Ocean Sensory

 My friend and I have been doing a lot of looking at different sensory bin ideas online.  Most often, they are used with toddlers and preschool, but we were talking about it and we thought they would be perfect for our Kindergarteners!!!!  We upped the level, of course, but our main goal is to get them thinking about "why would that be put in there?" and trying to make connections from the information they already know to what we are learning in class.  This is our "ocean tub," where you can find an assortment of items from the ocean.

Somehow, I did not have very many toy fish, so most of mine consists of other things from the ocean:  words on popsicle sticks that relate to the ocean, aquarium rocks and jewels, eyeballs, paper fish, a guide I found in my closet that lists different fish found in the ocean, plastic boats, and shells!  One important thing that I didn't capture on my camera - we've been learning about measurement in our classroom, so I have set out some balance scales for the kids to weigh and measure, comparing different things and so much more!  I plan to set out some rulers that they can measure the lengths of the items this week.  We also have our students writing about the tub.  Last week, it was making lists of things in the ocean, this week it will be writing a story about swimming in the ocean and all of the things that can be seen.  I will try to get some pictures up of the kids playing in the tub, I took these before they arrived.  :)

At the end of each unit, I pack everything up into a big Ziploc bag to store until next year - taking up much less space in the closet and much cheaper than buying bins for each unit!!  :)  Happy sensing!!!!