Free Play Tubs (Sensory Bins) from Montessori at Home!

John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook is filled with treasures. Today, I’m sharing an excerpt about free play tubs (also known as sensory bins or sensory tubs). A sensory bin is a wonderful activity at any time of the year and gives young children a simple introduction to Montessori-inspired activities. You’ll find some great ideas in John’s book for sensory bin materials, presentations, points of interest, and extensions. This is just one of the MANY sections in the Montessori at Home eBook. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

Free Play Tubs Excerpt from Montessori at Home!

Starter Rice Tub

This is a great introduction for 2-4 year olds to self-contained, Montessori-style Practical Life materials.

You will need

Plastic storage tub with a secure lid Multi-colored rice, beans, gravel, small beads Set of graduated measuring spoons Plain and lipped cups and a measuring cup Plastic paint palette from a crafts store Funnels Tiny spoons and larger scoops Starter Rice Tub Small jars with screw on lids & small boxes with lids Favorite small items – toy animals, marbles, special rocks, colored beads, jingle bells, etc. Small dustpan and hand broom for cleaning spills

Presentation & Use

Have your child set up a work area, bring the tub to it, and let your child explore. Demonstrate cleaning up spills with the hand broom and dustpan. Try different base materials (beans, beads, coffee, gravel) and objects for variety over time. Add in some lemon and orange rind, or spices, for more sensory experiences.

Points of Interest

• Make name cards, like Rice Box, for the lid and one side of the container and tape them on. Tell your child what the tub’s name is and help her read it. Use a print style like Century Gothic. Keep the box in one spot on a shelf. • The colors of the base material. • The sounds the material makes when poured into containers made of different materials – glass, plastic, ceramic. • Counting scoops and spoonfuls, and the depressions in the paint palette. • Grading the measuring spoons from largest to smallest. Lay them out left-to-right as a preparation for reading. Count the spoons. • Marks and values on the measuring cups. Your child won’t understand these yet, but still point out the one half, one quarter, ounce, cups, and other markings. • The smells of the rinds and spices you add to the box. • Take photos and movies of your child using the tubs (quietly so your child doesn’t see) and show them to your child later.

Extensions

Farm animal tub at Counting Coconuts

• Use water colored with food coloring instead of a solid material. Add a few drops of liquid soap, an eggbeater, a baster, an eyedropper or two, etc. • Use shaving cream as the base material. Make three mounds and add blue food coloring to one, yellow to another, and red to the last (the primary colors). Let your child mix the colors to make secondary colors (see page 189). • Math: when your child gets interested in numbers, write a number on an index card and hide that many of one small item, like identical bottle caps, in the material. As your child finds them, count them with your child until you reach the written number. Do different numbers. You could also tape circles with numerals on them to the caps and line them up 1-10 as your child finds them. • Language: hide the letters of your child’s name in the material and let your child find them and spell her name. Repeat using other words of interest to your child. • Science: hide different small plastic animals, dinosaurs, etc., in the material. Write their names on cards and match the animal to the card for each. Photo above: Farm animal tub at Counting Coconuts

Excerpt used with permission of John Bowman.

John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook (available exclusively as part of the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle in the Living Montessori Now shop) is filled with amazing ideas for families.

The Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle Available Exclusively on Living Montessori Now!

You can get a free download of 51 sample pages from Montessori at Home eBook by clicking here! (This includes information on John’s simplified Montessori reading sequence.)

Here’s the direct link to the purchase page for the Montessori at Home! Materials Bundle,which includes the Montessori at Home eBook AND over $60 worth of Montessori Print Shop materials to go with the book (now only $14.95)!

Excerpts and Activities from the Montessori at Home eBook

you can read all the excerpts from the book that I’ve shared here at Living Montessori Now:

Activities with Marbles and Golf Tees from Montessori at Home!

Building a Flashlight and Pipe Building from Montessori at Home!

1000-10,000 Activity from Montessori at Home!

Make Fossils from Montessori at Home! Cutting with a Knife from Montessori at Home!

Free Play Tubs (Sensory Bins) from Montessori at Home!

Create an Attractive Home Environment from Montessori at Home!

 Concentration and Normalization from Montessori at Home

How to Prepare a Montessori Jar for Meaningful Preschool Activities at Home (an activity prepared using one of the book’s printables)

Allow Time for Repetition and Concentration from Montessori at Home!

Activities Using Some of the Montessori Print Shop Materials from the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle

Here are activities I published using just 4 of the 21 Montessori Print Shop materials from the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle:

Montessori-Inspired Phases of the Moon Playdough Tray

Easy-to-Prepare Montessori Animals of the Continents Activity

Extending Montessori Animals of the Continents Work

Hands-on Fun with Montessori-Inspired Human Skeleton Activities

Seashell Color Matching {Easy-to-Prepare Variation of Montessori Color Box 3}

Again, John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook is available exclusively as part of the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle in the Living Montessori Now shop!

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

The Montessori at Home! eBook and Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle are AMAZING resources! You can learn more about them here. Buy them in the Living Montessori Now shop.

If this is your first time visiting Living Montessori Now, welcome! If you haven’t already, please join us on our Living Montessori Now Facebook page where you’ll find a Free Printable of the Day and lots of inspiration and ideas for parenting and teaching! And please follow me on Pinterest (lots of Montessori-, holiday-, and theme-related boards) and Twitter (blog posts by me and others along with the Parent/Teacher Daily and other interesting information). You can find me on Google+ (post updates), bloglovin’, Instagram, and YouTube, too.

And don’t forget one of the best ways to follow me by signing up for my weekly newsletter. You’ll get two awesome freebies (and a monthly subscriber freebie) in the process!