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Welcome back for another Hands-On Play Party. Each week we will bring you simple ideas for hands-on play. This week I am excited to share the first in our Portable Sensory Bins Series. Portable sensory bins are a great way to engage children in hands-on play, encourage fine motor development, and provide tactile sensory input. These portable sensory bins can be used as gifts, travel or as a quiet independent activity for any child.
The set up is easy.
Your favorite Sensory Dough ( We used this Cloud Dough Recipe)
A Plastic Container with Compartments: We love these Lunch Bins we got from Zulily.
Alphabet Beads
Kid Safe Tweezers
We store all of the accessories in the top compartments of our travel bin ( the tweezers, the beads, and even a little plate from a toy tea set).
We store the sensory bin filler ( You could use cloud dough, foam dough, snow, flour, rice… the list is endless).
Whenever Bones (age 6) wants to explore, he opens up the top compartments and puts the beads into the cloud dough.
Bones had so much fun hunting and searching for the letters. He knows his letters and sounds but he still had a lot of fun pulling the beads out and saying:
“Look, I found a P rock… p…p…p…”
Since Bones is a lefty, he tends to need as much fine motor practice as I can give him. He has had weak fine motor control since he was itty bitty and this hands-on play is the perfect way to sneak it in.
Once he found all the beads, the fun was not over. He played in the portable sensory bin for another 30 minutes, using it as a ski slope and pretending he was at the Olympics.
I am sure you are wondering about clean up? It was so easy. Bones actually did all the clean up himself. He brushed all of the loose dough back in the bin, put the beads and tweezers away and wiped the table clean.
Our portable sensory bin now sits in the kitchen along side 2 more. Each one has a different theme and a different skill we are working on. Best of all, each one provides endless Hands-on Play!
Now it’s time for the Hands On Play party!
My Favorite Hands-On Sensory Activity From Last Week
Tutus and Tea Parties created a fabulous sandy cloud dough recipe that would work wonders in a portable sensory bin. I love the addition of rocks and seashells to extend the learning and play.
It’s your turn to show us your Hands-on Play ideas.
Color Matching with Transformers Rescue Bots
{Stir the Wonder}
Indoor Snow Play
{P is for Preschooler}
Simple Sensory Play
{Little Bins for Little Hands}
Please share your great ideas with us!
What is your Favorite Hands-on Activity? Be sure to link up below or comment on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram . Don’t miss a thing, subscribe by email . (I only send one email a week)
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Those are cool little containers! Love this idea! May need this for when we go on vacation or even when we move for a quick activity while packing/unpacking!
Thank you! This works great for those containers. We love the activity. So glad you did too!
We have found that even on vacations we need to have some structured activities, so making the sensory bins portable is a great idea. Great suggestions for storage containers as well. Great post!
Renae
Wonderful. I am so happy you enjoy them. As I write this, my youngest son is cleaning up from playing with them again. They are so handy 🙂
Love these! We’ll be sharing our first cloud dough experience on the blog soon.
That is awesome! I can’t wait to read about it! You know I’m a fan of anything you post! 🙂
What a good idea! In those handy containers you can travel with them or just grab them when the kids need something to do! 🙂
Thank you! We are loving the little bins ready to go. They are really versatile and have been used for many things.
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