Welcome to another Rocking Motherhood Monday!  I am so excited to be sharing what I call “A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin!”  If your kiddos are anything like mine, they love anything that has water, animals, and sand.  Mix that with a little sunshine, which we have recently experienced, and you have the perfect day for this sensory bin!

As an educator, I think it is important to teach each lesson in a variety of ways, since children learn in different ways and at different rates.  For this reason, I absolutely love sensory bins.  A sensory bin is exactly what it sounds like… a bin filled with objects that allows your child to have a tactile experience.  A sensory bin is a great way to help develop a child’s language, expand their imagination, or increase literacy through story telling.  In general, a sensory bin is a wonderful tool to allow the child to explore, interact, and be part of the learning process.

A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin Supplies

• Seashells
• Ocean Animals
• Water
• Rubbermaid Bin
• Sand
• Basil (sea kelp)

Put the items in the Rubbermaid bin and build a beach.  This activity is geared towards three year olds, but my younger child (under 2), had a blast participating.  Here are some pictures of our sensory bin…

 

A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin Lesson Outline

The goal of this lesson was to learn about the beach and the creatures that live in the ocean.  I also wanted to discuss activities that can be done while at the beach.  Here are some questions to get you started… remember, though these will get you started, the learning and fun really is endless with this activity.

1.  What kinds of animals live in the ocean?
Allow them time to shift through the water to find the different animals and name them.  I also took it one step further and talked about each animal that she found.

2.  What kind of things can you do at the beach?
We talked about flying kites and what makes kites fly, running in the sand, playing with a beach ball, building a sandcastle, looking for buried treasure, swimming… the list goes on and on.  I also made sure to discuss beach safety and how important it is to never turn your back on the water.

3.  Comparison of the different shells in the sensory bin.
We looked at the color, shape, and size of each shell and then we talked about which ones were the same and which ones were different.  We also counted the shells.

I will warn you if you decide to do this activity that there will be tears when is it time to clean up.  I had two hysterical children because I eventually poured out their ocean!  All in all this activity was such a fun experience for both of my kiddos!  A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin has already been requested for tomorrow’s agenda!

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Rocking Motherhood Monday activity.  If you are looking for more hands-on activities, please be sure to check out my Story Rocks Tutorial or venture over to Living Montessori Now with Deb to check out some of her great educational activities!

Cheers,
Lisa