My children love to do sensory activities. Give them a container full of beans and they will be entertained for days. I recently saw this idea for beans and hearts on No Time For Flashcards. Both children have enjoyed it; Kaitlyn has loved it. She plays with it several times a day. I keep it in the kitchen so she can play with it while I am in there.
You can do lots of different things for sensory activities. You can make them similar to this one and add whatever suits your theme for the week. You don't have to use beans. You can use things like rice, sand, and packing peanuts. Brayden's preschool teacher filled her tub with sand during dinosaur week and the children looked for dinosaur bones.
After you fill it, give your children items like spoons and measuring cups to scoop, pour, and dump.
Yes, there will be spills. Personally, I wouldn't' do sand in the house because I am OCD. That is what we have a sandbox for. But I don't think there is anything wrong with it if you will have sand in it in your house. You can teach your children to pick up the beans and packing peanuts as they spill or when they are done playing. Messes clean up :)
One warning, if you have carpet that is plush in the least, I don't recommend you use beans on it. We learned that the hard way about 8 months ago. We found beans in the carpet for months! I now do this on hardwood floors.
We did this today! Charis loved this so much I thought I was going to have to drag her away from it. :) Soooo much fun!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. My two boys love it...i think next time though I'll put an old sheet down to make clean-up easier! Thanks for all our wonderful ideas!
ReplyDeleteWe love sensory activities. We have a bowl of beans in the playroom. Shaving cream is another good one. Another idea is to give them tweezers to build those fine-motor skills.
ReplyDeleteMaureen
My preschooler liked this a lot, but my toddler began to cry. I just have to laugh and shake my head about food-like activities for the toddler. He always tries to eat them and then cries like his heart is broken. That goes for our pretend food for the play kitchen, too.
ReplyDelete