Last week was possibly one of the coldest weeks I have felt in a long time. -20C was our high most days and with the wind chill I don't even want to remember what our temperature got to. Needless to say our daily trip to the park or stroll outside didn't happen, and so I decided it was a great week to start our Sensory Bin project!
The first 'theme' I wanted to do was Winter anyway, so when we couldn't go outside we brought outside in to us!
For this sensory bin we had ice cubes, fresh snow and a bunch of different things to dig in the snow with (shovels, spoons of different sizes & shapes, and Discovery Toys Cups and Pots). The kids also each had a pair of gloves/mitts to help protect their hands from playing in continuous cold. I had hidden a few things in some of the ice cubes (Lego blocks, little men, etc.) but we didn't play long enough for these to melt and be discovered. You could see them through the ice cubes, but the kids either didn't notice or care...
I borrowed the idea of coloured ice cubes from a good friend of mine, and used some IKEA ice cube trays (fish, flowers and stars) to add to the different shapes of ice cubes we had to play with (I did also use regular trays for some variation in size and shapes). This first image is our table all set up and ready to go:
Before I continue, I have to say seeing the kids watch me get this ready was almost as fun as watching their reactions as they first started playing. I told them it was too cold to go outside (yet again), but that we were still going to play in the snow inside - in the kitchen! When I popped out the front door to collect snow from a little ledge that we have near our BBQ they both watched in awe and were so excited to see me bring it inside! I couldn't help but laugh!
We started out with both kids wearing their mitts/gloves. They were both a little confused on why we were wearing gloves inside but had no jackets on (in fact both of them asked at different times for their jackets while I was setting it up and putting their mitts/gloves on), but I think this soon became apparent to them when we started playing.
Little A quickly decided she wanted her gloves off (they're tricky to handle spoons and such!) and to touch the snow.... she got very concerned her hands were wet and cold, but wanted to touch the brightly coloured ice so badly! Wee man decided that if she had her gloves off then he didn't want his on either, but he was even more concerned about the cold and so started the constant rotation of glove-no glove - mitt-no mitt - one glove-one bare hand - and so on! The final result was that each kid decided one glove and one bare hand was the way to go, AND we had to have a towel at-the-ready so that they could dry their hands every couple of minutes.
I tried to do some snowballs and show them we could build things with the snow, and also put some water on the snow to show we could melt it, but they were both much happier to use the spoons and cups and dump the snow and ice from one container to another - which was fine by me! After about 15 or 20 minutes they'd both had enough (and were covered in snow from head to toe), and the kitchen floor was soaked from all the melting snow that didn't make it into the containers, but we'd all had a fun distraction from the brutal cold outside!
I'd have to say my first attempt at a Sensory Bin was fun and a success --- I look forward to trying more in the coming weeks and months. I think a sand one (or the flour/baby oil mix) would be great for these two - they both really wanted to get their hands in it, but the cold was a bit much for them and the gloves/mitts were just a hindrance to what they really wanted to do with their hands. Rice, dried beans or other similar materials might be good, too, because really they love to just transfer materials from one container to another!
Here are a few images from our adventures with the Winter Sensory Bin:
Starting out - Wee Man discovers it's fun to dump snow into the pot! Little A watches closely.
Little A looses the mitts, but finds that the shovel prevents her hands from getting cold & wet! Let the fun begin!
Nearing the end of our adventures - all mitts are off, snow is everywhere, but there are still exciting things to be found buried in the snow! A whole pot of ice cubes is waiting to melt into a colourful mess of water. :-)
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