✨The Universe 👋🏻Sensory Bin (🌌COSMOS Unit Study)
07/07/2017
In continuing our 🌌 COSMOS Unit study, today, we are stimulating the tactile sense with our Space-Inspired sensory bin. During the sensorial work, a child - a "sensorial explorer" - is able to concentrate on the refinement of all the senses, from visual to stereognostic.
Sensory play is extremely important for children since manipulation of different textures and fillers, triggers sensory stimulation, which strengthens neuron-connectivity and spurs neuroplasticity (the production of new connections between neurons and new neurons themselves), which in turn increases brain's agility. Also, the cleanup is minimal since everything is contained in a tray, tub, tin, box, or any other container.
Today, we are stimulating predominantly tactile sense of touch, where the child is free to explore and manipulate different textured objects and fillers contained in this sensory bin.
What you will need:
- filler medium (we are using black beans and black shredded paper) to represent the Universe,
- small different color pom-poms,
- small different color beads and confetti stars to represent galaxies and stars,
- a sorting tray,
- different tongs to promote dexterity (fine-motor control).
The Universe includes all the physical matter such as planets and living things, stars, galaxies, dust clouds, light, and even time - everything we can potentially touch, feel, sense, measure or detect. So let's explore!
Adrian is using spork tongs (buy here) to retrieve pom-poms.
To retrieve tiny confetti, Adrian is using stainless steel mini tongs (buy here).
To retrieve colorful beads, Adrian is also using stainless steel mini tongs (buy here) .
Offer a child to retrieve all the objects using tongs and sort either by color or by types of objects.
Adrian chose to sort all the objects he retrieved by color.
As a result of this fun sensory exploration:
- Adrian stimulated tactile sense of touch by manipulating all the different textures;
- he also exercised fine-motor control by incorporating practical life skills such as tonging pom-poms, beads and confetti stars (more on tonging here);
- visual sense of sight was also stimulated through a color sorting activity.
This sensorial invitation to play was a true learning through play experience!
For more on sensory bins, read here "🌽 Corn Sensory Bin with 🔤 Alphabet Letters (Sensorial + Language Activity)," and read here a post "Valentine's inspired Love ❤️️ Sensory Bin," and here our "Christmas-inspired Shredded Paper Sensory Bin with a Math twist."