Hello friends!
I have another MOST exciting versatile tool for my trunk...
Sensory Vocabulary Bin
or as I like to call it...
I got this idea from a few different pinterest pins I read last week. I found out about these super awesome things called "Toobs;" you can see what they are here but I don't necessarily recommend buying them from here... I'll get to that. The reason I like these is because they are small, reasonably priced, and realistic looking (vs cartoon-like).
I ended up purchasing the flowers, down on the farm, rainforest, fruits and vegetables, wild animals, and dinosaurs. I'm still torn on if I need the dinosaurs and I may end up taking them back; I think have some boys that would enjoy them but they didn't open up as many vocab opportunities as I was hoping - mainly due to my lack of dino knowledge and the fact that many of them don't have ASL signs that I know.
I bought my Toobs at Michael's. I wish I could get some money from Michael's because I will be telling everyone about this!! If you don't already know, Michael's gives teachers a 15% discount every day with your teacher ID - I think it even takes it off sale items but I can't be sure. Also, if you pay attention, there will sometimes be a 60% off one item coupon; there is often a 50% and if not there is always a 40% off. [I spend a lot of time at Michael's for lettering stuff :-P] If you patiently collect your Toobs, you could get the toobs for $4 a piece everytime there is a 60% coupon! I was impatient, and so I just used a 40% off and my teacher discount. You could realistically use any small toy sets, but I have not found any that I like so much. I will probably be stalking Michael's to see if they get any new sets I want whenever there is a 60% off coupon available.
I took all the Toobs, dumped them in a container my husband was ready to give away, dumped in a $1ish bag of pinto beans, and gave it a shake. Ready to go.
The options are virtually endless for how to use this vocabulary bin. Here are just the ones I have done in the week or so since I've starting using mine:
-Grouping/categorization: Have students pull out every toy in the box and make their own groups. Regroup them based on something else. Clean them up using different similarities.
-Compare/Contrast: Give two or three objects and have students tell what is the same and what is different. I also combined this with remembering details - I would ask for two things with different color or the same color but different groups. There is a lot of expansion that can be done!
-Function: "What do you do with a flower? What does the bird do?"
-Wh- questions: Where do you see the lion? What does a farmer do? Who takes care of the cow and pig? Where do you see an artichoke? ... on and on :)
-Following directions/remembering critical elements in a message: "Put the bird next to the barn." "Give me the bananas, orange flower, and cow." "Touch the blue bird after you make the red frog jump."
-Related descriptors: "Find the one we eat, it is yellow, and it has a peel." "Find the one that has four legs, roars, and has a mane."
-Describing: What does it look like? What are its parts? Where would you see this? etc...
-Reward that turns into another lesson: For the pre-k friend in the picture above, he got the bin as a reward before we jumped into the vocab part. He is working on letter naming, so we did little flashcards and when he answered the card using his voice or copying the fingerspelling picture on the card, he got to grab a toy really fast (I would count down from three). Then at the end we used this smaller set of toys to work on categories and various wh- questions.
There are so many more skills from the Auditory Learning Guide, CASLLS, and our curriculum based language checklists that the sensory bin can address. On top of this, as soon as I introduced this to my students this week, their language just BOOMED! They were so excited (because digging in the beans is FUN), and almost all of them were displaying language constructs I had not even seen during our sessions until I put this in front of them. That's why I call it the Bin of Teaching Magic. I am convinced I need more sensory things in my life, because it brought out such beautiful language in my little friends.
Do any of you have sensory bins? What kind of language skills can you address? Where do you get your items? Teach me more!! I'm so excited to utilize this in our sessions!
Until next time...
I have another MOST exciting versatile tool for my trunk...
Sensory Vocabulary Bin
or as I like to call it...
My Bin of Teaching Magic
 |
| My friend is showing me the flower she found! |
I got this idea from a few different pinterest pins I read last week. I found out about these super awesome things called "Toobs;" you can see what they are here but I don't necessarily recommend buying them from here... I'll get to that. The reason I like these is because they are small, reasonably priced, and realistic looking (vs cartoon-like).
I ended up purchasing the flowers, down on the farm, rainforest, fruits and vegetables, wild animals, and dinosaurs. I'm still torn on if I need the dinosaurs and I may end up taking them back; I think have some boys that would enjoy them but they didn't open up as many vocab opportunities as I was hoping - mainly due to my lack of dino knowledge and the fact that many of them don't have ASL signs that I know.
I bought my Toobs at Michael's. I wish I could get some money from Michael's because I will be telling everyone about this!! If you don't already know, Michael's gives teachers a 15% discount every day with your teacher ID - I think it even takes it off sale items but I can't be sure. Also, if you pay attention, there will sometimes be a 60% off one item coupon; there is often a 50% and if not there is always a 40% off. [I spend a lot of time at Michael's for lettering stuff :-P] If you patiently collect your Toobs, you could get the toobs for $4 a piece everytime there is a 60% coupon! I was impatient, and so I just used a 40% off and my teacher discount. You could realistically use any small toy sets, but I have not found any that I like so much. I will probably be stalking Michael's to see if they get any new sets I want whenever there is a 60% off coupon available.
I took all the Toobs, dumped them in a container my husband was ready to give away, dumped in a $1ish bag of pinto beans, and gave it a shake. Ready to go.
 |
| My pre-k friend playing with the sensory bin for the first time. |
The options are virtually endless for how to use this vocabulary bin. Here are just the ones I have done in the week or so since I've starting using mine:
-Grouping/categorization: Have students pull out every toy in the box and make their own groups. Regroup them based on something else. Clean them up using different similarities.
-Compare/Contrast: Give two or three objects and have students tell what is the same and what is different. I also combined this with remembering details - I would ask for two things with different color or the same color but different groups. There is a lot of expansion that can be done!
-Function: "What do you do with a flower? What does the bird do?"
-Wh- questions: Where do you see the lion? What does a farmer do? Who takes care of the cow and pig? Where do you see an artichoke? ... on and on :)
-Following directions/remembering critical elements in a message: "Put the bird next to the barn." "Give me the bananas, orange flower, and cow." "Touch the blue bird after you make the red frog jump."
-Related descriptors: "Find the one we eat, it is yellow, and it has a peel." "Find the one that has four legs, roars, and has a mane."
-Describing: What does it look like? What are its parts? Where would you see this? etc...
-Reward that turns into another lesson: For the pre-k friend in the picture above, he got the bin as a reward before we jumped into the vocab part. He is working on letter naming, so we did little flashcards and when he answered the card using his voice or copying the fingerspelling picture on the card, he got to grab a toy really fast (I would count down from three). Then at the end we used this smaller set of toys to work on categories and various wh- questions.
There are so many more skills from the Auditory Learning Guide, CASLLS, and our curriculum based language checklists that the sensory bin can address. On top of this, as soon as I introduced this to my students this week, their language just BOOMED! They were so excited (because digging in the beans is FUN), and almost all of them were displaying language constructs I had not even seen during our sessions until I put this in front of them. That's why I call it the Bin of Teaching Magic. I am convinced I need more sensory things in my life, because it brought out such beautiful language in my little friends.
 |
| The bird apparently wanted to eat a bean in addition to whatever is already in his mouth. |
Do any of you have sensory bins? What kind of language skills can you address? Where do you get your items? Teach me more!! I'm so excited to utilize this in our sessions!
Until next time...
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