Sensory Bin: Apple Pie

I love sensory bins! And if you’re not familiar with sensory bins or why they’re so great, head over here to read the Montessori Minute: Sensory Activities post. Carissa at the 1+1+1 Blog also has a lot of great ideas for sensory bins, and is great about posting links to other sites with great ideas. On her blog go to “Theme Printables” on the top, choose a theme, and then dig in…it’s a treasure trove of ideas!

This school year we’ve had a a few really great sensory bins – Creation, Space, and this week’s Apple Pie theme that I’m highlighting here. And I had one giant of a flop one a couple weeks ago for our Leaf unit (I’m going to try and reinvent this one next week for our Animal Homes unit…we’ll see how it goes). I tell myself to try, try again; and then I scour my favorite blogs and get some great ideas.

This week’s sensory bin came directly from Delightful Learning. I was so excited to find this post because we were also reading the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World from our MFW science unit.

Our bin contained the following:

• Wheat berries as the base.


• 2 red and 2 green apples I picked up from a fruit vase filler pack at Target.


• Apple Pie spices: cinnamon sticks, whole All Spice, Apple Pie Spice, salt shaker filled with salt (and a cotton ball stuffed in the top).


• Salt shaker filled with wheat berries.


• Dried sugar cane reads I picked up at Hobby Lobby.


• Dried wheat I picked up from Hobby Lobby.


• Contents from the Down on the Farm toob (I didn’t get this Melissa & Doug Bundle; but I think it’s pretty cool…they have a whole variety of them).


• Two Thomas & Friends trains.


• Measuring cups.


• Cloth World map.

Most of the time we just set it out and the three of us sit around and play. I follow the kids’ lead a lot to see how it sparks their imagination (our space sensory bin turned into a whole new planet called Opitizi where all the astronauts and aliens ate rice and beans for every meal and said the word “wanga” for everything). And it’s great to just run your hands through the wheat berries, pick them up, and then let them rain down on everything…it’s messy, but I love how the three of us can enjoy it together.

I also try to direct some of the learning. Here’s what I did with each child (sorry for the lack of active pictures, but I find myself a lot of times too in the moment to grab my camera).

Olivia…with Olivia’s imagination, most of the time she just wants to free play and make up stories, but I was able to get in a few other activities too:

• Math: I had her point out the different size measuring cups, and then using the wheat berries, she determined how many scoops of each size it took to fill up the 1 c. measuring scoop.


• Geography: As we read the story “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World” we laid out each ingredient on the specific country on our world map.


• Home Economics: We talked about the different ingredients that go into making apple pie and where they come from. For example, the wheat in the pie crust comes from wheat berries off of wheat stalks which then need to be ground into flour. The butter in the pie comes from milking the cow and then churning the cream. Etc…

Isaiah:

• Colors: discriminating between the red and green apples and naming the colors. He’s awesome at this!


• Counting: lining up and counting the apples. He can already count past 10, but the one to one correspondence hasn’t come yet…but he tries. Often times with our four apples he counted all the way up to 10 apples.


• Patterns: Just beginning to plant the seeds of patterns…red apple, green apple, red apple, green apple. At not even 2 years old, he’s a ways away from mastering this skill.


• Scooping and pouring: I add spoons and various containers for him to practice.


• Animal identification and animal sounds.


• Sound discrimination: we shook the salt shaker of salt, salt shaker of wheat berries, container of whole All-Spice, and the dried wheat stalks to hear the different sounds.

Together we smelled and even tasted the different spices. Olivia said, “Yech!” and Isaiah said, “Mmmm, that’s good!”

So, that was our week’s fun with the sensory bin. It was a big hit with the kids, and Olivia even asked to play with it one night before bed!