4th of July Sensory Bin with Colored Rice

Liam has been so enthusiastic lately with activities so last night I dyed some more rice and created an invitation to play on his work table! We have been talking about the 4th of July this week since next week we will be on vacation and celebrating the 4th with fireworks. We have been talking about the United States of America, the flag, fireworks and the country’s birthday!

He saw these bells and flags when I was looking around 3 Dinosaurs 4th of July pack (here). From the same pack, we also printed out a coloring sheet, a shape tracing sheet and pre-writing sheets that he did with his therapist today.

Of course, you must have a red, white and blue sensory bin for the 4th! I have been letting him construct them himself these days. He likes that part of the sensory bin and letting him put it together gets him a little more involved and invested in the whole idea of the theme. We can talk about the things he adds and what he is doing with them. I can usually get him to count out different things with me too. With this one, after we decided it looked like the flag, he asked if he could mess it up and I happily obliged!

After he was finished playing around in his bin, we looked at the flag and bell cut outs and put them in oder by size. He wanted to do some glueing, so I got a piece of paper (at least my scrapbook supplies are coming in handy for something these days) and we glued on the flags and some birthday confetti for the flag’s birthday. He wanted to make more fireworks and since we had the colored rice right there, I suggested we place the rice on the glue. (Glitter is still everywhere so I thought I would skip it today.) Here’s our finished work.

Although I would like to step away more and let him interact with the materials on his own, he needs a great deal of guidance and motivation every step of the way. I am resolved to being as interactive as he needs me to be without compromising his ideas for the activity. Creating an aversion to play is something I just can’t have and I know many days we walk a thin line. It can be hard to sit back and follow his lead (since he wants you right there each minute) but I am learning to do so as we are interacting together.

Happy 4th of July to everyone! How do you celebrate the country’s birthday?