Sensory bins can be more than just sensory bins. You can work on academic skills in sensory bins too! A multi-sensory approach is a great way to target academic skills with your students. Let me show you a spring sensory bin with academic skills.
Water Beads
To start your sensory bin, get a bin and a filler. Sand, beads, beans, or rice make great fillers. Another fun, unique filler that is great to incorporate water in the spring are water beads. You can find them HERE. *affiliate link*
Put the beads in your bin, add some water, and wait for them to absorb the water and expand. Your students will love them!
Spring File Folders
Let’s add those academic skills! Grab some file folders for various skills you want to target. In my spring sensory bin, I am targeting letter identification and matching. You can grab a free spring file folder HERE!
Put it all together!
Prep your file folder and put the moveable pieces in your sensory bin. Give your student the file folder to complete with the pieces in the sensory bin.
Target those skills!
Bonus! You can also work on fine motor skills in your spring sensory bin. Grab a set of tongs or tweezers and have your students use those to pick their file folder pieces out of your sensory bins. Target academic skills and fine motor skills using a multi-sensory approach! It is a win-win-win!
What is your favorite kind of sensory bin? Share it in the comments to inspire other special ed teachers! If you are looking for more sensory bin ideas, check out Taylor’s blog post!
