I’ve been trying to build thematic sensory tubs each month that coincides with our theme from Mother Goose Time, our preschool curriculum.
This month it’s all about the garden, so here’s how we built ours and a few activities you can do with the bin.
You will need:
black beans, pinto beans, floral foam, fake flowers, little ceramic pots, floral cutters ($1 at Dollar Tree!) or scissors, a large tub and any other trinkets you want to add to your garden.
Everything pictured below (except the beans and tub) was purchased at Dollar Tree, and I might have spent $10.
Pour both colors of beans into your tub. This allows it to look more like dirt and is great if you are wanting to do a sorting activity.
Build Bouquets.
Cut the flowers to where each is on it’s own stem. Then let your preschooler stab them into the floral foam. My girl started building it bouquets by scooping beans into her ceramic pots and then placing flowers inside. (The ceramic pots are breakable! Please only purchase if you feel they are safe for your child. My girl is very gentle and doesn’t throw things around, so I didn’t mind her playing with the ceramic pots under my supervision.)
Play a Matching Game.
Remove the flowers and now you have “soil” to plant all sorts of things in your garden.
We played a matching game with vegetable cards during our Soil Day, and when we had a match we buried them in the “soil.”
Act out math problems.
We added some produce from my girl’s toy kitchen to act out math problems from our Rabbit Day.
There is so much more you could do with the garden bin!
- You could have your little “pick” the produce to sell at the make believe market.
- They could also make bouquets to sell at the market.
- You could act out stories you read. This allows you to actually grasp your little’s reading comprehension all while playing. Win-win!
- Hide fishing worms in the bin and have your little find them. What a great sensory experience!
- For older kids: Plant sight words in the garden and have them pick the words to make a sentence.
I love having a sensory tub to go with the theme.
My girl loves to make believe play with it and I love having a bin to expand her learning.
Here are a few more tubs we have built:
What kind of bin is your favorite and what is your favorite activity to do with it?
