One Filler, Six Ways: Rainbow Chickpeas
Thanks for jumping in to see our variations of a sensory bin filler! I’m all about incorporating meaningful, stimulating, and relevant sensory opportunities into our days, while at the same time not adding to the incredible load parents already carry. While I’ll always advocate that being outside is the ultimate sensory play, it’s always nice to have a few, more focused options tucked away for indoor or backyard play. I wanted to experiment with this “one filler, six ways” idea to see how I could pivot and extend on a basic sensory filler. I felt like so many times I was tied down to a certain theme or a very narrow mindset for sensory play, and wanted to encourage us to explore outside the box!
Sensory play can truly be an incredible last-minute “let me throw all the dried goods that are about to expire into a box,” or it can be elevated with just a few minutes to think ahead. My hope is that these six themes can help you think ahead!
I get lots of questions about how to set up play, the best fillers and tools, how to manage it so things don’t wind up everywhere, and the general structure. I’m working on something that brings together all these questions and will make sensory play routine and predictable for your little ones. I won’t go into all that here (because it’s a whole lot of really good information), but I wanted to go ahead and show the “one filler, six ways” post for you to have in your back pocket! Stay tuned, friends!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PLAY
You absolutely can’t do this wrong. Kids can make magic out of such everyday, ordinary things. Find some things in your pantry, a few tools, empty bottles and let them create!
Other favorite fillers that would help you extend play in multiple ways like you see here might be birdseed, dried beans, dried corn, sand, rice, buttons, water beads, acorns, dried pasta, cooked pasta (would have to replace daily or store in fridge), gravel, pom poms, soil, packing peanuts, kinetic sand, tinsel, confetti, wood chips, shells, oats, leaves, cranberries, flowers, frozen flowers, cereal, coffee beans, dried pumpkin seeds, lentils...
Don’t fix what isn’t broken. As long as they’re still playing with interest, leave it. I spent 5 minutes each day resetting the table to show a quick progression on Instagram, but if you want to leave the same tools over the course of a couple of days, go for it! No need to switch.
Don’t show all your cards or give access to all tools. Have a cupboard of stashed empty bottles that would be perfect for exploring capacity with sensory play? Don’t bring them out all at once or give your child free access. Have a few puzzles you’d like to put in for play? Don’t put them all in the table or give your child access to all of them. If you feel play is starting to putter out, that’s when you can add something new for interest or ask if they’d like to switch for another puzzle. Truly, on the first day of introducing a new filler, I’ll give the girls some simple scoops and empty bottles and let them go at it, building from there. Not only will this help with them feeling overloaded and overwhelmed, sometimes discouraging them from play, this will help with the amount of clean up as well.
What’s the point? Think about a general focus for your table and be purposeful in tools you set out. Although it is all “play,” my hope is that this post will help you be more mindful about how you’d like to guide your sensory bin, setting your little one up for longer, more intentional play.
We dyed about 16 cups of chickpeas for our rainbow play. 2 cups of chickpeas and about thirty drops of food coloring per bag. Shake, shake, shake, and allow to dry for an hour or so on parchment paper. Easy peasy! The best part? It’s going back in bags in the closet to pull out in a few months for more play because it should store well!
SENSORY BIN THEMES
I allowed the girls to use the same filler for six themes to illustrate that when you think you’ve worn on a filler, changing up the theme and tools will allow you to only have just begun!
CAPACITY
This is usually the first way we explore a bin. Things like funnels, empty bottles, bucket, box, scoops, teaspoons, muffin tin, ice cube mold are great for your child to explore the filler in a meaningful way. Without even knowing it they are exploring such important concepts like volume!
PUZZLES//EARLY LITERACY
This is such a great way to breathe some life back into a well-loved puzzles. Puzzles are considered “closed” toys, meaning there is really one right way to complete it, as opposed to a set of blocks, which is considered an “open” toy, with numerous possibilities! Hiding the puzzle pieces and allowing your child to scoop the medium into the puzzle base is a great way to use what you have in a new way!
You could even give this an academic bend, by using an alphabet or number puzzle. Here are a few of our favorites.
ALPHABET
Melissa and Doug Chunky Alphabet Puzzle
NUMBERS
SHAPES
SMALL WORLD
A small world is the creation that invites kids into a “miniature world,” usually with some setting they’re familiar with (castles, doctor, dinosaurs, etc.). Our set up included our Grimms Rainbow, Grapat Nins, Grapat mandala trees, scoops, and castle blocks.
Small worlds invite children to explore real world concepts through play. They can be purposefully set up to mimic real life situations, or just an assortment of miniature real life objects. I love small world play because:
Kids are in charge. This does wonders for their personal autonomy. How many times a day are they fully “in charge?”
Conflict//Resolution is worked out in a no-penalty manner. Their characters or animals can “act out” and children usually take on roles to solve problems or mediate situations (comforting a crying child, going to school, getting hurt on the playground). Playing with a sibling also encourages turn-taking and strengthens their bond.
This activity is a language-building superstar. Conversation is so encouraged and thematic words that you might normally just her at the doctor or around the farm flow in this type of play.
Imaginations thrive. I listened to the girls play princesses and fairies, doctor, school, and family all with the same pieces.
IMAGINATIVE
One of our favorite ways to extend sensory play is to bring in the element of imagination! Imaginative play has taken off with the girls since they turned three and they can easily get lost in worlds of their own. I like to use sensory play to encourage this by adding just a few elements from their own toys. One of our favorites is finding items from their play kitchen, like pots, pans, bowls, and scoops.
In this instance, I added a baby doll and a high chair right next to their table in case they wanted to feed the baby! Such a simple set up can quickly evolve into feeding their babies, making cakes, or serving dinners to everyone.
NUMERACY
To encourage play with numeracy, we used wooden counting trays from Craftower and our Grapat mandala pieces. The girls used little tongs to transfer the pieces hidden in the chickpeas to the number trays and little scoops to fill in the engraved numbers.
We loved this activity for:
Exposure, exposure, exposure! The girls don’t know their numbers yet. That’s okay! They’re three and that’s developmentally appropriate. But they DO know how to play. They’re seeing the numbers and learning to associate them with counting. They’re not letters or shapes.
It is self-checking. Think of them like stacking cups or boxes. Because the counting trays are graduated lengths and come with a beautiful tray, littles can put them in independently without even knowing their numbers. However, since most children this age can route count, they’re able to infer that the first tray is the number 1. They can build on from there!
This emphasizes the number concept of quantity. A quick look shows that the 7 tray is longer than the 3 tray. 7 is greater than 3. 3 is less than 7. They don’t have to verbalize this for them to eventually come to that conclusion on their own.
The grooves of the numbers allow for another way to use these trays - not just for counting. They can be traced with an unsharpened pencil or can be filled with the sensory bin fillers.
Wood gives such a beautiful, tactile experience to kids, surrounding them with natural elements.
Don’t have counting trays? No problem! Pieces of paper or index cards with the number can be outlined with pieces and you could even draw dots to reinforce how many should go by each number!
BOOK RETELLING
Is there a book that reminds you of your sensory set up? Did you create your set up because of a book? (Farm, Valentine’s, etc.)? Include that book close by so your little one can refer to it. They might choose to retell the story or read a little more. Gosh, anything that leads you back to literacy is an excellent choice!
So there you have it, friends! Six ways to use the same sensory bin filler. Use it one way until your little one is ready for a change and then swap out the tools. Or pack it up and save the filler for another day to present in another way. You’ve got this!