**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

Here is a look at our second set of 6 seasonal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Summer Theme Read Aloud:

Aubrey loves all of the lift the flap books from Karen Katz, so this week’s summer story was Baby Loves Summer by Karen Katz.  She loves all of the flaps to lift, and I love all the vocabulary it introduces.

Sun Theme Sensory Bin:

In this bin: yellow rice, penne pasta, yellow pouch lids
Aubrey used the materials in the bin to scoop, play, explore, and build suns.

Ice Cream Scooping:

In this bin: cotton balls, toy ice cream cones, scoops, spoons, and bowls

Cotton Candy Puffy Paint:

Our craft this week was made with this yummy puffy cotton candy paint. Aubrey helped me mix a small batch of puffy paint with equal parts shaving cream and white glue in a bowl. I divided it into 2 bowls and dyed one pink and one blue with food coloring. I also rolled a small piece of white cardstock to form a cone and glued it to the bottom of a sheet of paper for the cotton candy cone. Aubrey used the puffy paint to paint swirls of cotton candy on top of the cone.

Ice Cream Play Dough:

In this sensory bin: Funfetti playdough, buckets, sand toy ice cream set

This ice cream play dough is seriously amazing. It smells delicious and actually scoops like real ice cream! Best of all it is taste safe so even your littlest kiddos can play without any worry.

Here’s the super simple recipe:
-1 cup funfetti frosting (white or colored)
-About 3 cups powdered sugar

1. Mix in a stand mixer, adding powdered sugar gradually.
2. Add a bit more or less sugar until your dough isn’t sticky.

That’s it! I  used the pre-colored pink frosting for our “strawberry” so I didn’t have to mess with food coloring. So easy!

Duck Race Sensory Bin:

In this sensory bin: water, cut pool noodle, small rubber ducks, squirt guns

For our last bin, I cut a pool noodle the length of the bin and placed it inside to divide the bin into 2 “lanes.” Then we placed one rubber duck in each lane.  We each used a squirt gun to squirt the duck and race to the other side of the bin. Aubrey also had fun just spraying and splashing with the ducks in the bin even without racing.

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Summer first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

   Ocean Theme Read Aloud:

Aubrey loves books with flaps to lift and this ocean book quickly became a favorite. Each page in Deep Sea Dive by Salina Yoon has a brightly colored illustration and name of an ocean animal.  When you lift the flap a short poem gives a bit more information about that animal. I love that this book gives just a bit more info than a typical board book but still holds Aubrey’s attention.

Ocean Water Bead Bin:

In this bin: ocean water beads, plastic ocean animals, fine motor tools, cups

  **Remember water beads are NOT taste safe, so if your littles are likely to take a bite, try using tapioca pearls instead.

Ocean Bubble Ball Bin:

This week we had the perfect warm weather to move our sensory play outside. To set up this ocean bubble ball bin, I put blue, green, and purple ball pit balls in a kiddie pool, filled it with water and placed 3 empty bins on the other side of the yard.  Then I got Aubrey started by showing her how to grab a few balls and sort them into the 3 bins by color.  Then all I did was watch her splash, sort and wear herself out!

Fish Watercolor Painting:

Our next craft was a super simple one. I printed a few fish outlines on white cardstock. Aubrey used liquid watercolors to paint bright colored tropical fish.  If you need a taste safe option you could also use water with a few drops of food coloring.

Sponge Fish Water Bin:

In this bin: water, blue food coloring, sponges cut into the shape of fish, fine motor tools, eye droppers

Aubrey loves pretty much any water filled sensory bin, so this ocean themed bin was lots of fun for her to squish and explore with.

Ocean Animal Sand Play:

In this sensory bin: blue kinetic sand, mini ocean animal sand molds

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Ocean first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Farm Theme Read Aloud:

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle is already a favorite in our house and even though we already used it for our blue themed week, I knew I had to bring it back out for our farm theme.  Aubrey loves the truck and animal sounds and I love the message of friendship and helping others.

Little Blue Truck Sensory Bin:

Our first activity is a repeat sensory bin from our Blue theme to go along with our Little Blue Truck story. First, I filled our bin with shredded brown paper “mud”. I added a little blue truck, farm animals, a frog and a dump truck and it was the perfect way to practice retelling a story.

