay on because the gloves are very large on little hands.



Paint is still new and exciting. He just loves the powder tempera paint. I set out the dropper to put water on the tray. I'm going to have to set up an invitation just with the droppers and some water. He was more interested in that at first.


After mixing blue and yellow, he turned into the Hulk. I guess that shade of green just screamed, "Smash, smash, smash!" This was just the beginning of painting the body activities.


He also became Wolverine. I'm not sure why this was Wolverine, but I went with it. He played like this for about an hour and was so sad to wash it off. I was afraid the paint would irritate his skin. "Aww, mama."

Since Bobo enjoys painting himself so much, I looked up how to make homemade body paints. This led to the WORST PROJECT EVER!!! If a recipe calls for shortening, DON'T USE IT. It is not water soluble and impossible to get off dishes let alone a squirming child. Plus, something in the recipe burned Bobo's face. His cheeks were so red. I don't know whether to buy some paints or try a different recipe.

Sensory Bin

Superhero Sensory Bin: rainbow links, Legos, tiny superhero figures and tweezers

We've had hours of fun with this bin. The links have become ropes, bridges and ladders. The Legos have become houses, hide-outs and evil robots. This is my favorite sensory bin so far and it was the easiest to make. It's just so colorful and inviting.

Tot School: Christmas

Month: December
Theme: Christmas
Dates: 12/4 to 12/10

Oriental Trading finally had a free shipping bonus, so we bought some new school supplies! I've had the penguin nesting dolls in my cart for ages, but didn't want to pay the shipping, which would cost as much as the item. I scored by waiting and got some other fun supplies in the process.

The Lessons

Bobo stamped the letter "S" sounds, like snake and shark. We practiced numbers by rolling our new foam dice and counting the dots to make a chain out of links. After it snowed, we went outside and sprayed red, yellow and blue on the snow in the backyard. He really wanted to eat the snow, but I couldn't do it. We have all kinds of animals running around back there. Maybe when the snow is thicker and we go in the front. Better yet, we'll make snow cones inside with ice from the fridge!

The Activities

The penguin nesting doll is Bobo's favorite activity for the month. He loves to pretend with them. We played hide-and-seek several times. One of us would close or eyes and the other would hide the baby inside one of the four left. This worked on color recognition and size.

We both made gingerbread men using the scented Play Dough we made a couple of weeks ago. We used beads to make eyes, mouth, nose and buttons. He enjoyed this activity and made lots of men.


I tried to introduce the concept of weaving by setting out Christmas ribbon and a cooling wrack. He did it perfectly but wasn't interested in continuing the activity. We haven't used it since the first day.

When I think of Christmas, I think of trains. With that in mind, Bobo assembled and played with his train puzzle. We bought this at Kohl's when he was obsessed with trains last year.


Crafts

I keep adding more craft supplies as I find good deals. Our craft area has grown and now has taken over a whole wall. Bobo explored his new craft area and said, "I need my scissors." He found lots of new things to cut, like yarn. He has mastered holding scissors correctly.

As you may already know, Bobo loves sidewalk chalk. We played with it everyday in the summer, most of the fall. Instead of putting it away for the winter, I set it out with the craft supplies. He asked if he could use it outside. I suggested using it on paper. He had no idea you could use chalk on paper! He's also been fascinated with drawing on black paper, so we explored what colors would work.


Sensory Bin

I made the winter sensory bin with Epsom Salt as the base. I added snowman cups (yes, they are ceramic and fragile, and YES, he did fine with them), a stretchy reindeer, santa ornament, santa smurfette, plush snowman and scoops. Bobo buried, scooped and poured with glee.


He had to get into the box, of course. No matter what is in the box, Bobo ends up in there as well eventually. He's making his "Don't take a picture," face, which consists of sticking out his tonge. The jokes on him, because I'm still going to use them. Ha-ha!


Field Trip

The boys and Grandma went to Indianapolis for the day. I stayed home and decorated the tree. I know they went to a mall and played in a children's area for a long time. Bobo made several friends and played with lots of children. What happened when he came home and saw the beautiful tree? Was he enchanted and amazed? "You hung up ALL the green ornaments?" said with a protruding bottom lip. Luckily, I had run out of hooks and still had some ornaments left to hang. We decorated the tree even more and hung up our special ornaments for the year. Bobo and Daddy put up the star as is tradition.

We also visited the Santa Train downtown and the Early Learning Center this week as I had a few days off work.

V-Tech

I don't remember what spurred it, but we got the V-tech V-Smile back out. Bobo received this system as a gift last year, but didn't have the skills to use it properly. He ended up throwing it, and we thought it was broken. Fortunately, it just needed new batteries and a new introduction. Now, Bobo is playing with it on a daily basis. He knows how to turn it on, off and reset as well as how to change games. He plays Kung-Fu Panda and Thomas the Train most often. It teaches letters, colors and logical thinking. We love it!