Habitat Sensory Bins

Hopefully your child came home from school excited and eager to tell you all about the new sensory bins in our classroom. You are probably wondering what they are and why we have them.

Sensory bins are bins with carefully selected items for your child to explore, experiment with, and discover. They have items that will help your child learn and remember using several of their senses. It is hands on learning. We will use sensory bins in several ways in our class.

First to introduce new things ~ the Australia bin is an example of this. We are just beginning our study of Australia, but in the bin your child can explore a map of Australia, animals, and shells.

Second to practice what we have already learned ~ the groundhog bin is an example of this. The children used the sun/flashlight and clouds to experiment with making shadows.

Third to practice math ~ counting, sorting, pattern.

Fourth to practice language ~ they are given the opportunity to talk to their partners about what they are exploring in the bin.

Last, but still very important to learn from each other and to work cooperatively with their peers.

The Australia Bin. The children were amazed by the blue colored rice.

Experimenting with a funnel and shells.

Digging right in.

Do I hear a whale or the ocean?

"I've got to see this!"

The sea star was the star of this bin.

Love that blue rice.

How much can I fit in this shell?

The groundhog bin.

Working together.

Can you see your shadow groundhog?

Are you hungry?

Making the farm show.

This is what its all about ~ happy faces that have learned a ton working together.

I hope you have found this informative and interesting. Stay tuned for more posts ~ both of what we have already done this year and of things to come.