Raise your hand if you had some students on your caseload that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cars and trucks!? Why not theme smash this winter to talk about winter weather and winter vehicles using this engaging snow sensory bin?
It’s really easy to setup and you can adapt it to target a LOT of different goals. Plus, your students will be so excited to ditch the worksheets and keep their hands busy while they plow the snow to reveal their speech or language target. Not only can you work on your students targets with the bin, you can also build language using verbs and vocabulary related to winter weather and transportation.
Items You Need For Your Sensory Bin
What I love about this snow sensory bin is that you may already have all of the items. If not, you can grab the list of items here or ask some of your families if they have extra toy trucks or want to donate white Pom Pom balls for speech.
-A container (any type will do, but for this bin, I like the shallow Sterlite containers from Target)
-White Pom Pom Balls (the balls in the pictures are .5 inches that I got on Amazon HERE, this is an Amazon affiliate link) HERE is the link to the 1 inch Pom Pom balls.
-Toy trucks for plowing the snow. You can get this set HERE on Amazon (affiliate link included) that are pull back, so you can reuse them for other fun activities for stop/go, races, etc.
-Picture targets to put on the bottom of the bin to have your students practice their speech or language targets. In the Themed Therapy SLP membership, there are themed verb and vocabulary cards featured in this bin. Get on the waitlist for when the membership opens up again in summer 2022 HERE.
-Put picture scenes or pages of pictures to have at the bottom of the bin. Switch out the pictures for your mixed groups by using the Any Craft Companion pictures.
Sensory Bin Organization Tips
When I create sensory bins, I tend to keep 2 main container boxes and store the fillers and materials in bigger tubs. In the past, I was the queen of just shoving things in the bins or throwing them in a plastic gallon bag. Recently, I have started to use zipper pouches to keep the pieces organized. These 13 by 9-inch pouches (affiliate links included) are large enough to store printables and material pieces.
Then, you can purchase smaller pouches to keep figurines, props, and manipulatives that you like to add to that bin. You can also store your filler to keep all the moving parts of the bin in one spot. Then, just toss it in your larger bin and switch out. For more ideas on how to make sensory bins, head to this BLOG POST. If you are looking for more ways to organize your theme-based materials, check out this post.
How to Use the Snow Sensory Bin
This bin is so versatile because you can interchange picture sheets to match your student’s targets. You can have students plow the snow away to reveal their target. Have them practice the word a certain number of times, use it in a sentence, describe it by attributes, or name other items in that category group.
Create sentence strips on a piece of paper such as, “The truck drove over ______” or “Push the snow off of ______.”
For students working on expanding communication functions, you can work on requesting more of an action, commenting, initiating, and answering wh-questions.
Target AAC CORE words for go, stop, look, all done, more, again, yes, no, here, there, turn, my
How would you use this sensory bin in therapy? Let me know in the comments!
Need More Winter Sensory Bin Ideas?
Having engaging sensory bins that go with your winter theme will help you plan extension activities for your mixed groups with ease! Here is a blog post with a sensory bin incorporating penguins! This BLOG POST shares different fillers that go well for a winter theme and ideas for working on winter vocabulary.
If you are looking for ready-to-go sensory bin printables, I recommend the Mitten Match-Up or the winter sensory bin companion in my TPT store. Just click the images below to grab these sets.
