Sensory Bins

Playing in Gigi's sensory table!

A great "hands on" activity~

I've been out and about the past two weeks, so I asked another grandmother to share some ideas that she does with her grandkids. She's a former kindergarden teacher, and she's all about touching, and feeling and exploring our world.

She does a sensory table with her grands and here are some of her comments:

There is one activity I've used with my grands that has resulted in hours of fun. It's the sensory bin. It can change as often as you'd like by changing fillers, tools and objectives.

This is how easy it was to make. I got the plans from the website: 2 Teaching Mommies. I took these plans to Home Depot and showed an employee what I wanted to make:

Plans from the website: 2 Teaching Mommies

He kindly cut the PVC pipes to the desired lengths and gathered the correct connectors. I checked out, assembled it at home, and we've enjoyed it ever since. I'm sure some people would rather DIY it, but I left that part to the pros.

Here are the materials needed:

1 Sterilite 28-quart storage box (23 1/2" by 17" by 6")
3/4 inch PVC pipe (see cut list)
8-3/4" PVC side outlet elbows/3-way connector
2-3/4 inch PVC tee
2-3/4 inch elbow

Cut List:

2 - 21 inch
5 - 14 1/4 inch
4 - 10 inch
2 - 3 1/2 inch
4 - 18 1/4 inch (or customized to your desired height. These are the uprights customized for your child's height.)

Just go through your house or the Dollar Store and collect items to use for tools.

Some items to fill your table/bins. The list is endless.

There are unlimited fillers and tools for your sensory bins. We've tried fillers such as water, sand, different kinds of beans, water beads, colored rice, corks, and shaving cream. Besides being fun to explore, kids develop many skills: fine motor, scoop and pour, measuring, predicting (how many of 'these' will it take to fill 'this'), seek and find, etc. Just visit the website Pocket of Preschool for a fabulous list of items for fillers.....and tools!

HOURS OF FUN!

Developing fine motor skills.

And hand-eye coordination.

One of the last times we got this out to explore, I went into the house to get supplies, and when I came back out, the grands and their Grandpa Chuck had used the pieces to build their own masterpieces. I think my grands may get PVC pipe pieces and connectors for Christmas!

We can do it this way, Grampa.

Definitely need a set of PVC pipes and connectors for Christmas!

One more note from my friend Gail~

And as an added bonus, when the grands go home, I can pack all the pieces into the bin itself!

Easily packs away.

Lastly!

How fun to have a sensory table at your house! None of that.....I'm bored......I've got nothing to do. Simply drag out the sensory table and get going! Hours of fun and develops important skills to boot.

​Grandma Gail (who is also a Gigi) reports that she got this fabulous idea from these two great blogs:

​pocketofpreschool.com

​www.2teachingmommies.com