Rev up your imagination with this sensory bin inspired by the Little Blue Truck! Show your child the illustrated instructions and have him or her lead the prep work.
The idea for this activity is to recreate the scene in the book where Blue goes to help the Dump Truck then gets stuck himself. Well, that should serve as a jumping off point. From there, talk about the book or other relatable situations. Let your child lead the play and see where that takes you.
Sensory bins are fantastic for play-based learning. They’re known to help kids expand their language and vocabulary as they describe their play. The actions of scooping, dumping, and moving small objects help to develop fine motor skills and boost science and math by guesstimating and learning cause and effect. And, well, playing and communicating helps with social skills too.
Here are the four steps illustrated above:
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Grab an empty pan. If you don’t have a pan, look for an empty shoe box, or a large pot, a container, or find some blocks to use to create a perimeter on the floor or a table. Your bin can be any shape.
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Pour some pasta into your bin and pretend that it’s mud. Smaller pasta like macaroni will work well. If you don’t have that, look for rice, popcorn kernels, corn, birdseed, etc.
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Find some toy cars and place in bin.
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Find some toy animals and place in bin.
Here are some book-based talking points:
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What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
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Do you have a favorite animal in the story? Which one and why is it your favorite?
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Why do you think the animals ignored the Dump Truck?
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How did Blue’s friends get the trucks out of the muck?
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Do you think Blue should have helped the Dump Truck? Why or why not?
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What decision do you think you would have made?
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What parts of this story could be true?
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Anything you want to ask me?