Wishy Washy Sensory Bin:

In this bin: “mud,” plastic animals, tin tub, water, scrub brushes

To set this activity up I filled a small bin with 1 cup water. Then I added  2 cups cornstarch a bit at a time, and sprinkled a few spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder in for color and scent. I added the animals to the “mud” mixture, then filled a separate tub with water and scrub brushes. To help contain the mess I placed both bins inside a larger bin.

Ice Cream in a Bag:

Have you ever made ice cream in a bag? We tried it for the first time in tot school last year and I was SHOCKED at how easy and delicious it was! So I knew I had to bring this activity back for preschool and baby bins this year. Here is the recipe:

  1. Mix 3 cups crushed ice and 1/3 cup salt in a gallon freezer bag.
2. Mix 1/2 cup whole milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla, and 1 Tbsp sugar in sandwich bag.
3. Drop the small bag inside the large bag and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE! **Wear gloves the bag will get really cold **
4. After about 5 minutes take the small bag out and enjoy, yum!

Farm Animal Bead Threading:

I found these wooden farm beads nay knew they would make the perfect activity for our farm themed baby bins. I love that the lacing string included in the set has a large sturdy wooden peg to make threading so much easier even for the smallest hands.  Aubrey needed me to model the process of pushing the peg into a bead and pulling it through a few times before she was able to do it independently.

Farm Animal Matching Bin:

In this bin: oatmeal, Melissa & Doug Farm Animal Pop Blocs, spoons, cups

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Farm first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Zoo Theme Read Aloud:

This week’s book, Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is a well loved staple in our board book collection so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include one of our favorites as the focus read aloud for baby bins. With adorable animals, flaps to lift, and a surprise ending I’m sure your little ones will love this book just as much as we do.

Build a Zoo Sensory Bin:

In this bin: black beans, alphabet zoo animals, plastic fences, trees

Zoo Sticker Sorts:

Peeling stickers is always a challenge with this age group, but it is so great for building fine motor skills and concentration. So for this activity, I grabbed a bag full of foam animal stickers and drew colored circles on a few sheets of paper. Aubrey worked hard to peel the backing from the colored animals, with help from me, and then sorted them into the correct color zoo exhibit.

Zoo Bath Sensory Play:

In this bin: zoo animal puppets, water, bubble bath

So originally this bin was going to be just that, a sensory bin. But we were having quite the cranky morning and whenever I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts and renew my patience,  a mid day bath usually does the trick.  So instead of giving our zoo puppets a bath in a sensory bin, we jumped in the tub and washed them in the bubble bath. So don’t be afraid to put your own twist on any of these activities. You know your kids and what they like best so run with it whenever possible!

Zoo Puzzle Hunt:

In this bin: black beans,  Melissa & Doug Safari Puzzle

Aubrey loves puzzles so now that she is over 2 most of our chunky puzzles are really pretty easy for her. But Puzzles + Sensory Bins = new life for old puzzles. Adding the hide and seek factor makes puzzles exciting enough to hold her attention again even when they are pretty simple.

Giraffe Finger Paint:

For a fun craft this week, we created this finger paint giraffe.  First, I cut out the giraffe outline and mane pieces. Next, Aubrey dipped her finger in brown paint and stamped on the giraffe to create spots.  Then she attempted making snips with a scissors along the brown giraffe’s mane piece to create texture. Finally, with help from me she glued the mane behind the giraffe’s head, added googly eyes to the face and taped 2 pipe cleaners behind the head for horns.

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Zoo first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our second set of 6 seasonal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Spring Theme Read Aloud:

This week’s spring story is from one of my favorite authors Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.  The staggered rainbow pages add just enough novelty to hold her interest and make turning the pages fun.

Planting Sensory Bin:

In this bin: black beans, mini pots, shovels, silk flowers, pom pom “seeds”

Flower Color Matching:

In this bin: water, colored pom poms, flower shaped silicone cupcake cups, flower cake pop mold, tongs
  Aubrey used the fine motor tools in this bin to scoop up the pom poms, squeeze the water out, then sort them into the cupcake cups. She also experimented with getting the cupcake cups to float in the water bin.

