Rainforest Sensory Bin

In honor of our Rainforest theme, I made the them a Rainforest Sensory Bin…

 

I filled the base it with jewels, rocks, and foam flowers & frogs {from Oriental Trading}.  I added our Rainforest Toob, as well as a pack of Rainforest Finger Puppets I ordered from OT also. I purposely didn’t put rice or anything teeny-tiny in it, so the kiddos could clean it up easily. I really wanted a brown base to emphasize the waste found on the forest floor, but I just didn’t feel like doing beans or rice this time and I didn’t have any brown bigger items for the base!  So we pretended the jewels were rain and humidity!

Buckets, tongs, spoons, and more were also added for extra exploration and fun!

When a new sensory bin is brought out, it is an exciting time for all 3 kids.  They all really look forward to seeing what I came up with for the theme.  This bin was especially exciting since we have been using the Rainforest Calendar Connections cards all month long and learning all about the Rainforest.

The finger puppets were a BIG hit!

Pac even ran down to the basement to get our puppet stage and they put on shows!

Ladybug stayed out of the show time and spent her time with me. We did lots of sorting, counting, and naming {animals}.

She loves the mini tongs and uses them a lot which I love-such good hand muscle work!

 

I set up a Rainforest shelf on top of Ladybug’s Tot Tray shelf.  We don’t have the awesome Rainforest felt set, so we used our Jungle set instead! {use code OnePlus for 15% off at Betty Lukens}

I added a few books and more Rainforest animals to her basket…

 

Right near this shelf is also her Rr is for Rainforest Tot School Printables set up in our Pocket Chart, including both Amazon and African Rainforest Nomenclature cards from Montessori Print Shop…

 

A bit of info about where the contents of the bin came from:

• Oriental Trading: rainforest finger puppets {IN-12/2699}, foam flowers {IN-57/205} , foam frogs {IN-57/138}
• Michaels: shiny rocks
• Dollar Tree: jewels
• Kitchen Collection or The Gourmet Chef: mini tongs, whisk {I got them at an outlet center} Danesco Tongs – Silicone – Mini – Green’ target=_blank>These on Amazon look similar to the larger ones I show above {Ladybug and Pac are holding them in the group photo above}.
• Rainforest Toob

Be sure to visit my Rainforest Pinboard on Pinterest for more rainforest ideas!

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If you haven’t read the Montessori Minute post about sensory play, be sure to read that to see why these bins are so wonderful for kids!

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