Counting Stars Sensory Bin for Math Skills

Yesterday I shared with you the DIY book that we made for counting to 3 and I promised that I would share what we did with the book. Well, here it is!! I put together a super fun counting stars sensory bin for math skills that was just perfect for the counting book. In fact, I had to stay home from church because my oldest was sick and when Shiloh walked in the house and saw the bin, she immediately dove into it.

Shiloh loved the fact that her book had the same kind of stars that were in the sensory bin. It was not only a great counting lesson for her, but also a great matching activity. She has a fantastic memory, but she tends to play with things in the way that she was shown the first time she was exposed to it, so I’m working hard to expand her play skills by giving her new objects to interact with (like the book).

This is the first time we have used a book directly in relation to a sensory bin and it was a hit! I can foresee us doing lots more of these in the future, so stay tuned!

Materials we used in the Counting Stars Sensory Bin:

3 pounds of lentils

Glitter washable paint

Sequins

Several kinds of stars

3 cupcake liners (turned inside-out)

The first thing I did was ‘paint’ the lentils to make them sparkly. I just dumped a bunch of paint on them and stirred it in. I put it away overnight to dry and stirred it several times while it was drying. You will need to separate the big clumps of lentils by hand once they are dry.

I found that the paint I used didn’t really add much color to the lentils, but the glitter showed through very well. In the future I will probably just stick to the same method that I used to create the space rocks.

After the lentils were dry, I put together the rest of the bin. I sprinkled the stars throughout the bin and labeled the cupcake liners with the numbers 1, 2 and 3 to coordinate with the book.

Then I let Shiloh loose! She reached for the book first and started comparing the different kinds of stars that she saw. I was also super excited to hear her say ‘star’ without any prompting. If you’ve read any of my other posts about Shiloh, you will know that this is a big thing for her!

She put stars into the cupcake liners as I counted and then she served me star tea. She was super pleased when I took a ‘sip’.

I tried really hard to get you some good pictures of her playing, but she was moving too fast and they all turned out blurry. She had a blast and I hope that you will make it for your kids, so they can enjoy it as much as she did!

Here’s the tutorial for the counting book in case you missed it!

Other sensory bins that you might enjoy!