Along with the toy rotation we have also started sensory bins. Our first one is a Rainbow Dinosaur Pasta bin!!
We started out by buying a box of dinosaur shaped Pasta, you can use any shape or brand of pasta you like. You will also need food coloring, white vinegar and a sandwich bag for each color you plan to use.
I didn’t take photos of the dying process but it was pretty simple.
- Split uncooked pasta evenly into sandwich bags
- For 3/4 cup of pasta we use 2 tsp white Vinegar
- 10 drops of food coloring (5 of each color for orange and purple)
- Mix the bag until the pasta is colored
- Lay on parchment paper to dry
I left it out for about 3 hours because I wanted the vinegar scent to dissipate before I put it in the bin. When we bought the 16QT Sterilite containers for the toy rotation we had two extra ones so I used one of those and put some measuring cups along with an old cupcake tin so he would have something to pour into.
To avoid him trying to dump the pasta bin we played with it on the table with him standing on a chair. He jumped right in to grab the measuring cups but it took him minute to start scooping. After showing him a few times he got the hang of it, mostly just moving it around inside the bin, but he occasionally would pour it into the other cups or the cupcake tin.
A few times he dumped the cup on the floor not realizing there was still pasta in it while he was getting the hang of how to old the cup. We spent 45 mins playing with before nap time.
Overall I’m thinking this is defiantly something he can build on! Learning how to hold the measuring cups and how to pour them, and we can expand on it by adding a coloring sorting element with the cupcake tins. Once we have the color sorting down we’ll introduce patterns with the shapes.
Two Moms Homemade 