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Imagine a garden where the flowers never wilt and the fun never ends – that’s exactly what you get with a flower sensory bin! Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers little hands and big imaginations, this activity brings the joy of gardening indoors! Allowing kids to dig, plant, and explore to their hearts’ content. It’s an easy setup with hours of play, blending the wonders of nature with sensory exploration.
Material List:
- Sensory bin
- Brown rice (for instructions on coloring rice here)
- A mix of beans (kidney beans, black beans, and lentils work well)
- Artificial flowers (easily found at dollar stores)
- Flower pots for sorting or planting
- Spade or shovel (kid-sized)
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Prepare Your Base: Start by filling your sensory bin with the colored brown rice on one side. This will act as your ‘soil’, giving a realistic base for your garden. find instruction to making colored rice here.
- Add Variety with Beans: Add a mix of kidney beans, black beans, and lentils throughout the rice or to the other side. These will add texture and contrast, mimicking the small stones and nutrients found in natural soil.
- Plant Your Garden: Push the stems of the artificial flowers into the rice so they stand upright, simulating a blooming garden. Scatter them around or create patterns; the design is up to you!
- Garden Tools Ready: Place a kid-sized spade or shovel along with extra flower pots nearby. These tools encourage kids to dig in the soil, transplant flowers, and even sort the beans and rice into the bins.
- Let the Gardening Begin! Introduce your child to the bin, and let their imagination take the lead. They can dig, plant, sort, and even pretend to water the flowers, engaging in hours of imaginative play.
How My Kids Played:
My twins, both aged 5, dove into the bin with eagerly, each planting and rearranging the flowers. They pretended to be gardeners, discussing where each flower should go and why, fully immersing themselves in their make-believe garden.
Tips for Success:
- Keep It Contained: To minimize mess, place a sheet or tablecloth under the sensory bin. It catches stray rice and beans, making cleanup easier.
- Rotate Accessories: Introduce different tools or small garden-themed toys to keep the sensory bin exciting and new.
- Embrace the Mess: While it’s good to contain the play, remember that sensory exploration can be messy but is valuable for development. Let kids fully explore without too much worry about spills.
Skills Learned:
- Fine Motor Skills: Scooping, digging, and planting enhance hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
- Cognitive Development: Sorting beans, planning a garden layout, and engaging in pretend play stimulate problem-solving and creativity.
- Sensory Exploration: The varied textures of the rice, beans, and flowers provide a rich sensory experience, promoting sensory processing skills.
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlersincludes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschoolwhich includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years.That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
Thesetoddler and preschool lesson plans and activitieswill definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book:Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more informationExciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy atAmazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book:Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copyhere.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book:Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast?The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 yearsold and up.
TV Show:Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV showCurious Craftingwhich launched in July 2022 onTVOkidsandTVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
Flower Sensory Bin
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Materials
- Sensory bin
- Brown rice (for instructions on coloring ricehere)
- A mix of beans (kidney beans, black beans, and lentils work well)
- Artificial flowers (easily found at dollar stores)
- Additional bins for sorting or plantingSpade or shovel (kid-sized)
Instructions
Prepare Your Base:Start by filling your sensory bin with the colored brown rice on one side. This will act as your 'soil', giving a realistic base for your garden. find instruction to making colored ricehere.
Add Variety with Beans:Add a mix of kidney beans, black beans, and lentils throughout the rice or to the other side. These will add texture and contrast, mimicking the small stones and nutrients found in natural soil.
Plant Your Garden:Push the stems of the artificial flowers into the rice so they stand upright, simulating a blooming garden. Scatter them around or create patterns; the design is up to you!
Garden Tools Ready:Place a kid-sized spade or shovel along with extra flower pots nearby. These tools encourage kids to dig in the soil, transplant flowers, and even sort the beans and rice into the bins.
Let the Gardening Begin!Introduce your child to the bin, and let their imagination take the lead. They can dig, plant, sort, and even pretend to water the flowers, engaging in hours of imaginative play
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