October 6 is Noodle Day. Noodles are not only delicious, but they also make for a great sensory bin base. We used uncooked noodles because I like to be able to reuse our sensory bin materials as often as possible. We try to do bins once or twice a week, and it feels wasteful to not try to reuse.
Jude has been honing his skills in transferring objects from one container to another with scoops and spoons recently. He spends the majority of his time working on that. Our favorite scoops are from Amazon.
Rather than rehash what Jude did in detail while interacting with the sensory bin, I thought it might be more meaningful to outline my process of creating one.
1. Find a base
My go-to bases are noodles, waterbeads, and rice. You can also use dried beans, cooked noodles, oobleck, flour, or really anything that you have that's in your kitchen. It's a little controversial to use food items for bins, but I want them to be taste safe and reusable.
2. Mix in some color
I have bags of colorful sensory objects that I like to mix into the bins. Some of my favorites are buttons, twisted pipe cleaners, and wooden beads.
3. Pick a theme
I like to theme Jude's buckets. It might be based on the holiday we are celebrating or just something that he's currently interested in. I add little objects based on that. Most times there are either animals or cars. I use our magnetic foam letters to spell out the theme and add a little extra color.
4. Pick tools
We have a lot of Learning Resources tools that we use, but honestly, any spoon, measuring cup, or utensil will do. Also offering multiple smaller containers is great for transferring work.
5. Sit and play
I always sit with Jude when he starts his play with the bins. Other than to take pictures for the blog (if it's a blog bin), I like to be able to model some transferring and manipulating the tools. And, honestly, I just like to play with him. After a bit, we will both move away from it, and he will return as he sees fit until it's time to clean up!
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