Flower Suncatcher:

Our craft this week was another stained glass craft. First I cut out 2 black flower and circle outlines from black construction paper. Then I stuck one flower and circle on contact paper and Aubrey filled in with tissue paper squares. When she finished I glued the second flower and circle on top. Then we sealed it with another sheet of contact paper and displayed in a sunny window

Rainy Day Sensory Bin:

In this sensory bin: water (tinted blue with food coloring), foam cloud and raindrop shapes, strainers, funnels

  Did you know foam shapes stick to windows when wet? Amazing right? So besides just exploring this rain theme bin, I encouraged Aubrey to stick the shapes to the window as well.

Flower Ice Play Bin:

In this sensory bin: frozen flower ice shapes in various colors, fine motor tools, cold water, cups

Aubrey used the fine motor tools in this bin to scoop up the ice, sort, dump and explore while the ice slowly melted

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

The post Baby Bins: Spring first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our second set of 6 seasonal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Earth Day Theme Read Aloud:

This week’s book was This is Our World by Emily Sollinger.  Besides just being a great simple book about taking car of our Earth, this book also include a fun puzzle for little ones to complete.

Land and Water Sensory Bin:

In this bin: blue water beads, craft foam continents

To create our continents I traced each continent on a piece of craft foam, then cut each one out. **Remember water beads are NOT taste safe, so if your littles are likely to take a bite, try using tapioca pearls instead or making blue jello jigglers in ice cube trays

Earth Play Dough Mats:

In this sensory bin: play dough and laminated Earth outline

Earth Paint in a Bag:

  For this baby safe painting activity, I printed an Earth outline and trimmed it to fit inside a ziplock bag. Next, I added a few drops of blue and green paint. Then, I sealed it up for some fun no mess and no stress painting. Aubrey used her fingers to smush the paint around and mix it together to cover the entire Earth.

Recycle Sort Sensory Bin:

In this bin:  black beans, recyclable printables, trash and recycling labels, small bowls

Stained Glass Earth:

Our craft this week was another stained glass craft. First I cut out 2 circle outlines from black construction paper. Then I stuck one circle on contact paper and Aubrey filled it in with green and blue tissue paper squares. When she finished I glued the second circle on top. Then we sealed it with another sheet of contact paper and displayed in a sunny window

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Earth Day first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Butterfly Theme Book:

This week’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a well loved staple in our book collection so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include one of our favorites as the focus read aloud for baby bins. From the adorable caterpillar, to the dye cut pages I’m sure your little ones love this book just as much as we do.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Bin:

In this bin: Black beans, play food, caterpillar toy, mini cups

Stained Glass Butterflies:

For our first craft we made pretty stained glass butterflies with dollar store picture frames. I took the paper and cardboard out of the small glass picture frame and used hot glue to attach the glass to the inside of the frame. Then I glued the butterfly outline inside the frame. Aubrey squeezed different colors of glitter glue inside the butterfly outline (with some help from me). Then she added a few drops of food coloring.  Next she used cotton swabs and toothpicks to spread and mix the colors.  After it was dry it looked so pretty in a sunny window.

Butterfly Feeding Bin:

In this bin: Mini cups, colored water, toy butterflies, flowers, pipettes

Dot Stamp Butterfly:

Dot stampers are a great go to fine motor activity. I love how easy it is to spice up a plain old coloring page with bright beautiful dots. I printed a few of these butterfly outlines and let Aubrey design her own butterflies. Easy Peasy art!

Butterfly Play Dough:

In this bin: play dough, rollers, butterfly/caterpillar cookie cutters, gems, googly eyes, buttons

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

The post Baby Bins: Butterflies first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Frog Theme Book:

For this week’s book I chose the I Love Frogs Rookie Toddler book. This book has awesome pictures and simple information. All of the board books in this series are perfect for introducing more nonfiction to little readers.

