What are Sensory Bin Experiences and Dramatic Play Areas?

Sensory Bin Experiences

Preschoolers are naturally drawn to participate in sensory activities. They naturally love to explore using their senses, and in doing so, naturally learn through touching, seeing, tasting, smelling, and hearing.

Unfortunately for parents, it’s often loud and very messy!

At Wild Acorns we provide a new sensory bin experience each week for the children to explore. Our sensory table has multiple bins where sensory fillers such as kinetic sand, water with bubbles, colored rice/garbanzo beans/noodles, straw, black beans, popcorn, and split peas are used for the base. After the base filler is in, then a variety of learning materials are added based on the theme. These include wooden boards with openings to pour through with funnels and scoops and Montessori cards to use in matching and counting with the theme. Skills acquired during sensory bin time is in sorting, counting, sharing, and fine motor skills.

In addition to our sensory bin table, we also have large outdoor areas for water play (when it’s warm), sand box play, pea gravel play, rock quarry/mud pit play for loading and piling with trucks, and an extensive mud kitchen complete with water. Children are encouraged to wear only play clothes, and to dress for the weather (mud gear, rain gear, clothes to get wet in).

Parents enjoy letting us give their children sensory experiences with all the mess!

Dramatic Play in Preschool

When polling preschoolers about what the like the best about preschool, most will say “playing with my friends.” Dramatic play areas in a preschool are stations set up with a rotating theme that allows imagination play such as house, veterinarian clinic, baby nursery, pumpkin patch, Christmas tree stand, holiday bakery, and coffee shop. It often includes props and dress up items to match. Additionally, areas are labeled with words (feed your baby) and pictures (a bottle) to encourage early literacy.

At Wild Acorns, we believe that dramatic play areas encourage cooperative play, creative ideas, and imagining with friends. There is extended time each day for children to set up their worlds and enjoy them.