Teletherapy Sensory Bin

 I learned so much from the Five Day Osmo Challenge last week!  One thing that I have never made before was a sensory bin (to be honest all the sand/rice or whatever most fill them kinda grosses me out with all the kids touching it and it makes a mess).  But, Felice from The Dabbling Speechie shared her ideas for a teletherapy sensory bin which included colored straws and I thought my little ones would love it!  Plus, now that we're all learning from home I am the only one touching the items for now. So, I ordered some supplies, and here is what I came up with! 


I will use the Osmo as a Document Camera again to share the bin over teletherapy.  I ordered milkshake straws from amazon and cut them up,  I also ordered some foam magnets (because I can use those in other ways too and I already had the fruits/vegetables set).  I also ordered the paper basket from amazon too, it's made by Really Good Stuff. 


First, I cut the straws into thirds.  I love how colorful they are! 


Then I popped all the magnets out of the little sheets they came in.  Here are the sets I bought.  I wanted a variety of food, animals, vehicles, and occupations so I could target a variety of skills. In the past I have used mini-magnets to answer WH- questions, sort into categories, name object function, generate sentences, and describe! The purple box in the middle is an ABC magnet set that had some additional objects which I thought would be good for targeting object function. 


Here's what those ABC magnets look like, they are pretty big which makes them easier to see with the Osmo for little ones and they are nice and thick.


Here are all the other magnets!  I thought about organizing them in some kind of container but the boxes have pictures of all the magnets included on the back and I thought that may be a nice thing to reference quickly during therapy. 


Then, I hooked up the Osmo to my computer, choose some magnets/pictures for the bin, and was ready to go!  I was very intentional on which magnets I chose and how I placed them in the bin.  I want the kids to be able to see them but also make it a little bit of a guessing game. To get a full view of the sensory bin with the Osmo I did use a box to prop it up a little higher.  


I ended up buying more magnets instead of more mini-objects or using picture cards (which you could totally use too) because I knew I would use them in other ways than just in the sensory bin.  This is a cheap cookie sheet from the Dollar Tree.  I have quite a few kiddos working on categories so I think this activity will be a good one! Another idea would be to pick a magnet, put it in the middle, and make a "bubble map" around it to describe with adjectives.  



I still want to incorporate toys in some way with my preschoolers.  Not being able to play is one of the hardest aspects of teletherapy for me. So, I also got out some of my Little People animals to put in the sensory bin too.  These are much larger than the magnets so they take up more room but are definitely easier for the kids to see.  This is a great option for really little ones who may not want to really scan the screen for objects in the bin. You could also skip the sensory bin altogether with them in a box like this.  For one group, I just gave some clues about the animal I saw out of the camera view for the student and they made guesses.  Then, I pulled it out of the box to show them.  We talked about where it lives, what sound it makes and it's name once they saw it. 



And one more way I plan to use the bin is with my Articulation Mini-Objects for my older kids.  These are pretty small so the kids will really have to search to find whatever I have them searching for. But I like how I can include objects with different speech sounds for mixed groups.  I did take out some of the straws with the mini-objects to help see them a little bit better.  If you don't have an Osmo or document camera, you could set up the bin with the mini-objects and take a picture of it. Then, project the picture for the students during your group and see what they can find!




That is how I plan to get started with a Teletherapy Sensory Bin!  As I think of different ways to use the bin I will be sure to share! 

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