Under the Sea Week – “Sea Grass”

We had another exciting theme week at our homeschool…”Under the Sea!” We decided to devote this week’s lessons to the ocean and sea creatures.

We started off with an ocean sensory bin. This was such a huge hit with the kids (and the adults I might add!) We found a great article on Growing A Jeweled Rose about using cooked spaghetti for sensory play.

My mom just cooked a few boxes of dollar store spaghetti and added a little blue food coloring. We also made a green batch for the next day, since it was so popular! The water table made the perfect container for the “sea grass” as it came to be known. We added a little water and it worked perfectly to keep the spaghetti from getting sticky.

We hid the assorted sea creatures in the “sea grass” and I got the kids each a mini fishing pole to catch them with. It was much more fun, though, to just grab handfuls and go through it with their fingers! They found and hid the little creatures over and over! We also discussed the sea creature’s names as well. They played in the water table for more than an hour and my nephew even insisted on taking some of the spaghetti home to show his mom. 🙂 I would call that success!

The afternoon was topped off with an ocean jello snack with little fish inside, made by my sister.

WHAT’S IN OUR BIN:

1 pack assorted plastic fish

2 fishing pole games with asst. fish (similar to this, but non magnetic)

2 growing sea creatures

1 large whale figure

gems and pebbles

beach seashells

Almost all the items we used were found at our local dollar store or were re-purposed from around the house.

This was an excellent way to get our sea themed week started and really inspired the kids! I’m sure we will be finding ways to incorporate this play idea into more discover bins!

“All About Frogs Day” at Grandma’s

My nephew just turned five and is going to be starting home-school kindergarten in the Fall. In prep for that, my mom has been helping for a couple of hours each morning with “school.” My little girl, J, usually gets to join in the fun for an hour too. She wants to do everything her big cousin can do! The kids have really been enjoying this and my mom and I are also having a great time coming up with interesting and fun learning experiences for them to do together.

We have never done a sensory box before, but it looked like so much fun and something so suited to our kids, that we just had to give it a try. We decided on a frog theme after seeing this terrific example from Little Bins for Little Hands. We just used a disposable pan from the dollar store to hold all of our goodies. It included frogs, pebbles, a tree branch and a few lizards and dinosaurs…because why not? 🙂 My mom also put about an inch of water in the pan to add to the frog like habitat!

All of these items were from the dollar store or things we already had around the house. I believe that is the beauty of these kinds of discovery containers, putting together everyday items in new and exciting ways.

They really had fun picking each item up and digging through the pebbles. J especially liked grouping the frogs and lizards into separate piles and naming their colors.

There was also pictures with a frog theme for the kids to paint. My mom just made several copies of a coloring book page so they would have a couple each. They actually sat still long enough and worked right alongside each other to create their masterpieces.

We are looking forward to having another “learn all about” day at Grandma’s, this time with an ocean theme. I’ll be sure to share the results soon! If you haven’t made a sensory bin before, please give it a try! I had no idea of the enjoyment and learning the kids would get out of it. The themes and the amount of creativity you can put into each one are limitless!

Pinterest, of course, is a great place to browse for a wealth of inspiration and here are a few of my favorite sensory bin ideas:

Sensory Play Party ForKids  – Growing A Jeweled Rose

Water Beads Sensory Bin: A Photo Story  – Little Bins for Little Hands

Goodnight Moon Sensory   – The Adventures of Bear