Preschool Garden Sensory Bin

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:

Rainbow Rice Ocean Sensory Bin

Bug Sensory Bin

Valentine Rice Bin (toddlers)

Simple Garden Bin (toddlers)

Easter Bin (toddlers)

What kind of bin is your favorite and what is your favorite activity to do with it?

What I Made This Past Week...

Today I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to tell about what I made this past week.   She does a linky party every month for people to share about what they've made, whether it is for the home, classroom, or just for fun!  It's a great way to see what other bloggers have been up to.  

So this past week, this is what I created....

By BFF from high school broke her ankle about 2 weeks ago, and she had to have surgery to put a metal plate and some screws in there.  We live many states away, so I made a care package for her with some books and this homemade journal.  I plan on blogging about it, just haven't yet.   

 I used water color paper to make the flowers, then used some scrapbook paper to glue on the other side.  I cut it down to the size I wanted, and used my cutting tool to score the fold.  I then printed lined paper and cut it to size, scored it, and then my husband nailed 5 holes into the binding.  I then used a big needle and some bakers twine in orange to stitch the binding closed using a saddle stitch. This video was a huge help.  I then wrote in blue sharpie "You Are Loved" and "You are His".  I love how it turned out, and I hope she does too.

 I tutor a 2nd grader in art every Monday.  He is very talented in art, but unfortunatly the elementary school doesn't teach art.  Therefore, each Monday we work on some skills.  We started a new project on Ton Schulten based on this lesson by Paintbrush Rocket.  We are working with tempra paints, making tints and still covering simple shapes. It really is a great lesson for him.  We aren't done yet, and I am hoping we will finish this coming Monday.  This is my example I did before he came over.  It was so nice to just do an art project.  I've missed painting on a larger scale.

 

My daughter and I also painted outside using some watercolors I made about a week ago after finding an amazingly simple non-toxic recipe.  The recipe comes from the blog Happy Hooligans ... and it was a good thing it was non toxic, because Sweet Pea started drinking that water going "mmmmm"! Crazy girl.  We had a blast!  Her art work is now hanging on the wall in her playroom, and she loves to point at it.  

I also made an Easter sensory bin for her using all items from the Dollar Tree (I LOVE THAT PLACE!)  And I only spent $5 on it!  The bin has 2 green Easter basket filler bags , a stuffed rabbit, bunny shaped eggs, and carrot shaped eggs.  The flowers I already had and I just stuck them in the grass.  She loves to dig out the rabbit eggs and place them in a basket I already had.  This sensory bin will stay up through Easter, and I might add/take away some items to it in the next month and a half.

The last thing I created this week was an entry into my Sweet Pea's Legacy Journal.  This is Bible Art Journaling, but I just make sure that I am writing to her about what I want her to know. This artwork is based on 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, about gifts, the body, and love.  I wrote a blog post about it here.

I absolutely LOVE doing these entries.  I learn so much from studying the Word and reflecting on what it is that I truly want to write to her.  It takes me awhile to finally do an entry, but once I actually sit down to make it, it doesn't take too long. It's the preparation for the entry that takes a while, but it is so worth it.

So that was my week!  Whew!  It is normally not that filled, but I count my blessings in the fact that I get to be able to create and have fun with my girl.



Be sure to go check out Tara's Link Up to get some more creative ideas from others!
Happy Creating!

Metamorphosis for Preschoolers: Egg

A butterfly emerged overnight!

All day long, my girl has stared into the butterfly habitat whispering encouragements as the butterflies slowly move their wings.  It's adorable.

I would have never thought to buy a butterfly habitat and all that goes into it if we were not having an amazing unit from our Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum.

It was the perfect day to start our Metamorphosis Week with our Bees and Butterflies unit.

Although teaching with my 16 month rambunctious sidekick  proves quite challenging, today was a day when all things clicked and everyone had a part in the learning.

Community Challenge

The Community Challenge was to create a classroom leaf using the fingerprints of all the kids in the room on a leaf using our color for the month- WHITE.  It's only the 3 of us, so instead I gave Sister and Brother each a leaf (she cut hers) and using white paint she placed 15 white fingerprints on her leaf.  15 is one of our numbers of the month by the way.  

Brother used a white crayon to make marks on his leaf.

Literacy: Open Your Egg

 Yesterday was Easter, and boy did my boy have a blast finding our Resurrection eggs around the house.  I knew he could help Sister with this MGT literacy game.

We discussed how butterflies lay eggs on leaves, and MGT sent 6 plastic eggs.  I wrote the letters Kk, Xx, and Mm on scrap paper and placed each one in each egg.  I then placed the eggs on the floor for Brother to find and bring to his Sister.  She would then open the egg and write the letter on the giant leaf MGT sent us.  This worked out great!

Math: Hidden Eggs

MGT sent us white foam ovals and 3 sized leaves: small, medium, and large.

I had to cut some of the ovals into smaller ovals since they were all the same size, but this was such a great sorting game and Brother got to play too.  I hid all the "eggs" in the sensory bin of beans.  Brother absolutely loved rubbing his hands in this stuff.  As they searched and found the eggs, Sister then sorted them onto the appropriately labeled leaves.

She finished this activity by counting all the eggs.(19) 

STEAM: Rolling Eggs

MGT suggested an outdoor discovery lesson with balls and baskets.

I had a blue tub of a variety of balls that Sister and Brother practiced putting into different buckets.

We discussed the shape of eggs (ovals), whether eggs roll or bounce, and what would happen if we dropped an egg.  We were supposed to practice rolling, dropping, and bouncing the "eggs" (balls), but instead it turned into a game of throwing, tossing, and swirling balls in baskets.  Either way enjoyment was had and we got some much needed vitamin D from the sunshine.

Sister swings a bucket and Brother has to find one to swing too. :) 

Art: Eggs on a Leaf

After lunch and while Brother napped, I set up our Invitation to Create.

 I loved how her work turned out on this!

MGT sent us some tiny itty-bitty pasta that was the perfect little egg, a leaf shape, and photo.

Avaleigh used her markers to draw the veins on the leaf and then using the glue, she carefully made a blob of glue on her leaf.  Pinching the pasta, she placed it on the blob until it was completely covered.  She did this for 10 different blobs of glue; however, by the time she got to the 4th or 5th blob, she realized she could pour the pasta and that would cover her glue better.  

I loved how this project turned out! 

StoryTime:  A Monarch Butterfly's Life

by John Himmelman

MGT suggested that we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which is a wonderful book.

However we know it backwards and forwards, and when I saw A Monarch Butterfly's Life in the library, I knew we had to read it. I love how this book shows the life cycle of the butterfly's life including how it migrates from the States to Mexico.  The pictures are fantastic and it has simple sentences with phenomenal word choice. Lots of information packed into this book.

Our day ended with us reading this book, watching an episode of Wild Kratts (Butterflies), and discovering 2 more butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises!

 You can kind of see the 3 of them in the pic below.

Whew!  That was a lot!  But it was so much fun and didn't even seem that long!  Super excited about this week and I can't wait to see what MGT has planned for us as we study the Caterpillar, Chrysalis, and Butterfly stages this week!

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