I found a totally awesome mommy blog a few days ago and I've been getting excited over all the ideas on it. For some reason I get giddy thinking about and planning new learning and fun activities to do with the boys! When I saw these sensory tubs, I was literally ready to bust out the front door to make my own. I had heard and read about sensory tubs before, but seeing these ones got my creative juices spinning and I was so eager to make one. Basically the sensory tubs from Counting Coconuts are spin offs of sandboxes, only created around a theme and with different filler material other than sand (could be sand too though, but also using things like rocks, rice, dried beans, cotton balls, etc). The idea is to let kids explore new materials, encourage new vocabulary and conversation, practice concepts (empty/full, etc) and have fun. The materials inside should be stimulating to the senses, with varying colors, textures, shapes, sizes, making different sounds or even having a smell if possible. The more senses that are engaged, the more learning that can happen! Thought should also be given to including materials that encourage sorting, counting, stacking, manipulating, and are open ended.
Asher loves sand. He loves scooping and dumping. He loves filling and emptying. He loves making tracks. He also loves pretending. I knew he would be interested in a sensory tub, so today I got one together for him. Our family has recently adopted a Betta fish from a friend who is moving to Calgary, and so I created a sensory tub with an aquarium theme since that is a focus in our life right now. Here it is in all it's glory!
- about 4 inches of blue aquarium rocks
- a fish net
- fake aquarium plants
- an aquarium picture back drop
- plastic and real shells
- a mini plastic submarine
- foam sticker fish, turtles, and sea horses
- aquarium figurines (a treasure chest idea and a little octopus)
- a glass jar
- foam words to encourage letter/word recognition; fish and water
- later added a shovel because Asher was really into scooping
Asher has thoroughly enjoyed his sensory tub today - it got a lot of play. He mostly has been into playing with the fish net and shovel and exploring the aquarium rocks. He also likes the little treasure chest, the fish house as he calls it. Because of the mini submarine, which we've had forever, we were able to talk about what a submarine is and we watched a YouTube video of one underwater. That set off another half an hour of play with the submarine diving under water. So much fun!
In total I would say this cost me about $30 to get up and going, but I did have some supplies on hand already. I really want to change my sensory tub each month, but I know this would be expensive and I don't really have the space to store the supplies. I sent an email to about a dozen friends today asking them to get involved in a sensory tub exchange with me where we trade tubs with each other. This way we get the novelty of something new, but without the expense. I hope it works out. If you're interested in knowing more, let me know and I'd love to send you the details.
So now back to the sensory tub - I've been almost as excited as Asher about the idea!
2 comments:
Very cool idea. When I was working for a local Child Psychologist here in town we used to do something similar on a smaller scale. She used play therapy some but more then anything it was used as a disarming tool when children got over stimulated or agitated. The favourite box had lentils and jungle animals. Often the jungle animals were discarded and the child would simply run their hands through the smooth lentils for very long stretches of time. She also used the lentils in a box for adults dealing with processing events of PTSD. While they were disclosing they were often able to stay calm and recall details better if they were playing with the lentils. It was very soothing.
At the daycare we did a tub with different pasta shapes, like spiral ones, macaronni, shell shaped, and we colored each kind a different color by stiring them in food coloring for a few minutes. The textures were fun to play with even as an adult, and the colors also helped engage the children. We left one shape as it was so it looked yellow, then we did one red, one blue, and one green. Hope that helps with an idea. We also used pasta spoons for digging around in, and we would hide 5-10 toys so that they would have to dig around inside to find them, either with the spoons or their hands. :)
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