BackYard Therapy: Easter Sensory Tub

Every where I go Easter stuff has been flashing sale sale sale until I couldn't resist anymore! 

I just had to make an Easter sensory tub for Trevy & gang.  

Not sure what a sensory tub is or how to make one of your own?  Click here.

Materials:  

• 1 tub (whatever style works best for you) 
• Easter grass  (again...you can use other sensory input like sand or rice or beans.  I just liked the idea of grass for Easter)
• Easter manipulatives of your choice.  I chose to have a specific number of each item so that we could work on counting as well.  But you don't have to.  Be creative with what you think would work for your little munchkins.  In our tub: 1 froggie eraser, 2 little lambs, 3 character eggs, 4 purple bunnies, 5 foam chickies, 6 laminated paper butterflies, and 7 flowers
• A Hide n' Seek sheet if you want to work on your child's receptive language skills  (ie. "Find the bunnies, Trevy" while pointing at a picture of the bunnies.)  Or use a variation of PECS or Boardmaker cards. This is in the works for me as my printer is on the fritz. 

Targets: 

• Sensory integration 
• Fine Motor skills 
• Preschool Math concepts
• Sorting & Matching 
• Receptive & Expressive Language

I picked up these super cute little lambs at AC Moore for just .50 cents for a package of two.  

5 foams chickies for .50 cents.  Again...AC Moore. 











4 little purple (mommy's fave color) bunnies to hide in the straw!  Just $1 at AC Moore. 

 1 bouquet of flowers at AC Moore for .99 cents.

The flower heads were a cinch to pop off making 1 bouquet magically turn into 7 flowers to find. 

These little eggs & Sesame Street characters were actually from Trevy's birthday party last year. 

I use them often for our OT time.

But thought they'd be perfect in the bin.

The green & yellow paper grass was one of my fave finds.

Just .25 cents a package at Target.

I love the texture.  And it's safer for Trevy.  Who likes to at a minimum lick everything.  And often...if licking isn't enough...he'll eat it too!






Plop it all in the tub.  Mix it up.   

And enjoy! 

Trevy played with it for about 2 minutes before losing interest. 

He was definitely more into the character eggs than anything else.

Although I hope the picture guide will help hold his interest longer by clearly communicating what he's hunting for.  Trevy's visual communication is much stronger than his verbal.   

Bristel loved the whole sha-bang.  And probably would have played with it for hours.

::smile::

I bought my bin at Target.  It was more pricey than just a dish tub.  But I wanted something with a lid.  And I loved how the square shape fits perfectly on my shelves.