Sensational Time for Senses!

     Yikes! Where is the time going?So I know Christmas will be here before we know it and I have been BUSY, BUSY trying to keep up with work related stuff and home life!! I am already frazzled... the thought of it is enough to make me want to stay awake all night long just to get things done! I need at least 3 more hours to every day!!
    Anyhow, at my center, we are not "allowed" to celebrate holidays.... BOOO! =(
But I will be trying to squeeze in some holiday fun, in a very sublte way!
     In the meantime, I am going to post a few pics about the unit that we zoomed through in the past week or so:

Sensational Senses!

Here are the Sensory Bags I created to start off our unit (I have posted these before)

And then I came across a 6 pack of VOSS water bottles for my Discovery Bottles!  

They were the perfect size for my kiddos to explore their sense of sight!

     In the first bottle, I put rice and tons of random objects I found lying around in my daughter's playroom. Another bottle (my absolute favorite) was filled with corn syrup (that was just taking up space in my cupboard) and marbles.  Yet another was filled with water and random objects, along with red food coloring. And to make things colorful, I filled one up with sprinkles (which were also just taking space in the cupboard). 

The kiddos LOVE them!

       These things have managed to stay intact!! Which I was worried about b/c my preschoolers can be quite rough!

        I got a little crafty and made a new "What's Inside" sensory box with some of my scrap booking supplies and added some fun stuff inside for the kids to explore their sense of touch.

       I LOVE the look on his face as he uses only his sense of touch! (I did have some cheaters, though who could not help themselves and had to peek!)

       For some fun with our sense of smell, I bought some Scented Oils at the Dollar Tree and added a couple of drops into some of my ink pads for a new stamping experience!

        I also created a Smelly Station, where I put different scents inside of salt & pepper shakers (Also from Dollar Tree) and had the kiddos smell each of them and then we made a graph of which smell they actually liked! (Cocoa Powder was the clear winner!!)

       I have lots more to post... Letter Activities and the beginning of the Christmas Fun at home with my little munchkin! But for now, this will have to do...  =)

     Until tomorrow...

S is for Sand and Sun…Sounds Sensational!

   Our study of the letter S came just as we began our Five Senses unit.

  This school year, I believe that a lot of my kiddos have a bigger need for sensory activities and this was the time to dive into Sensory Fun!

   The munchkins made the letter Ss with Sand and also searched for letter Ss triangles and glued them onto a circle to make a sun!

   My favorite part of the week was when I had time to make some Sensory Bags!! I took all the great ideas on Pinterest and made some of my own very fun Sensory Bags.

    I made most of them with clear hair gel (which I picked up at the Dollar Tree), food coloring and lots of glitter and random art collage stuff I pulled out of the art closet in the classroom. The green googly eye one was made with aloe vera gel that I had sitting in my cabinet. And one was made with rice, blue food coloring and some sea animal counters.

   I sealed them pretty good with packaging tape, and then placed them inside another Ziploc bag and sealed it as well. My kiddos are pretty rough, so I made sure to REALLy seal those bags shut!

   And wouldn’t you know? One of them still ended up leaking by the end of the day!! But hey, It happens! 

   I had a blast watching the kids explore the bags. They touched them, smashed them, and smelled them!

   

    I even captured a great picture (from across the room) of one munchkins putting the bag on his head and rubbing it! I can bet it felt pretty good!

     There were other activities during the week that involved sand, which is such a fun sensory experience. I have kids who sit at the sand table all throughout Free Choice Time, so I knew I had to think of more sand activities that could be done at the tables.  We made letters in the sand and I put out sandpaper and markers and encouraged them to write and draw on small sheets of sandpaper.

Some kids really loved it and went back to the art table 3 different times during Center Time & Free Choice Time!

   The Sensory Bags were just a brief introduction to our Five Senses unit. I am excited and eager to make more sensory objects for my munchkins to explore with their senses throughout the next few weeks!