Thanksgiving Sensory Bin

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and we are SO excited!! As much I love Christmas for all of the magic, presents, events, and over the top hoopla, I love Thanksgiving for the opposite reasons! For us, Thanksgiving is a mellow day of food, family, and fun. There is no planning (at least not for us since my amazing grandmother cooks every last bit of food!) and it is just a time to enjoy each without worrying that everything is perfect (at least for ME!). In honor of this delightful holiday, I whipped up this cute little sensory bin using some items I picked up at Hobby Lobby - a feather boa, some crystal maize, a foam turkey, and some Native American stickers!

I put all of the items in a straw basket and set it out for K to explore. He was immediately drawn to Indian corn. He told me, "It's corn with strawberries on it!" He was referring to the red pieces, so I explained to him the maize is multicolored.

As he touched the feathers, we talked about their colors and soft texture. He said, "Feathers! It's a big wave." I love this age and hearing how his brain works. The observations he makes and what he connects them to are phenomenal. Then he went on to tell me "The feathers tickle me! They are soft!" as he laughed. As he dug around in the feathers to find the other items, he said, "I don't yike the feathers because the corns are trapped!!" This made us both laugh. Then the real kicker came. After finding a piece of string hanging off the boa, he said, "It's just a string. Cellos have strings Mama." Yup. Proud mama moment there. I was flabbergasted! These little minds are magical. We have done so many sensory bins in the past, and I often get the question, "What are they learning from sensory bins?" I think the most important thing that I am seeing lately are all of the connections he is making with his everyday life! (Side note: We don NOT own a cello. I thank the Little Einsteins for that magical bit of knowledge!)

He picked up the foam turkey and we had a conversation about eating turkey and Thanksgiving. Kingston LOVES turkey, so he was excited! We counted the turkey's feathers.

Inspired by counting the feathers, Kingston then began counting the corn. He has reverted to saying "1,2,1,2..." when counting so we are still working on getting our numbers down in sequential order. This had been the only area that K hasn't just picked up, so I am going to have to plan some extra activities focused on simple counting. We counted the maize several times, and then he was counting it himself, "1,2,3. 1,2,3!"

He asked me to take the boa out so he could see what was underneath. He played with the Thanksgiving stickers for a minute and then we stuck them to his shirt!

He was really excited to get stickers!

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