Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Rice Sensory Bin Challenge

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Skyler loves sensory play of all kinds. He has been asking for rice a lot lately, our last time playing with it being our Valentine sensory bin. When I saw this fun child-led prompt to leave out just a container of rice, I was intrigued and I knew Skyler would be a happy camper! Check out the other blogs participating in this rice sensory challenge at the end of the post!

I left out a wooden bowl filled with brown rice on Skyler's craft table and he woke up from nap to see it sitting in our dining room. I was excited to see how he would choose to play with it!



He stood at his table for several minutes running the rice through his hands and pushing his fingers into the bowl, touching the bottom and covering most of his hand. He enjoyed picking up a handful and dropping it from above the bowl. He kept going higher and higher until his arm was stretched completely. After probably five minutes, he asked me for "spoons?" 


I didn't want to get the spoons for him, but I said "would you like to play with your drum spoons?" and he ran over to the cupboard that holds some wooden spoons and stainless steel bowls and grabbed two spoons. He stirred up the bowl, saying "pancakes!" or "yogurt" and then spent a long time lifting a spoon full of rice and dumping it onto the other spoon. The other thing he likes to say is "I cookin'!!" and it makes me laugh every time!



After dumping the rice using the spoons, he asked for cups. We talked about which cups to use and he wanted the colored nesting cups we use for sensory play often. He excitedly got his cups and spent the next half hour or so using his cups to play with the rice in a variety of ways! Scooping, dumping, sifting, stacking. The cups and spoons were great tools for Skyler to manipulate the rice! He was so focused throughout this activity.





My dad came over and Skyler was excited to let him check out the rice play :)


We cleaned up the tools for dinner, but then Skyler asked if he could feed his animals rice. Still remembering all the coffee grounds he fed his farm animals last week! So he picked out a couple of animal figurines and took turns burying them and digging them up, or sticking their heads into the rice to feed them.


When he was ready to be done with the rice play, Skyler looked around at the floor and said "sweep!" which is one of his favorite things about sensory play! He wanted the big broom instead of his little one attached to his high chair, so my helpful boy ran around the room sweeping up the remnants of our fun play time! So very helpful ;)



This open-ended rice prompt was so fun and I was not surprised by the choices Skyler made to play with his rice, but was happy to see his ability to choose and find the tools he wanted. Cups and scoops are always a favorite with him, and he had such a blast with the animals last week!

Skyler has asked to play with rice every day since we tried this, and we will do this simple sensory activity often in the future. We had so much fun!



Check out how our blogging friends tried this rice sensory bin challenge!

Teach me Mommy
The Chaos and The Clutter


 

4 comments:

  1. awww! Too cute! I love how the bowl became totally full with scoops etc!... and I also LOVE the cleaner at the end of the activity! Gotta love a cook who cleans up too! Anna @ Kids Play Space

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    1. Thank you, Yavanna! He definitely had a lot of fun filling his bowl of rice with different tools! I am so lucky to have a great helper - he is always helping me with what I am doing the best he can! So sweet :)

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  2. He looks like he had a blast with this challenge! And I love how he even helped to clean up! :)

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    1. Emma, he did have so much fun! Sweeping is one of his favorite parts of "messy" sensory play!! :)

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