Stimulate your child and their senses by creating a sensory play box! Based on holidays such as Christmas or other themes these simple toys boxes will keep your tots busy.
Have you have been intrigued by the idea of sensory bins for quite some time. For those who may be unfamiliar with the concept, a sensory bin is a box or container filled with a variety of objects for a child to explore. Beyond being something fun and entertaining for the child to play with, the idea of a sensory bin is to gather an assortment things in a contained area that together stimulate multiple senses, including sight, sound, touch, and sometimes even smell.
As the child explores the objects in the bin, he or she experiences each of these senses, and also has the chance to work on other important developmental skills such as:
- Fine Motor (placing small objects into small areas, transferring objects, pouring, scooping etc.)
- Early Math (counting, patterning, sorting and matching)
- Spacial orientation and depth perception
- Visual discrimination (the ability to recognize the similarities and differences in the appearance of objects)
Sensory bins are often designed around a specific theme (a letter of the alphabet, a colour, a season, or a place), and can also be used to enhance learning about that theme. With Christmas quickly approaching, it is the perfect time to try and create one of your own. Here is a picture of our Christmas themed sensory bin:
It contains cotton balls ("snow"), a variety of jingle bells, ribbon, silver Christmas cookie cutters. small boxes to open, a stainless steel container to fill and dump with, toilet paper tubes wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, a miniature stocking, a red silk play scarf, rubber gingerbread people, and silver plastic ball ornaments with a variety of different textures and appearances (shiny, matte, smooth, glittery, and bumpy).
Enjoy making your own sensory bin for your child to explore and discover.
