Tot School: Lentil Sensory Bin

 

This Post is Linked up to Tot School Gathering Place.

 

 

What a long and adventurous week we had! It was rainy and windy Monday and Tuesday; plus, Wednesday the temperature dropped drastically and it snowed! Needless to say, we were stuck indoors most of the week.

 

I got the idea to do an orange (red) lentil sensory bin Here. I thought it looked neat, so Monday we went to town and got some lentils at the Bulk Barn. I love the Bulk Barn, a huge store with rows and rows of bins, scoopable treats as far as the eye can see. I only wish we had one in my town so I wouldn't have to go all the way into the city. But, I digress.

 

I made this mini sensory bin Monday night, after my little Jellybean was in bed of course. I used a dollar store container meant for cupcakes, and stuffed it with one of her stacking cups, one of my measuring spoons, and a few small things from the 'plastic toy' bin.

 

I love this container because it comes with a lid and carrying handles. Although, you get what you pay for, they do tend to pop out occasionally.

We played with this almost every day during the week, and the lentils slowly disappeared. For easier cleanup, I put down a plastic tablecloth under her little table. This turned out to be great foresight! All my pictures are from Tuesday's playtime, but as you can see it was greatly enjoyed.

I demonstrated scooping a few times, she took over quickly. I was also playing with the boat, motoring it around the lentils. They are so soft to the touch I could have probably played with them all day!

More scooping action, and you can see the nice mess they made. There are more on the floor and the giant puzzle pieces, but they are harder to see with the camera. I did a quick sweep after each play session, but we were still walking on lentils all afternoon.

And this is how we got so many on the floor. She did this several times the first day. I tried telling her they stay in the bin, but 15 month olds rarely listen. It was soon after this that I showed her to scoop them back into the bin and we put them away. She played with them more gentle both Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday was another big cleanup day.

I have decided we are going to attempt at least two crafts a week. Tuesday, my little grumpy was having a hard time while I was cooking dinner, so I got her in the highchair and let her go at it with the bingo dabber again. Thursday, I attempted something I saw on Pintrest.  I had a hard time, but managed to tape a piece of contact paper to her tray, sticky side up. I gave her a bunch of squares cut from scrapbook paper and let her make a collage. She didn't really get it, just scattered the papers until they stuck, but it seemed like she enjoyed it

Our art projects this week.

 

Our 'math' project this week was sorting coloured pasta. I used purple bowties from last week and some blue penne I made this week. I put out two buckets and tried to show her how to put the penne in one and the bowties in another. She just preferred to dump both into one bucket. She will get it someday.

She played with them for about half an hour before I caught her putting them in her mouth. I ended up taking them away after a little tantrum because she wanted to try them. She also ended up with slightly blue lips! The next time we played, she was better about not eating them.

We went on a little puddle jump rain walk Monday, that was really fun! We learned that if we jump in a puddle, it makes a mighty splash!

She also learned that umbrellas make great weapons and that Mommy takes them away when they are used as such. :-)

Finally, we got our Easter Bunny picture back. Remember when I sad it was a bawl-fest? Here's proof.

It will make a nice contribution to her scrapbook. I don't envy that Bunny one bit, having to put up with screaming babies all day...and mine has a pretty good set of lungs!

Well, that's it for another week of Tot School. Here's hoping the upcoming week has better weather and we can get out more!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

~Natasha.