Easter Themed Sensory Play - Sensory Bin, Discover Bottles and Shakers

3 Different Sensory ideas with items from the Dollar Store!

1) Sensory Bin

 The Dollar Store has a bunch of these plastic baskets in a variety of colors.

Items include:

plastic eggs

plastic bunny eggs

cupcake liners and sticks (super cute)

table scatter

Easter/Spring themed erasers

12 pack of carrots

Easter basket grass

green foam

2) Discovery Bottles

 I used a variety of the same items from the sensory bin to make these. 

 I hot glued the outside to keep it closed.  

 How cute are these???

Not to mention super colorful to explore!

3) Egg shakers

I used colored rice I had on hand. But, plain rice is just fine!

 Any type of plastic egg will work great. 

I love these eggs from the Dollar Store.  

I hot glued the outside so they can't be opened.  

Snow Sensory Bin with Arctic Animals

We are slowly getting over our colds here. I mean slowly.  This has been by far my worst cold in a long time.  Ok, I am done whining.  Since we haven't been able to get outside to play in the snow I thought I would bring some inside!

We've had snow covered grounds for two weeks now.  I love it and it looks so pretty!  But, our temps are supposed to rise this week. Worried the snow would melt, I didn't want to miss out on doing this snow sensory bin as part of Arctic and Antarctica month. 

I bought the Arctic Animal Toob from Michaels.  They are around $8.99 but, I used a 40% off coupon.

The Arctic Toob includes:

polar Bear

harp seal

beluga whale

walrus

arctic hare

caribou

acrtic fox

igloo

musher

eskimo

I filled a large plastic tote with snow. I had this one filled with t-shirts under the bed :)

I added two containers of water.

At first, I added one warm and one cold. We experimented with adding snow to each. 

I showed them how the snow melts faster in the warm water and very slowly in the cold water.   

 The snow was all melted in the morning.  Plus, it was still freezing cold! 

I filled it back up with snow this morning.  

As they played in the snow with the animals we talked about the types of animals that live in the arctic.  The animals that don't live in the arctic.  Plus, Inuits (Eskimos) and their homes.

Halloween Sensory Bin

"Spooktackular"  Halloween Sensory Bin

I wasn't going to do a Halloween sensory bin.  But, it turned out to be VERY popular with the girls and kept them very entertained for a while.  

What is in this bin?

1 bag each of black beans and green split peas

 pumpkin ice cube trays

tongs 

orange and black pom poms

 Miscellaneous Dollar Store items and Target $1 bin items.  

They loved transferring the items with the tongs. 

 silly girls! 

Birthday & Cupcake Making Sensory Tub

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Junebug! 

She requested blue play dough with glitter.  So, I thought it was a perfect time to put together a birthday / cupcake themed sensory tub for her to play with.  

What is in the tub:
~ two #3 candles
~ regular candles
~ plastic heart bracelets (from another tub)
~ rose petals - from the Dollar Store
~ birthday confetti - from the Dollar Store
~ plastic cupcake holders - I bought these from the Dollar Store around Valentine's Day
~ pom poms
~ plastic links in different shapes - I've had these for a while they are from the Dollar Store
~ rolling pin

Garden Sensory Tub

I didn't plan on making a garden themed sensory tub.  I saw one floating around on pintrest.  I even posted about it on the blog's Facebook page.
Then we decided to plant a vegetable garden and saw the disappointment when Junebug realized she could dig in the dirt once the seeds were planted.

I then decided I should make a garden sensory tub so she could plant seeds, water them, dig them up and plant all over again.

I used things for this bin we already had from our outside toy collection.  I did make the garden labels and seed packets.  See the below DIY instructions.

The seed packets were made from a regular envelope.

I simply cut it down the middle and glued the sides together.

 I trimmed the edges so both sides were at an angle. 

 I added the same picture from the garden labels I made.  

 Then I added regular beans to represent the seeds.  

I am sure these envelopes will need to be replaced once they are covered in water.

But, they were so easy to make.

 I filled the bin about a 1/4 full with Topsoil.  

I placed everything in the bin.

Including plastic vegetables and flowers to match the garden labels.  

Click here to see my DIY Garden Labels post

 She loved planting the flowers.  She requested more for the bin.  

I got the sunflowers from the Dollar Store.