November is a busy time of year! Keep things simple with this Thanksgiving sensory bin for preschool. There are also two freebies at the end for you to download & use with your littles!
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SENSORY PLAY FOR PRESCHOOL
Sensory play is such an important part of early childhood education. The amount of learning that little ones experience through sensory play is crucial for both academic and social success.
Setting up sensory bins to go along with each holiday is a great way to change things up, spark some imagination & creativity, and get your little learners engaged.
But you don’t need overly complicated or picture-perfect sensory bins. Just a few simple supplies and you’ll be setting your little ones up for an engaging learning experience!
Looking for more Thanksgiving activities? Check out this post!
THANKSGIVING SENSORY BIN
You only need one basic ingredient for this Thanksgiving sensory bin…un-popped corn kernels. That’s it! Add those to your bin, and then decide what else you want to add to engage your preschoolers.
Here are 4 different ways to play with this simple sensory bin (including two different freebies you can use to add in some academic practice!)
1. TURKEY NUMBERS 1-10
One resource you can add to this corn kernel sensory bin are these FREE turkey numbers, which are perfect for Thanksgiving. Have your little one match the turkey numbers 1-10 to the leaf ten frames. This practices number recognition, counting, and subitizing.
To increase the fun, add paper clips to each turkey number. Then give your little one a magnetic wand and have them find the turkey numbers that way. You can also play a fun game called “Find the Turkey” which you can read about in this post.
Looking for more turkey activities? Check out this turkey snack & craft!
2. FALL NUMBER MATS
If you’d rather steer clear of turkeys, you can always use these FREE Fall Number Mats as a different option. Add any number cards you have to the corn, and then have your little one match the number to the number mat.
My little guy LOVED this activity! He did a great job matching up the numbers and counting the pictures in the ten frame. You can also have your little one put one corn kernel on each picture in the ten frame to work on one-to-one correspondence, trace the numeral, or trace the number word.
Check out our favorite Thanksgiving books here!
3. FALL THEME
If you want to keep this bin REALLY simple, just add some fall items to the corn, such as pumpkins, leaves, or pumpkin gems. Then toss in some scoopers and funnels, and your preschoolers are sure to be entertained (and make a giant mess of course!)
4. FARM THEME
This Thanksgiving sensory bin doesn’t just have to be used for Thanksgiving…you can also pair it to your farm theme! We added some play food from the farm (lettuce, tomatoes, corn, etc) and paired it with our favorite farm book, Giggle Giggle Quack.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREEBIES
Both of the freebies in this post are free to download from our FREE Activity Library. The FREE Activity Library is password protected. If you’d like to get access, join our email community HERE and the password will be emailed to you as a thank you for joining! If you’re already subscribed, you should already have the password. The password is updated every so often, so make sure you stay subscribed so you don’t miss any of our freebies!
Do your littles love playing with sensory bins? Do you have any Thanksgiving sensory bin ideas you do with your preschoolers? I’d love to hear them! Comment below or head over to Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and share there!
love these ideas? pin for later!
Looking for more ideas for sensory play? Click HERE to check out all of our SENSORY posts!
MORE THANKSGIVING SENSORY BINS
Are you interested in more Thanksgiving sensory bins? Check out this post from my friend Kristina from Sweet for Kindergarten for a list of amazing sensory bins to use with your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. There’s sure to be one on the list that works best for your littles!
Happy Learning!
