Christmas Tree 🎄 decorating activity (Montessori Practical Life Activity)
Advent Calendar (10 day Christmas countdown)

🎅🏻Christmas Inspired ⛄️Shredded Paper 🙌🏻Sensory Bin with 🔢Math Twist

I believe that sensory play is extremely important for children. I love creating different themes, offering various textures/fillers, thus triggering child's different senses. During Christmas time, various sensory bins are a favorite of my children. They can explore independently, learn, stimulate their senses, and the best part is that the clean up is minimal since everything is contained in a bin, tray or a dishpan. (Also, lay a large enough mat/blanket, which you can just shake in anything spills over.)  

As Christmas is approaching, I decided to fill the bin with small Christmas-Inspired objects.  I chose shredded paper as a filler since I wanted the filler to be puffy but not tiny and capable of containing lots of tiny objects. To give the bin an auditory dimension, I sprinkled little jingle bells throughout it. I also added scented pine cones (alternatively, you can use fresh pine branches or cloves) to give the sensory bin an olfactory dimension.  As a result, the sensory bin would stimulate four of the five of the main senses: tactile, visual, olfactory, auditory, leaving out only the sense of taste.

DSC_0040  We are using this dishpan to contain our sensory play.

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DSC_0042 The first thing that drew Adrian's attention was this tiny nutcracker.  

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DSC_0031Adrian smelling a scented pine cone.

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I also added a twist to this sensorial activity by incorporating math number recognition and order sequencing. Make sure that each group of objects represents just one numeral: 

  • (1) snowmen
  • (2) scented pine cones
  • (3) little wooden nutcrackers
  • (4) wooden sleds
  • (5) candy canes
  • (6) colorful ornaments
  • (7) Santa stockings
  • (8) wrapped presents
  • (9) colorful light bulb ornaments
  • (10) jingle bells

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Once all the objects were retrieved, Adrian had to sort them by groups, count how many are in each group and match them to the corresponding numeral.   

DSC_0068Adrian really enjoyed the jingling sound bells made.

DSC_0071Counting and grouping objects.
DSC_0031The sensory bin's content is all retrieved, counted and matched to its numeral.

For more on Christmas-inspired sensorial exploration,  read:

  • Fill the Ornament Sensory Bin post here, and 
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Sensory Bin post here.
I would love to hear what you think, so leave a comment! And, please, spread the 💖 love & SHARE our journey! CLICK 👇🏻below: 📍SAVE, 💌SUBSCRIBE & 📲FOLLOW

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