DIY Light Table

A light box is something I have always thought my kids would enjoy, but I never wanted to spend the money on one. Finally I got around to making our own. I used a large, clear, Rubbermaid container, two strands of Christmas lights, and press and seal wrap (love that stuff).  I lined the bottom of the container with the press and seal wrap (the top may have been a better idea, and I may do it too), and I stuck the lights inside! All done, homemade light table!

I had found these cute little fall themed plastic pieces at Target that would be perfect for the light table. The girls were enthralled with it!

They made patterns....

And shapes....

And more patterns!

Then I got out some Easter grass and made a pumpkin patch!

After their Lego people had collected all the pumpkins we got out our tiny crystal ponies; because nothing can be done without ponies! 

Overall the girls were quite pleased with their little light table (I was too) and played with it most of the afternoon!  And bonus, you can store all the lights in it!

Letter R Sensory Bin

The Letter R Sensory Bin was a pretty easy one to make; I even put a bit of filler in it! The contents of our Ltter R Bin included a Robot, a Raccoon, a Rooster, a Rhinoceros, a Rabbit, a Rubik's Cube, a Rectangle, a R book, the R magnet, and foam R's. I used Rice as the filler.

I was not too surprised that Eli was so into the rice. In fact he pulled everything out of the bin just to play in the rice!  He did take a minute to explore the rest of contents. He even hugged the stuffed animals before using them to sweep the rice around the bin.

He played with it until all the rice was on the floor and then he turned to the Rubik's cube which he proceeded to mess up (luckily it doesn't take his dad too long to fix them)! 

Even though it meant more clean up, I am glad I used the rice; he had such a good time with it.  I will have to try to think of some fillers for future bins!

Mom's Library Evoking Your Senses

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My Sensory Features This Week! 

The Jenny Evolution is sharing 10 great Fall Sensory Bins!

Fun-a-Day came up with a very simple yet engaging Apple Pie Sensory Bin!

There's Just One Mommy created a Fall nature Bin and adding some magnifying glasses for closer exploration!

Gift of Curiosity has a Fall on the Farm Sensory Bin just in time for corn harvest (at least around here)!

Enchanted School Room created a lovely Indoor Fairy Garden!

Fantastic Fun and Learning made art while exploring senses with Tea Bags!

KC Edventures came up with a great way to talk about the sense by using them to differentiate similar looking ingredients!

If I have featured you please feel free to grab my featured button!

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For more great features visit my fellow Librarians (Please follow them too!):

True Aim Education 

Ready-Set-Read

Crystal's Tiny Treasures

iGameMom

Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

More Fun, Mom

Sara Ella

Pounds4Pennies

Home is Where They Send Us

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This week we are giving away a copy of the picture book The Bubblegum Princess a story inspired by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Check out the full review over at Ready-Set-Read!

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Letter Q Sensory Bin

Our Letter Q Sensory Bin was a bit more difficult to create (as expected). I did find (and make) a few things for the letter though. We had a couple dolls with crowns to be Queens (I specifically avoided using princess for P, so I wouldn't confuse him), a doll Quilt, some Quarters, a Question Mark (drawn on a note card and then drawn over with hot glue), a Q book, foam Q's, and our singing Letter Q Magnet.

Eli was very into the singing magnet this time. He was so excited to push it and here it sing about the sound Q makes. He liked to try and repeat it too!

Then he noticed the Quarters which immediately went to his bank (like any money he comes across).  He also liked the little Question Mark (although he tried to pick the glue off).

This is one box where he actually explored everything! He was busy with it for some time, and left a mess of Q items all over the kitchen.

I kind of suspect that he will be more interested in his letter bins this year as he is a little older and very interested in letters now. We may have to repeat the ones we have done once we get through!  Have you tried making any letter bins for your kids?

Letter P Sensory Bin

Hooray for a super easy to put together letter bin! There are so many things around that start with the Letter P that I ran out of room before I ran out of stuff! So here are the things we (and I do mean we with the girls helping) chose to include a Penguin, a Piece of Pizza, a Pig, a Polar Bear, a Pegasus, Pirates, Peas, a Piano, and a Pepper along with our P Book, Foam P's and P Magnet. The girls wanted to stick a Pony and a Princess in there, but I was afraid it would be confusing with a Horse in the H bin and a Queen int he upcoming Q bin).

Eli's favorites out of this bin were the Penguin and Piece of Pizza. He went straight to them and wanted to feed the pizza to the penguin.

He finally explored the bin more, eventually shoving the book in my face, so we could read it. He did go back and get the penguin for the story though! 

He is really catching on to this letter thing! he frequently makes the letter sounds along with the magnet (sometimes without) and he will point out some letters on his own!

Sparkly, Squishy, Star Sensory Table

You may remember our first experience with marshmallows in a sensory bin; Eli loved it! Well this time we found some fun star marshmallows, and we happened across a star ice cube tray too (Perfect because Eli's favorite shape right now seems to be stars)! Together I created a little star sensory bin! 

I filled the star ice cube trays with colored water and a little glitter. Once they were frozen, we headed out to the water table. I filled it with about an inch of water and threw in the star ice cubes (which began melting immediately in the heat) and a bunch of the star marshmallows. 

At first the girls complained the water was hot (which it was since it came out of the hose), but it quickly cooled down with the ice cubes melting in it. The water also quickly turned purple! 

Once the ice was gone they enjoyed the marshmallows. Eli especially enjoyed squeezing them as hard as he could to squish them. 

They threw them down the spiral and put them in the water wheel.

They squished, and scooped, and stirred, and squished some more.  It was hard to get them away from it even though the marshmallows had turned to mush, and we had a pizza calling our names!