Every morning, I set out a new activity for the children to discover. I do this so the children don’t choose the television for entertainment. I like to put this chunk of time in our morning schedule as our, Invitation to Play.
An Invitation to Play is an activity which fills the following criteria:
- Consists of open-ended play (meaning, there is no end to the activity such as a game)
- Is creative and interesting to make the child curious to the activity
- Is fun and colorful to attract the child
- Uses most of their senses (try to include as many as I can)
- Lets children develop their current skills and/or challenges them with new skills
We have a little table that I placed in our living room that is designated specifically for our daily invitation to play activities. When they enter the room, they are always curious to what they may find on the table.
Since I have a preschooler and a toddler, I change the level of difficulty to accommodate them both. Some days, I have activities to challenge my toddler that my preschooler would love and other days are fun, easy toddler activities. Since Halloween is coming up, I wanted to have a not-so-spooky sensory bin that they both could enjoy.
This simple Halloween sensory tub included:
- battery-operated lights
- small pumpkins
- black beans
- plastic Halloween pieces from dollar store
- Halloween ice cube tray for counting
Why are sensory bins important?
First, it allows children the opportunity to discover their senses. They are touching the items, they can smell the pumpkins, they hear the sound of the beans dropping in the tub, they see every little detail in the bin. Yes, I obviously skipped taste on this one. Sorry, I can’t have it all! But I hope you understand the concept…sensory … using all senses…in a bin! lol
Secondly, it helps improve gross motor skills as well as cognitive skills.
And sensory bins also help teach, self-control…well, we are still working on that.
You see, Miss 2 didn’t realize it, but she was developing her measuring …
and pouring skills.
And Mr 4 was engaged in pretend play. Using his imagination in ways that blew me away!
In his world, the lights became glowing monster eyes …
and they even made a fire on his fire truck.
But to be honest, I really enjoyed seeing how he turned that little battery operated light into a spooky-lit house.
He turned the lights upside down and placed them in our test tubes. He placed them all around the room and turned off the lights. I wish I could have taken a shot where the whole room was illuminated by these lights, but my camera and I were not cooperating. It was actually quite beautiful. Instead, I have this photo which only gives you a sense of how to put them together.
There’s really no justice. If you can make these awesome lights come alive, please do so!
Just by having these “ordinary” objects in a tub, made a new and inviting experience for not only the little tot but for the big preschooler as well.
How do you create your invitation to play?
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This looks like so much fun! I had fun reading about how they explored the bin.
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