Exploring Frogs Through Frog Pond Sensory Play
Our frog pond theme this week presented itself with a few different opportunities to use a variety of sensory bins and sensory play to play with all our froggy things! We even went outside to soak up some fresh air and engage with nature too! Also a great time to put together a Nature Sensory Bin! Frog pond sensory play is everywhere, even on a nature walk! Liam enjoys a variety of frog pond sensory bins so I used water beads, aquarium rocks and just plain water as sensory bin fillers for exploring frogs! Make sure to check out all our favorite sensory bin fillers!
Frog Pond Table Set Up
Discovery tables are fun to set up and have many activities to explore like our new frog pond table. I am trying to encourage a bit of independent play and having different things to explore keeps his attention longer! I set out a couple different frog pond sensory bins, frogs, scoops, mini net, books, a bug box and a magnifying glass for looking around at the frogs! I also made a couple simple activities for patterning and fine motor skills. I made my own pattern cards with a dot marker. An egg carton helps keep it organized! I also gathered some small items, tweezers and a, ice cube tray for sorting.
Frog Pond Sensory Play
Here are some close up pictures of the two frog pond sensory bins. The first one is filled with the water beads that had yet shrink back to size from our boat play over a month ago. They had gotten smaller but not by much so I filled them back up again, cut some lily pads from foam paper, added plastic letter tiles for F R O G, and lastly added a great set of plastic frogs! I supplied him with a container and a net for catching his frogs!
Water Beads Frog Pond Sensory Bin
Count the frogs and identify the letters in the frog pond sensory bin!
Aquarium Rocks Frog Pond Sensory Bin
I had a bag of blue and green mixed aquarium rock already put aside for a frog pond. I had this great little birch log and a different set of frogs from the party store. Liam really enjoys the rhyme about 5 speckled frogs sitting on a log so I thought I would use this sensory bin to go along with it and I wrote it out on a paper lily pad. This frog pond sensory bin also had the dragon flys for the frogs to as well as wooden fish, ducks and a mix of beads pom poms, and tiny rock! This frog pond sensory bin was great for filling, sorting and dumping.
Water Frog Pond Sensory Bin Play
Since I love to put together sensory bins or different types of sensory play, I made him an outdoor frog pond complete with water, rocks, lily pads (a foam sheet cut into lily pads), fish, frogs, a diver and a fishing pole.
Take a nature walk for more frog pond sensory play! Look, listen, smell and touch what’s all around you. We explored ponds, streams, real lily pads, and of course delighted in seeing real frogs in their habitats, frog ponds.
A frog pond sensory play theme week wouldn’t be complete without a great trip to one. A beautiful park not far from our house has wonderful gardens, ducks, ponds, mini waterfalls, bridges and more. It is perfect for little legs as there are so many things to see and explore without a huge amount of walking. Throwing rocks into the stream was the highlight. I overheard Liam telling his friend about making a dam. I was so proud he remembered and obviously understood what we had showed him a couple of weeks ago!
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Angela @ Teaching Mama
This is adorable! I love all these ideas. Off to pin!
littlebins
Thank you! There are so many good ideas out there I wish we could have done so many more but I am not sure how long his attention would hold on frogs. Think I see a fire truck theme this week!
annette @ A Net In Time
sounds like some good learning was accomplished and even fun had! 🙂
Andrea @ No Doubt Learning
I love the lily pads in your sensory bin. We had frogs in our old backyard…it’s so much fun for kids to learn about them!
littlebins
Thanks! The foam sheets are great for lily pads! I was so excited we got to see my in laws big frog last night. It finished off the week nicely since the pond we visited seemed to be frog free but at least had real lily pads. go figure!
Ramblings of a not so average military wife and mom
My daughter loves sensory activities and this looks amazing, I especially like the outdoor water table since I have started running out of water ideas, Thanks for linking up on teach me Tuesday
Ramblings of a not so average military wife and mom
also wanted to let you know I subscribed can’t wait to see more 🙂
littlebins
AWESOME!
Carla
I love all these pond ideas…I need to make some bins like that for my kids–they would love them!! And the trip to the pond looks like so much fun! Thanks for sharing it at Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets!!
littlebins
Bins are so much fun. Thanks for taking a look! Pond trips are always a big hit!
Enchanted Schoolroom
I made a pond bin just like your second one with the aquarium rock!! But it has been played with and dismantled since. I have to get a water table! Looks like so much fun.
Love your whole theme!
littlebins
Yes a water table is a good summer thing to have but we have done wonders with a rubbermaid container outside too! My guy likes when things are at waist height. He plays better!
Stephanie @ DIscovery Days
Wow! What a great theme! I love all the frog work! If you have a moment, stop by my blog. We do Montessori theme work too and I may have some things you would like to see! Oh and I think field trips are the perfect way to making learning better! We just finished a botany study here and ended it with a trip to the botanical gardens! Perfect! Happy Schooling!
http://discoverymoments.com/
littlebins
Going to head over and read more about what you do. Thanks so much for checking out our frog pond activities this week! We are planning a farm trip at the end of the week and I have put out a farm theme to explore. Stay tuned!
jaime@FSPDT
featured on kids co-op:-) http://frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtails-jaime.blogspot.com/2013/05/sensory-play-and-learning-activities.html
littlebins
Thank you so much. All of these resources are so awesome.
Kirstylee
I absolutely love that second sensory bin. What a great idea to use aquarium rocks! I am the worst at coming up with ideas for sensory bins, so I am really grateful to the internet and people like you who have great ideas. Good luck with your goals for the summer. It sounds like you’re an amazing mom. 🙂
littlebins
Thank you so much and I bet you are too from the looks of it! I have two more posts out about top 10 sensory bin fillers and top 10 sensory bin goodies. Lots of good ideas in one place. Stop by anytime!
Sugar Aunts
LOVE each activity 🙂
Carrie
What wonderful lessons about frogs. I love the bins! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
JDaniel4's Mom
I have pinned both your indoor and outdoor bins! What wonderful places to play!
littlebins
Awesome! Hope you will visit often!
Ashley
Adorable froggy ideas! I love the table set up; I really should start setting things up like that for my little guy to explore. Guess I need to work on being more organized!