Vehicle Sensory Bin

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I knew that Skyler's next sensory play was going to be a vehicle bin. Baby boy loves anything with wheels. I had planned on doing coffee beans, but then I saw this Valentine bin from Fun at Home with Kids and two-tone dried beans was the new plan! For our bin I used black and pinto beans to create a road for his vehicles to "drive" on. I knew it was a good day to make the bin after I came down from a shower to find our kitties had decided to pull one of the bags of beans down from the counter and open it up. Skyler beat me to it, running up and helping me by sweeping them all over the room :) So helpful, buddy!

Like our Valentine bin, I knew I wanted to make some themed scoops for him to play with. We used some fruit cups to make wheels to scoop with. 

We had fun painting on the plastic after the cups were done!

I painted the wheels with a circle in the middle and then added lines down the sides, but I wasn't thrilled with them. I sent a picture to my sweet husband, over 600 miles away, and asked him to give me some feedback. He was so quick to check for the picture and tell me that, yes, they looked kind of strange with the lines. "You should just paint the circle in the middle, it would look more like a tire." So that's what I did. Thank you, Joe, for being supportive with whatever I need, no matter where you are. You are awesome. 

The original cups, before I painted back over in black and just did the center circle.

While the paint was drying on our cups, I started assembling the sensory bin. I added the black beans and then created the road lines and dashes with the pinto beans. 

Then I added some small vehicles (very random, but the best size we had!) I want to get Skyler a nice set of small construction vehicles with moving parts and big scoops, those would be better for this bin, but he has a blast with these vehicles anyways!

When the cups were dry, they were added to the mix. 

Then we were ready to play!

Skyler loved using the big fruit cups to hold the beans and then dumping then out.

Just watching the beans fall off the shovel and making a great 'clink' noise.

That is his look of glee!

Pouring from one cup to another - great transferring skills

Filling the nooks of his little vehicles.

And some fine motor practice picking up individual beans to put in his vehicles and cups.

This vehicle sensory bin is a lot of fun. Skyler is always asking to play with the 'beanssss' now. I love it because of Skyler's current interest in vehicles, and he is getting a lot of skill practice with the various ways that he plays with the beans and accessories.

We have played with this bin a couple of times now, and actually prefer to play with the beans in the carpeted living room. Even though the beans don't make quite as cool of a noise when they hit the floor, they are very fun to pile onto the rug and they are actually easier for me to clean this way. Baby boy happy, mama happy!

Also, I do this with all of our bins as I am putting them away. I will shake the materials flat (rice, the faux-snow, the beans) and then set any accessories nicely on the top. It takes just a moment to do. Even though the bin doesn't have the road lines that Skyler saw the first time he played with it, keeping it looking somewhat organized makes it more inviting to play with again!