Number Construction Site Sensory Bin

Adam has been confident with his numbers up to 20 for some time. We have since moved on to building his understanding of two digit numbers. As this weeks Virtual Book Club theme is Construction I decided to create a Number Construction Site Sensory Bin. The construction vehicles would dig up hidden numbers in the sensory bin and create two digit numbers.

(This post contains affiliate links)

Materials needed for a Number Construction Site Sensory Bin

* Sensory bin – we used a green Ikea Trofast Storage Box

* Coloured rice – I recycled red, orange and yellow coloured rice from our Gnome Small World Tuff Spot and brown coloured rice from our Harvest Tuff Spot. You can view a tutorial on how to make coloured rice here.

* Small plastic construction vehicles – similar to these.

* Magnetic Numbers

* A magnetic dry wipe board and pen – similar to this

* My 1st JCB Talking Remote Control Doug Dumptruck (optional)

How to set up a Number Construction Site Sensory Bin

I poured the red, orange and yellow coloured rice into our sensory bin and placed the magnetic numbers on top. There were two sets of each single digit number.

Next I added a layer of brown coloured rice to hide the numbers. I placed a magnetic dry wipe board in the sensory bin and used a dry wipe pen to write several two digit numbers. Finally I added a set of plastic construction vehicles in the sensory bin.

How to play with the Number Construction Site Sensory Bin

Adam spent ages using the construction vehicles to move the coloured rice around the sensory bin. It took him some time before he discovered the hidden magnetic numbers.

Once a vehicle had dug up a number, Adam had to look on the magnetic white board to see if the number was on there. If it was then Adam placed the magnetic number on the board. If the number was not on the board then he place it inside the My 1st JCB Talking Remote Control Doug Dumptruck.

Adam continued the activity until he had discovered a two digit number. Once he had matched the number and told me what the number was, he then removed the magnets and rubbed off to the two digit number.

I was amazed by Adam’s mathematical language throughout the activity. He discussed what two digit numbers he could have created with the additional magnetic numbers. He even started to write his own two digit numbers that he wanted to discover.

Our Number Construction Site Sensory Bin has been left out for several days and Adam continues to return to it. He likes to hide the numbers himself, write several two digit numbers independently and start the activity again. I have even introduced the concept of three digit numbers through the sensory bin.