beans, beans, and more beans

Beans, beans, and more beans!!! This has been one of Alicia's favorite busy activities lately. About 2 summers ago, when she started OT, her therapist had something similar so I decided to make one of our own. Alicia used to be kinda afraid of putting her hands into the "stuff" in the containers. Over the last year or two she has really conquered this fear and fully enjoys playing with this type of sensory activity.

So instead of a sensory table or box, we've got a sensory bowl! It is such an easy, not to mention fairly cheap activity to put together. You just need some type of tactile things, such as beans, rice, dry pasta, or oatmeal. Other ideas, I have seen Alicia's classroom at daycare have sand, leaves, water, grass, blocks, beads, etc.

Our sensory bowl contains about 4 small bags of different dry beans. We got ones of different colors and different sizes for variety and different textures. What's pretty cool about this type of sensory activity, they can scoop, pour, dig, and bury fun things inside and under the materials in your bowl too! We hide small animals or figurines, so she can go on a treasure hunt or "save the princess" adventure.

One word of caution, Alicia has made a pretty big mess with this activity, as you can see in the one picture, but it has been a good way to encourage cleaning up when done with toys. Plus, it's ok to let the kid get messy once in a while, as it is fun.