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Sea Turtle Sensory Bin

by Angela Thayer 7 Comments

I love it when I hear my boys ask to learn about a particular topic. Last week we were in the car and my preschooler asked me if we could learn about sea turtles. Of course I said yes and got to work brainstorming ideas for activities. The first one I came up with was a sea turtle sensory bin.

Sea Turtle Sensory Bin

Here’s what we used for the sensory bin: (the links below are affiliate links)

  • water beads (I used blue, green, and clear ones from The Dollar Tree)
  • white sand
  • ping pong balls (for turtle eggs)
  • rocks
  • faux grass (for seaweed)
  • sea turtle toys

I set everything up into a large plastic bin (the size you would use for wrapping paper). I wanted it extra large so we could have an ocean side and a beach side for the bin. Plus with two boys playing it’s nice to have more room. I arranged everything (like the picture below) and set it out and invited the boys to play with it.

Invitation to Play with Turtle Sensory Bin

And they got right to work playing and exploring! They love those squishy water beads, so that was the first thing they got their hands on.

Sea Turtle Small World Play

water beads

Exploring the Turtle Sensory Bin

There were several things I wanted my boys to learn about sea turtles with this sensory bin. While they explored the bin, we talked about sea turtles and I explained these facts to them:

  • they are reptiles
  • they live in the ocean and nest on tropical beaches
  • they come to the shore to lay eggs (and the eggs hatch in about 60 days)
  • they eat sea grasses
  • they have paddle-like flippers that help them swim quickly and gracefully

Exploring Turtles

They really enjoyed this small world play activity.

Turtles Swimming

Seaweed

I loved starting our study on turtles with this hands-on sea turtle sensory bin. We played with it several times that day and I felt like the kids understood the key facts I wanted them to learn through this activity. They loved it so much that I’m sure we will be playing with this bin all week long.

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Filed Under: Science, Sensory Play, Summer Activities Tagged With: letter T, safari products, sensory bin, turtles

Comments

  1. Georgina @ Craftulate says
    July 22, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    This looks lovely! So inviting!

    Reply
  2. Susen says
    July 23, 2014 at 11:07 am

    Love how it turned out!!
    Susen recently posted…Flower Cutting and Fine Motor SkillsMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Jamie La says
    July 24, 2014 at 5:53 am

    Such a cute idea!

    Reply
  4. Jacquie says
    April 8, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    Just love your bin! We were able to visit sea turtles on the beaches last summer and it was an amazing learning experience — your bin is a great example of what we learned about their habitat!
    Jacquie recently posted…Getting Kids Ready for a Sleep-over: What to Pack in Your Overnight BagMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Marina says
    July 22, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    Hello, my name is Marina, l am from Ukraine. I want to say, that your sensory bins are great. Thanks for so good ideas!!!

    Reply
  6. Linda says
    April 14, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    This sensory bin looks like a lot of fun! I’d like to make one for my preschool class. I also bought these books: Sea Turtles by Trace Taylor, The Life of a Sea Turtle by , and Gina Cline and Traci Dibble, and This Is an Ocean by Gina Cline and Joi Washington. They are easy readers with beautiful photos. (The second book needs to be previewed before reading to your children, as it tells about creatures that like to eat sea turtles)

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      April 27, 2018 at 12:43 pm

      Thanks so much for your suggestions! I appreciate it.

      Reply

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