Happy Valentine's Day💝! Love💗 is in the air, and today, we are exploring ❤️️ love-themed sensory bin. I strongly believe that sensory play is extremely important for children since by manipulating different textures and fillers, children trigger various senses. In turn, by triggering sensory stimulation, they send multiple signals between neurons, which strengthens neurons connectivity and spurs neuroplasticity (the production of new connections between neurons and new neurons themselves), which in turn increases brains' agility. Also, the cleanup is minimal since everything is contained in a tub, tin, box, or any other container. (Offer a child a large enough mat/blanket which you can just shake off). We are using this dishpan to contain our sensory play.
What is 🔍 in our sensory bin:
- white rice scented with lavender essential oil;
- dried rosemary from our garden;
- dried rose petals (from our wedding);
- red jingle bells;
- red pom-poms;
- a pair of dolls❤️️;
- L-O-V-E letters from this alphabet set;
- a heart-shape measuring spoon;
- and a spork tongs for transferring (buy here).
Spelling out "L-O-V-E" using letters from this alphabet set.
Smelling dried rosemary is stimulating the sense of smell.
Practicing scooping.
The scented rice gives this sensory bin an olfactory dimension.
Little jingle bells added an auditory dimension.
Exploring rosemary seeds.
Exercising pincer-grip while practicing fine-motor control. (Adrian is using this spork tongs.)
Love 💏 is in the air! We are using these dolls.
Who said that sensory play is restricted to hands-exploration only?
As a result of this fun sensorial activity, Adrian stimulated the following senses:
- 👀 The Sense of Sight: spelling out L-O-V-E,
- 🖐🏻 Touch – rose petals, texture of the rice, "fluffy and soft" pom-poms,
- 👂🏻 Hearing – jingle bells,
- 👃🏻 Smell -white rice scented with lavender essential oil and dried rosemary,
- 👅 The sense of Taste was the only sense that was not stimulated today since the taste of lavender is not very appealing.
Thus, our ❤️️ love-themed sensory bin stimulated four out of the five of the main senses:🖐🏻 tactile,👀 visual,👃🏻 olfactory, and👂🏻 auditory, leaving out only the sense of taste. However, the fun Adrian experienced was immeasurable!
For more on Valentine's activities see here "❤️Valentine's Inspired Activities for Kids" roundup. Or see here our last year's "Valentine's 💗 Inspired Shelfies."
For more on sensory bins, see here our Christmas-inspired Shredded Paper Sensory Bin with a Math twist post.
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