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Neon Space Sensory Bin

January 22, 2015 by Emma Edwards Leave a Comment

Day 22 of our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge gives us the opportunity to explore beans or lentils. We have wanted to do a space sensory bin for some time so we decided to use beans – specifically black turtle beans. With our current obsession with neon paint we couldn’t resist making a neon space sensory bin!

The last time we used black turtle beans was for our Halloween Spider Sensory Bin, a guest post on Building Blocks and Acorns. However, they were still mixed together with the red split lentils. You can imagine the fun we had separating the two! I wanted the sensory bin to be deep so I added another 500g bag of black beans.

I couldn’t find a suitable container to use as a space sensory bin. So I decided to cover our usual tray with tin foil. This added an extra sensory dimension to the activity as it made a wonderful sound when the beans were dropped.

Adventures of Adam Space Sensory Bin

To create the stars I painted polystyrene stars with yellow neon paint and PVA glue. The paint wouldn’t stay on the polystyrene without the PVA glue. To decorate the sensory bin I added laminated aliens purchased from Twinkl which we had previously used for our ‘Aliens Love Panta Claus‘ activity. We couldn’t have a space sensory bin without having Aliens Love Underpants in it!

Adventures of Adam Aliens Love Underpants space sensory bin

I gave Adam a variety of scoops and star bowls. His first reaction was to remove all of the stars, aliens and scoops so that he could get big handfuls of the beans. He started to transfer the beans into the star bowls.

Adventures of Adam Star sensory bin

It was clear that 4 star bowls would not be enough so I placed all eight bowls onto the table. Adam had a fantastic time transporting the beans from one container to another and then attempting to get all of the beans into one bowl! Adam spent 30 minutes focused on the bean sensory bin and picking then picking up the beans individually – great for fine motor development.

Adventures of Adam Bean sensory play

However, the space sensory bin truly came into its own later that evening. We turned off the light and switched on the Handheld UV Blacklight (affiliate link). As I had painted the polystyrene stars with yellow neon paint the stars appeared to glow under the UV light. Adam was captivated by the stars and was in no hurry to remove them after seeing them under the torch!

Adventures of Adam Neon Space Sensory Bin

Equipment:

* Tray or box

* Tin foil

* Black turtle beans – I used one 500g and the beans left over from a previous activity

* Polystyrene stars

* Neon paint – we used yellow neon paint from Rainbow Creations

* PVA glue

* Aliens Love Underpants templates from Twinkl

* Handheld UV Blacklight (affiliate link)

* Star containers

Disclaimer: We received a Premium Subscription from Twinkl to review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

31 Day Sensory Play Challenge Blog Hop:

Today Fun Things To With UR Kidz is joining us for our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge Blog Hop. Take a look at their Bean Sensory Bin for Valentine’s Day.

 

Neon Space Sensory Bin Adventures of Adam

 

Other sensory activities using beans and/or lentils: 

Adventures of Adam Old MacDonald Farm Tuff Spot
Old MacDonald Farm Tuff Spot
Adventures of Adam Halloween Spider Sensory Bin
Spider Sensory Bin Guest Post on Building Blocks and Acorns
Dinosaur Sensory Bin with Lentils Guest Post on Rainy Day Mum

Space in a bowl from Building Blocks and Acorns
Bean Sensory Bin for Valentine’s Day from Fun Things To Do With UR Kidz

To find out more about our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge 2015 click here.

 

31 Day Sensory Play Challenge calendar download

Day 23 of our Sensory Play Challenge is Exploring Sound. See how we used Talking Tins to explore sound.

Adventures of Adam 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge 2016

Filed Under: Play Activities, Play Challenges, Some time required, Supervision needed Tagged With: 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge, Book themed play, Cupboard Resources, Fine Motor Activities, Neon, Sensory Play Activities, Toddler play, Twinkl Resources, Underpants Series

Previous Post: « Love Hearts Dinosaur Eggs
Next Post: Sound Matching Game Using Talking Tins »

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Welcome!

Emma and Adam

During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with Adam as part of that promise. Emma has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.

To learn more about Emma and Adam click here.


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