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Fourth of July Sensory Bin

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June 25, 2014 by Sarah Punkoney, MAT

This week we have spend some time celebrating the upcoming Independence Day holiday.  Among our activities was this Fourth of July Sensory Bin, which the kiddies loved, loved, loved!

Fourth of July Sensory Bin - Stay At Home Educator

Fourth of July Sensory Bin

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It really is a simple bin to put together.  It is dyed rice in the colors of the United States flag, jumbo tweezers and star buttons to match.  The star buttons I purchased for a few bucks at Walmart.

Unlike other sensory activities and sensory bins I have introduced my children to before, I gave my kiddies and preschoolers a few tasks to try while they were exploring the textures and sounds of the rice filler and the stars.

Tweezing Stars

The first task was to use the jumbo tweezers to tweeze the stars from the bin and onto various sorting mats.

tweezing star buttons in Fourth of July sensory bin - Stay At Home Educator

 

Sorting Stars By Color

The second task was to sort the star buttons by color.  I gave the students come colored foam in red, white and blue to serve as sorting mats.

Fourth of July sensory bin, sorting star buttons by color - Stay At Home Educator

 

Sorting Stars By Size

The third task was to try sorting the stars by size.  Typically it is more difficult for preschoolers to sort by size rather than color, and being that many of the preschoolers in my summer class are three-year-olds, I traced the shape of each size star into a sorting mat.  If they weren’t sure where the star should go, they could place the star onto the traced version to see if it fit or not.

Fourth of July sensory bin, sorting star buttons by size - Stay At Home Educator

 

Beading Buttons Onto Pipecleaner

The fourth and final activity I wanted my preschoolers to try was to bead the buttons onto some coordinating colored pipe cleaner.  This was difficult for the three-year-olds, but manageable for the four-year-olds in my class.  You can also add another task and challenge students to make patterns by color or size.

Beading start buttons from Fourth of July sensory bin - Stay At Home Educator

 

With only a few simple materials, you can create a wonderful sensory bin that has several learning applications, all centered in math and fine motor skills, but also celebrating the Fourth of July.  Even Kent enjoyed it…don’t worry, I was supervising his play the whole time!

July Fourth Sensory Bin - Stay At Home Educator

Enjoy!

 

Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about everything in between. Right now, my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction

stayathomeeducator.com/

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Comments

  1. Theresa (Capri + 3) says

    June 25, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    What a fun 4th of July sensory bin. I pinned it. Please share this on Artsy Play Wednesday (open through Sunday).

    • Sarah Punkoney says

      July 14, 2014 at 7:11 pm

      Thanks for pinning! This sensory bin was so easy to put together, and my kiddies not only loved playing in it, but they also enjoyed the tasks I’d given them.

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