Spring is here and so is the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary and concepts to your child!

Sensory bins are the perfect activity to motivate your child to work on their speech and language goals at home. Sensory bins help children explore and learn through a hands-on, tactile experience. While they play, there will be natural opportunities to facilitate language. Some ideas are outlined below! Visit here to see a full list of ideas with pictures!

Materials

Base: beans, lentils, sand, crinkle paper, beads, pom poms, etc.

Objects: anything spring related (e.g., eggs to hide items in, flowers, flower pots, gummy worms, bugs, butterflies, sheep, rabbits, ducklings, etc.)

Tools: hand shovels, rakes, straws, spoons, etc.

Speech and Language Connections:

-Vocabulary building for nouns: eggs, bugs, butterfly, flowers, birds, pot, shovel, rake, etc.

-Vocabulary building for verbs: open, dig, pour, push, look, see, hop, fly, smell, feel, plant, grow, etc.

-Vocabulary building for adjectives: smooth, rough, spotted, striped, soft, hard, shiny, etc.

-Understanding and using concepts: in, out, under, on top, in front, behind, same, different, colors, numbers

-Following directions: “open the egg,” “pick up the bunny and give it to me,” “show me the blue egg,” etc.

-Answering questions: Who lays eggs? What does a bunny do? Where do you find worms? When do flowers start to grow? Why do we wear a raincoats? etc.

-Practicing speech sounds: bilabials (butterfly, basket, bud, blossom, pink, puddle, more, my, me, May, etc.), velars (grow, go, can, grass, kite, etc.), consonant blends (tree, green, cloud, smell, flower, smile, sprout, etc.), /l/ words (leaf, April, daffodil, lily, puddle, baseball, etc.), /r/ words (rain, raincoat, umbrella, rainbow, garden, etc.), and so many more!