Ocean themed sensory bin

It’s been a long while since we worked on themes and I thought that it’d be nice to start with an ocean theme since I had bought that particular Safari Toob. Starting a theme with a sensory bin was definitely a hit and what could be better than to pair the toob with one of my kids’ favourite sensory materials – water beads?

I dumped the toob into a box, added water, some already hydrated water beads and some water beads that weren’t hydrated yet. And since I didn’t have a lot of time before the kids’ afternoon bath, that explains why some of the waterbeads look so tiny.

But of course, fully hydrated or not, the kids couldn’t care, and couldn’t wait anyway. There were enough waterbeads in there to get them excited!

Can’t wait to play, he climbed up to the sink while I was still trying to get the box ready!

Well, as you can see, this ocean themed sensory bin was very well received by the kids, although my girl wasn’t photographed here for modesty reasons. She definitely enjoyed it more because she had a great time doing small world play on top of the sensory experience (view our penguin small world play here).

Did they squish the waterbeads, I hear you ask. Of course they did. Who are we kidding, right? Waterbeads are meant to be squished, no? That’s all part of the sensory experience and yes, they put their feet in the box too.

We’ll be embarking on more ocean themed activities – and we’ll see if the procrastinator gets to blog about them eventually. 🙂

Our Sea/Ocean themed activities:

• Starfish craft using pantry supplies
• Contact paper jellyfish craft
• Suction cup foam octopus
• Paper plate shell lacing

Other sensory activities:

• Beans for sensory play
• Farm sensory bin
• Coloured salt sensory bin
• Penguin small world play
• Sensory bags for babies and kids
• Ice alphabet letters play
• Fall scented cloud dough
• Exploring velcro (with velcro craft sticks – open-ended fun!)
• Home-made playdoh & playdoh mats printables list
• Christmas playdoh
• Contact paper process art

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