THIS is the messy spring weather sensory bin I mentioned in the previous post. Although the Spring Weather Science Sensory Bin was super fun and he was a bit disappointed when I packed it up, this was his shit for a week too long. There are a few ways you could put something like this together. I’m gonna share what I did and what you could do too. AND the best part is the easy cleanup.
Materials & Manipulatives
As you can see from the picture above, I didn’t add any manipulatives. He eventually added his Toy Story aliens and throughout the week a bunch of other little toys. This bin was solely for sensory purposes.
The “rain drops” are blue water beads, which can be purchased almost anywhere. The lightning is actually ice. I put water and gold liquid water color paint into silicone lightening ice tray. I find these silicone trays at yard sales and thrift stores all the time, so I buy them for random fun stuff like this.
The best part is the fluffy clouds. Although you can definitely use shaving cream, I did not. Shaving cream (no matter the brand, scent, or texture) has a strange anaphylactic effect on me, so I just don’t mess with it. Instead…these fluffy clouds are Mr. Bubble Foam Soap. This stuff smells amazing and doesn’t bother my throat.
Sensory Monster
As I said, this sensory bin was put together to allow Liam to play in a contained mess. He is, for the most part, a sensory seeker and loves his hands in and on everything. The different textures, temperatures, and the smell kept him happily occupied for a long time. As I said, this bin stayed put together for about two weeks!
Because the foam we used is soap he was able to just rinse his hands afterward. Bin clean up was simple too. I did have to pick out and rinse the little toys he tossed in but other than that, a quick rinse down the disposal or the garbage and that’s that!
YOU GOT TO TRY THIS! The soap foam, the foam with water beads and ice! If you have sensory avoiders, give them spatulas to spread and spoons to scoop. I’m sure they’ll love this too.