Froggy Sensory Bin:

In this sensory bin: plastic frogs, foam lily pads, water, blue aquarium gravel, rocks

Rainbow Frog Sort:

In this sensory bin: plastic frogs, blue aquarium gravel, colored cups for sorting

Pond Sponge Painting:

For our second froggy craft we created a sponge paint pond.  First Aubrey used a sponge brush to stamp blue paint all over the page.  Then after we let that dry, she glued lily pads onto her pond.  Finally she used a sponge that I cut into a frog print shape to stamp green footprints all over her page.

Jell-O Frog Excavation:

To prepare this fun sensory activity, I started by making 2 large packages of blue Jell-O according to the package directions.  Then before placing in the refrigerator to set, I added plastic frogs.  We waited for the Jell-O to set overnight.  Then Aubrey used spoons, scoops, and tools to rescue the frogs from the sticky pond.

Tissue Plate Frog Craft:

Our last craft this week was a tissue paper plate frog.  I watered down glue so that it was easily spreadable. Aubrey used a foam brush to paint a paper plate with glue and added green tissue paper squares. Then she painted over the squares with more watered down glue. And to finish off the face she glued out paper shapes to the face.

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Frogs first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

Here is a look at our second set of 6 seasonal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Easter Theme Book:

Our read aloud this week was Happy Easter Mouse! by Laura Numeroff. We love all of her books, but this one was really great for Aubrey because Mouse hides Easter eggs in all different colors.  We used it as a review of the colors she knows and to work on remembering the colors she still can’t identify.

Glowing Eggs Sensory Bin:

In this sensory bin: Battery powered LED tea lights, eggs, clear water beads, and cups

Feed the Bunny:

In this bin: split peas, fillable plastic carrots, stuffed bunny

Easter Egg Bubble Bath:

In this bin: plastic eggs, colored cups, water, bubble bath

This activity can be done as either a sensory bin or in the bathtub, but whenever I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts and renew my patience,  a mid day bath usually does the trick.  So instead of throwing our eggs in a sensory bin, we jumped in the tub and played with them in the bubble bath. Don’t be afraid to put your own twist on any of our activities. You know your kids and what they like best so run with it whenever possible!

Tie Dye Easter Eggs:

If you love the look of tie dye, but not the mess, check out this super simple tie dye craft using…BABY WIPES! Who knew right? So for this easy craft I cut baby wipes into egg shapes, folded them in half, twisted sections and secured them with rubber bands.  Then Aubrey used watercolor markers to color all of the sections of the twisted baby wipe.  After we allowed the wipe eggs to dry overnight, we removed the rubber bands to reveal tie dye eggs!

Easter Sorting Bin:

In this sensory bin: Easter straws, pom poms, plastic eggs, colored cups mini glitter eggs, bunny egg tongs

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: Easter first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

 Here is a look at our second set of 6 seasonal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

St. Patrick’s Theme Read Aloud:

This week we read the adorable story of the Itsy Bitsy Leprechaun. We loved that this book followed the same tune of the itsy bitsy spider, making it easy and fun for Aubrey to join in on repeated readings.

St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin:

In this bin: green & gold coins, shamrock table scatter, glittery green and gold St. Patrick’s decor items, green necklaces, scoops, cups

Soapy Rainbow Bin:

In this bin: dish soap, water, pouch lids, rainbow colored cups

To create this bin I squeezed a good amount of dish soap into the bottom of our sensory bin. THen I ran warm water on top to create a bin filled with sudsy soap.  Finally I sprinkled pouch lids in rainbow order on top of the soap bubbles. Aubry used colored cups to scoop, sort and play.

St. Patrick’s Water Play:

In this bin: water, gold coins, shamrock table scatter, pots, green and yellow bowls and cups

Dot Art Shamrock:

For our second art project we used our dot stampers to stamp a shamrock.  I printed a shamrock outline on cardstock and cut out the center.  THen I taped the shamrock to a white sheet of paper.  Aubrey used green and yellow regular and mini dot stampers to fill in the shamrock. After she finished we pulled off the outline to reveal her work of art!

Pots of Gold Sensory Bin:

In this bin: split peas, yellow pom poms, pots, fine motor tools

Want all of this week’s seasonal themed activities for baby bins?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Seasonal {Plans and Printables}

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.

The post Baby Bins: St. Patrick’s Day first appeared on Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten.