This was our last water bin in our Water Bins for Kids series with Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. This was definitely the most fun water bin for us this summer! We ended the series with a splash!
(Yes, had to go there!!)
This is a great addition to a color by letter worksheet. Just print and go and work on so many areas of development.
Letter Water Bin
This week’s theme was Color Matching!
Two of us sisters got together one day this week and had SO much fun with the kids on a hot and sunny afternoon.
We started with a colorful plastic bin and filled it with water. We threw in our bin of colorful magnetic letters (see another fun letter sensory bin here), and egg dying cups in lots of colors.
We started by scooping the letters into the floating cups and trying to catch the matching letter. We asked the kiddos what letter they found, the color, and if the letter color matched the cup.
This activity is a good one for bilateral hand coordination, eye-hand coordination, and fine motor skills. They had to use both hands together in a coordinated manner, while visually tracking the letters as they flowed around in the water. Then, with both hands on the cups, scoop up the letters. How fun!
Of course, when these cousins get together, there is sure to be silliness. The two younger ones were the instigators in the splash down.
We pulled out a metal curtain rod and stuck a magnet to one end. It stuck to the curtain rod and was able to attract the magnets of the letters. Little Guy LOVED this!
We pulled all of the colored cups out of the water and had the kids “fish” for the letters and put them into the matching cups.
Little Guy could have done this for an hour, I think…if it were not for his fun-loving little Sister and cousin dumping water on everyone.
Little Guy and I had some fun with play dough and some of his cars and dinos. And of course, bad guys.
It started with adding some green play dough around the mountain from our train set. We used our homemade dough and added some water with blue dough. Once I piled some lava on top of the mountain, he got pretty excited about the whole set up and kept adding things to the scene…”We need a road. And a bridge. And a grass bridge!”
He had so much fun making foot prints in the dough and stories to go along with the guys. How great is this for language development and pretend play?
There was a battle.
(or many…)
And the dino got stuck in the volcano just as it erupted.
As the bad guys attacked.
What a fun day with my Little Guy. Have you done any pretend play with play dough?
Looking for more ideas to use play dough in pretend play? Try these:
This pool noodle sensory bin is a water bin activity that uses one item…a dollar store pool noodle! We love the therapeutic benefits of ball pit activities, and using pool noodles cut into pieces is an inexpensive option with sensory benefits. This is a pool noodle game and a great summer activity for building skills in coordination and motor skills through water play and pool noodles! This might be one of our favorite easy sensory bin ideas because there are so many ways to boost creativity through a single material.
A pool noodle sensory bin can be used in outdoor sensory play, or as an indoor DIY sensory ball pit.
Pool Noodle Sensory Bin
A noodle sensory bin is a fun and creative way to encourage sensory exploration in children. One of the most versatile materials to use for a sensory bin is pool noodles, which can be found at most dollar stores or discount retailers like Dollar Tree or Dollar General. With a few simple steps, you can turn these pool noodles into a unique sensory play experience that your child will love.
This week’s theme was so much fun and EASY to throw together. We had a couple of pool noodles purchased from the Dollar Store that we used for our family reunion games (keep an eye out for the post on this!) These pool noodles were just asking to be played with!
How to make a Pool Noodle Sensory Bin
If you aren’t familiar with pool noodles, these floating pool noodles into sensory ball pit fillers is easy.
Pool noodles are buoyant so if you fill the sensory bin with water, they will float. However, you can make a dry ball pit as well, and they are a great foam filler that offers calming proprioceptive and tactile input.
You can typically find pool noodles at a dollar store and many other stores during the summer months. However, you can also get them on Amazon. (affiliate link) Here’s a set of 20 pool noodles that can be cut into small sections to fill a baby pool ball pit or any large container.
Making pool noodle sensory bin is very simple:
1. Use 2 pool noodles.
2. Cut the pool noodles into 2 inch slices using a sharp knife.
3. Place the cut pool noodles into a large bin. We used an under-the-bed storage bin.
4. Add water.
To set up a pool noodle sensory bin, you’ll need several pool noodles in different colors, textures, and sizes. You may also want to include some dollar store serving spoons or other utensils to help your child scoop and pour the sensory materials.
Start by cutting the pool noodles into small sections, using scissors or a serrated knife. The best way to cut pool noodles is to make sure they’re held securely and to use a sawing motion, rather than trying to slice straight through.
I cut up two pool noodles and added a couple of big serving spoons, slotted spoons, and a ladle for scooping fun. Baby Girl loved this. And of course got right in there in the water bin!
Thread a Pool Noodle
I added Big Sister’s jump rope for an extra large beading activity.
This was a great activity for large motor movements of both arms. With that huge string, and sliding the pool noodle “beads” down the rope, this really got the arms going in whole body motions.
This gross motor body motion and repetitive movements in a novel manner help brains develop new neural connections and long term learning abilities.
Not only that, threading the “beads” onto the jump rope was great for fine motor manipulation and bilateral hand control (bilateral coordination).
We did a nice pattern and had to grab the correct color as it floated along in the water bin. Reaching for and grabbing the intended color object in the water develops hand-eye coordination skills. (Eye-hand coordination!) So much learning and SO much fun!
Big Sister thought her super-sized necklace was pretty cool!
This water bin was perfect for a hot and muggy afternoon. Have you been doing any fun water play this summer?
You can use the cut up pool noodles again and again in other sensory bin activities. Add them to a dry sensory bin, too. One idea we love is to use dry rice or dry beans, or even shredded paper sensory bins as a base for hiding and finding objects like the cut up pool noodles.
You can use anything from sand and water to rice and beans as a sensory bin filler for the base for your sensory bin. Then, add the pool noodle sections on top of the base material.
Encourage your child to explore the different textures and colors of the pool noodles and to use their imagination to come up with new ways to play. Use tongs to grab the pool noodles for building hand strength, too.
One fun activity you can do with a pool noodle sensory bin is to create an occupational therapy obstacle course using the noodles. Stack them up into towers or weave them in and out of each other to make a fun and challenging course for your child to navigate. You can also use the pool noodles to practice counting or sorting by color.
If you’re looking for a bigger sensory experience, consider using an extra large pool noodle to create a sensory pool noodle tunnel. Simply cut a pool noodle in half lengthwise, and then cut off one end at an angle. This will create a tunnel that your child can crawl through and explore. You can also fill the tunnel with other sensory materials, like soft fabric or foam blocks, to make it even more engaging.
Overall, a pool noodle sensory bin is a fun and budget-friendly way to encourage sensory play in children. By using inexpensive materials from the dollar store, you can create a unique and engaging play experience that will stimulate your child’s senses and foster their creativity. Whether you’re setting up an obstacle course, building towers, or crawling through a sensory tunnel, there are endless ways to play with a pool noodle sensory bin. So grab some pool noodles and get ready to dive into a world of sensory exploration and fun!
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
Our theme for this week is Swamp/Alligators/Turtles…and Oh Yeah, this one was fun!
We used these Bath Color Tablets to make our water bin green. They only have primary colors in this set, so we talked a little about what makes green.
It was pretty cool to see the colors fizzing together in to a green swampy water!
Once we had our swamp water, I pulled out a bin of frogs, alligators, turtles, lily pads cut from foam crafting sheets, and bug shaped foam stickers.
Little Guy discovered that he could stick the foam stickers to the walls of the bin. He had a whole little story going on here. The bugs were a family and the alligators came by for a visit…there was a little battle and the bug family and alligator family went their separate ways 🙂
There were hands everywhere playing in this water bin! Sign of great sensory play 🙂
We have these little squeeze water toys that were a pretty fun addition to our swamp water bin. And so good for fine motor strengthening. When a child pinches the squeeze toys between their thumb and fingers, they are strengthening the arches of their hands.
Yes, we can add grass to our swamp.
We have been loving this play series…SO much fun! We’ve been adding our water bins to our Pinterest board:
I have so much fun planning the craft for our play group kids once a month. This month had an Ice Cream Sundae in honor of National Ice Cream month. And because ice cream sundaes are perfect any time of day. Even at 10 am.
And, what would be a better craft to go along with an ice cream social theme, than an ice cream cone??
Ice Cream Cone Craft
I had Big Sister try out the craft before the play date and make an example to show all the kids.
I drew the ice cream outline on construction paper, and she went to work.
We used a fork to paint the cone.
Our paper scraps were used to make the ice cream mosaic.
We love using scraps of paper in artwork. Manipulating the little bits of paper is excellent for fine motor dexterity and strengthening. Even better for tripod grasp and developing the arches of the hands, is tearing the paper into scraps and then, crumbling them into little balls. The balled up paper can then be pressed onto glue or contact paper. How great for working on a child’s tripod grasp!
We had a fun ice cream play date today, a great craft with a big crew of children, fun with friends…And even a chance for Mom to catch up with a few Mommy friends.
This was the coolest sensory play! It was play dough. And it was Goop. Combined!
We were given a HUGE (uncolored) bag of extra homemade play dough one day after our day at Vacation Bible School. One of the VBS volunteers made this and I got a little information about it. It had flour and corn starch in it. I am on the mission to figure out the recipe for this one, so I can share with you…it was so much fun to play with!
The dough would stick together and mold, but slime apart like goop does. So neat!
We added the red and blue colors to some of it and had a little
Patriotic Sensory Play!
We took the fine motor play a little further and cut up some patriotic looking straws into little bits. Perfect for tripod grasp!
We still have SO much of this stuff uncolored and ready for play ideas…Watch for another goopy dough post soon 🙂
Use this toddler red, white, and blue easel art activity to address skills needed for fine motor skill development, visual motor skill, bilateral coordination, and visual processing. An easy easel activity like this one is a vertical surface activity that can be done indoors or outdoors for a low-prep developmental activity for kids.
We have been doing a few red, white, and blue crafts and activities this week. Baby Girl had fun with this
Easy Patriotic Activity for the 4th of July.
I put a piece of contact paper on our easel (sticky side out) and took it outside. How is it that an “inside toy” brought outside is immediately super cool and new and fun??
We have a bunch of construction paper scraps in our craft supplies and I pulled out the red and blue ones. We had some white tissue paper pieces in the bag too, and they were added to the easel trays, too.
I stuck a couple of pieces on the contact paper and left it there in the yard for a while. The big kids were busy playing and I was pulling a few weeds. When Baby Girl saw this set up, she knew just what to do.
She got busy making art work!
(While her big brother camped out under the easel. There are Bad Guys everywhere!!)
This is a great Fine Motor activity for toddlers. They manipulate the small pieces of paper, and grasp the edges with a tip to tip grasp (think about the tips of their pointer finger and thumb grabbing at the paper). While they are holding onto the scrap paper, they must use an extended wrist to place it on the elevated slope of the easel. This is so good for fine motor dexterity and development of the small muscles in their little hands.
We had fun enjoying the sunshine and making art. Have you done any Red/White/Blue crafts?
This finger painting fireworks craft is a great July craft for toddlers that can be used to celebrate the Fourth of July with toddlers and preschoolers! Add this one to our favorite creative painting ideas!
Finger Paint Fireworks
This weekend I had 5 kids (ages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) and I had to think of something to keep them all busy. Finger painting is a fun craft for kids all ages, the babies love feeling the different texture of paint on their fingers and playing with the paintbrushes. I pulled out the paper and let them go to town with the washable finger paints!
I helped my little guy (2) make hand prints in red and blue.
The big kids enjoyed mixing colors while my 2 year old enjoyed painting his hand…and mixing colors in the paint jars…ughh. I think every color is now brown.
This project kept the kids busy for about 30 minutes, enough time for me to put away the dishes and wipe down the table 🙂
Once the paint was dry we gathered up some black construction paper, gold tinsel from a gift bag and scissors. I folded the paper into a small square and helped the older kids cut out fireworks.
We glued the fireworks onto the paper and made the tinsel stream down from the fireworks. We talked a little about the 4th of July and I told my daughter it was the country’s birthday. The best part was hearing
my daughter recite the Pledge of Allegiance (so cute)!
This taco empanadas recipe is a quick and delicious meal you can make using leftover ground beef, chicken, or ground turkey. Leftover taco meat is perfect for making taco empanadas! This Mexican empanada dish is a delicious one for all ages. If you are looking for a cooking with kids recipe that the whole family will love, this one is it!
Taco Empanadas
This recipe is just too easy not to share with you…and the best part is our kids love it (and love to help make it)! I made these one day last week for a play-date and the kids thought they were pretty neat.
You can improvise the filling with anything you think would be good…I have made them with chicken, ground turkey, and the traditional beef empanadas.
Taco Empanadas Ingredients
To make the taco empanadas, you’ll need to first gather your ingredients:
Mexican pastry shells
1-1.5lb ground beef
One package Taco Mix
6oz salsa of your choice
How to make taco empanadas:
Start out with these pastry shells, I get them in the local Mexican store in the refrigerator section. I usually pick up several packages and keep some in the freezer.
2. Brown the ground beef- I browned some ground meat in the slow cooker, added a package of taco mix and half a jar of mild salsa. Let this cook until the meat is browned and it is ready to fill the shells.
3. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray so the shells don’t stick.
Here comes the part the kids love helping with…
4. Fill the shells with the meat mixture and fold over.
5. Use a fork to press the shells together.
6. Wisk an egg and lightly paint the shells with the egg. My four year old daughter loves helping with this part.
7. Using the fork while pressing into the dough is great for her little fingers.
8. Bake in oven at 375 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown. Delicious!
