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My Favorite Spring Sensory Box for Kids
Hey, friends! Today, I am going to be sharing my favorite Spring sensory box for kids. When this subscription box for kids arrives on my doorstep, my youngest daughter and I can’t get it opened fast enough!
My friend, Amanda, from Sparkling in Primary, does an AMAZING job planning and putting together the Ultimate Sensory Box. Not only does she include printables inside page protectors, task cards in Velcro sleeves, hand-crafted items, manipulatives, and a children’s book, but she also includes labeled storage, lesson plans, and standards! Whether you are a preschool, kindergarten, or first grade teacher, or a stay at home parent looking for learning activities for your kids, rest assured, the Ultimate Sensory Box will be a hit!
This is the second seasonal kids subscription box I have received from Amanda, and I love it so much, that I have to share it with you all! Let’s take a look at what’s included in the Spring box, and how you can get a special discount on your learning box for kids.
Click Here to Jump Ahead
What’s Inside the Spring Sensory Box
Are you ready for this? You won’t believe all the amazing manipulatives and learning activities Amanda has put into this Spring sensory box. Here is goes…
- 1 gallon of sensory bin filler (green paper grass)
- 5 small bunnies (each with a vowel sticker on the bottom)
- 25 plastic mini carrots
- 6 felt flowers
- Hand-crafted wooden box for the sand garden
- Kinetic sand
- 4 hand-painted wooden fence pieces
- 1-10 bead strings
- 100 flower beads
- 4 Spring grabber tongs
- 4 double tens-frames
- Too Many Carrots, by Katy Hudson (children’s book)
- Common core standards aligned with each activity
- Spring picture cards
- CVC picture cards
- Addition and Subtraction story problem task cards
- Bunny number cards
- Rhyming Cards
- 8 Busy Bunnies worksheets (math and literacy) that come inside page protectors
- Directions and suggestions for 10 activities
- Storage
Sensory-based Learning Activities
With so many wonderful manipulatives, task cards, and worksheets, there are tons of opportunities to incorporate sensory-based learning. This, friends, is how you keep learning fun!
Spring Words
Fill a container with the sensory grass filler, and scatter the Spring picture cards throughout. The kids can use the grabber tongs to pull out a card and complete one of two Spring vocabulary word worksheets. Yes, Amanda gives you 2 levels to choose from. Level 1: the kiddos find the word on the paper, and trace it or color it.
Level 2, students attempt to write the word independently. There are 12 Spring vocabulary cards included. If you have already have the vocabulary cards included in my Spring Making Words, you could also incorporate those into this Spring sensory box.
Medial Vowels and CVC words
Hide the Busy Bunnies CVC picture cards inside the sensory bin, or do it as a separate activity while another kiddo is playing in the sensory bin.
This, too, has 2 leveled worksheets to choose from. Level 1, the kiddos pull a CVC card, find the carrot on the worksheet that has the beginning and ending sound of that picture. Then, they write in the middle vowel sound. But, wait, it gets better. Also included in your Ultimate Sensory Box are bunnies with a vowel sticker on the bottom. This is the perfect activity to incorporate those bunnies. The bunnies are hidden inside the sensory bin, and the kiddos have to find the bunny with the corresponding middle vowel that is missing from the word.
Level 2, the kiddos pull a CVC card from the bin, and write the word independently inside the blank carrots on the CVC worksheet.
Busy Bunny Math Stories
This was my daughters favorite activity in the sensory box. This was a great math refresher for her as a first grader.
Using the addition and subtraction task cards (included), and the carrot manipulatives, the kiddos practice their math skills. This is a great activity to practice using objects to solve an addition or subtraction problem, as well as writing number equations.
Have your kiddos use the sand garden to plant and pull carrots while solving their math stories. The sand and manipulatives are the perfect combination for sensory-based learning activities.
Graphing and Counting
Use the grabber tongs to get all of the flower beads from the sensory bin. Use the graph included to sort by color and count how many of each. Which color has the most? Which color has the least?
Counting On
Use the number strings and the counting on worksheet to build number sense and simple addition equations. There are number beads already tied to the strings. Starting with the number that is already on the string, the kids count on and add beads to get to the sum shown on the recording sheet.
Making Numbers
The number strings are also perfect for this Spring math activity for kids. The kiddos use the flower beads to show as many ways as possible to make the number tied to the string. Then, they write the number equations on the recording sheet. For example, if they pick a string that has the 8 bead tied to the end, they would use the different colored flower beads to show 4 pink + 4 yellow, or 2 blue + 6 pink, and so on.
Too Many Carrots Retell
After reading aloud the book, Too Many Carrots, the kiddos can use the character stick props to retell the story. Then, you can leave the character props in the sensory bin to promote language and recall while playing with the bin at another time. Amanda also includes a lesson plan for this read aloud activity, complete with before, during, and after reading activities to do with the kids.
Rhyming Sort
Hide the rhyming cards (included) in the sensory bin, and have the kids dig through to find rhyming word families. There are -at, -in, and -og rhyming cards included. Rhyming can often be a difficult skill for kids to grasp. This is a fun way to build rhyming skills and phonemic awareness.
Flower Tens-Frames
For this fun sensory math game, the kids will use the bunny number cards, tens-frame cards, flower beads, and the grabbers. First, sprinkle the flower beads all throughout the grass-filled Spring sensory bin. Next, your kiddos will get a bunny number card (1-20), and use the grabber to pull that many beads out of the bin. Then, they will place the flower beads onto the tens-frame cards. They can have a partner check to make sure the beads on the tens-frame matches the number on the bunny card.
The Best Sensory Box for Kids
For real; this is my favorite sensory box for kids ages 4-8. I hope you can see from all of the activities and manipulatives listed above how awesome this subscription box is!
I know you may not be a teacher, and that’s ok! If you have kids at home, you will have everything you need to keep learning fun. If you are an early childhood teacher, than you already know how engaging sensory bins can be, and are probably looking for the best way to save time and money. I’ve got you!
Ultimate Sensory Box Discount Code
Thank you so much for taking time to read this far! If you’d like to order my friend, Amanda’s Ultimate Sensory Box, click HERE.
Because she knows my followers are awesome, she was kind enough to give you all a special discount code. Be sure to enter promo code: LITTLELEARNINGCORNER to get 10% off!
Before you go, here are some blog posts you may enjoy:
5 Fantastic Arts and Crafts Boxes for Kids
7 Fun Spring Activities for Kindergarten
10 Books About Spring Under $15
100 Things to Do At Home With Kids