It's a new month, and you know that means-- a new unit with our preschool curriculum from Mother Goose Time. This month it is all about Fables and Folktales, and we just spent the whole first week reading from Aesop's Fables.
One of those fables happened to be about the Ants and the Grasshopper which inspired our monthly sensory bin. I have been working with my just turned 4 preschooler on how to retell stories,
and yall.... the struggle is real.
We practiced retelling at home, so that when Daddy came home, my girl could tell him the story about what she learned. Yall, she could remember the climax, but anything leading to that point, she left out. She did this with the Lion and the Mouse story, and the Bundle of Sticks story, and still struggled retelling the Ant and Grasshopper on our 3rd day.
We practiced retelling at home, so that when Daddy came home, my girl could tell him the story about what she learned. Yall, she could remember the climax, but anything leading to that point, she left out. She did this with the Lion and the Mouse story, and the Bundle of Sticks story, and still struggled retelling the Ant and Grasshopper on our 3rd day.
I had to make a change to help her retell.
So I decided I would try to make her sensory bin become a retelling bin this month.
What you need:
-rice
-food coloring or liquid watercolors
-ziploc bag
-large dish pan or container to set up sensory bin
-plastic ants (we used some from last month's box)
-plastic grasshopper (we had from some bugs I bought at the dollar store a while ago)
-buttons or anything to represent food
-blocks for ant hill and grasshopper
A good shaking gets the green water color to spread out.
Now you have "grass"! Lay it out flat to dry and place in the sun for a few minutes. It was completely dry by the time I finished gathering all the rest of my supplies.
We combined efforts and retold the story in the video below.
However this box could easily be adapted to be any Aesop fable or book!
Add a mirror, a toy dog, and paper bone and retell the story of the Greedy Dog and His Bone.
Add a toy lion, a toy mouse, and some cloth to be a net and retell the Lion and the Mouse.
Add some frogs, blue rice, and few small pebbles, and retell the story of the Boys and the Frogs.
Add a rabbit and a turtle toy, and maybe some popsicle sticks to create a path to retell the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.
The possibilities are endless.
We will definitely change our bin throughout the month as we retell the stories we learn.
Happy learning friends!
-rice
-food coloring or liquid watercolors
-ziploc bag
-large dish pan or container to set up sensory bin
-plastic ants (we used some from last month's box)
-plastic grasshopper (we had from some bugs I bought at the dollar store a while ago)
-buttons or anything to represent food
-blocks for ant hill and grasshopper
A good shaking gets the green water color to spread out.
Now you have "grass"! Lay it out flat to dry and place in the sun for a few minutes. It was completely dry by the time I finished gathering all the rest of my supplies.
My husband cut some wood blocks for the kiddos a few months ago as he got his lumberjack on and took down a few trees in the back yard. They are perfect for our sensory box!
We combined efforts and retold the story in the video below.
However this box could easily be adapted to be any Aesop fable or book!
Add a mirror, a toy dog, and paper bone and retell the story of the Greedy Dog and His Bone.
Add a toy lion, a toy mouse, and some cloth to be a net and retell the Lion and the Mouse.
Add some frogs, blue rice, and few small pebbles, and retell the story of the Boys and the Frogs.
Add a rabbit and a turtle toy, and maybe some popsicle sticks to create a path to retell the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.
The possibilities are endless.
We will definitely change our bin throughout the month as we retell the stories we learn.
Happy learning friends!
