Hands-On Making Constellations Sensory Bin
Space is one theme you can do at almost any time. There is always something you can do. It can be as simple as walking outside and looking at the moon and stars.
My girls have been interested in stars for a long time. My husband put stars on their ceiling in their room, and they love it. It is fun to see them look at the stars there at night when the lights are turned out.
I thought it would be fun to bring that love stars out for them.
One of our favorite books about the stars has been Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations
We had fun with this constellation sensory bin because it was a great fine motor and sensory all at the same time. The rocks were great for a small weight on the fingers and worked on the grasping. It was an easy way to work on fine motor skills while having fun.
What you need for this activity:
My older girls can read the books all on their own now. So they read the stories out loud first. It was a good way for me to check their reading and pronunciation. For my youngest, I read the stories to her.
After they read the story on the page, they made the matching animal constellation in the bin.
They made the constellations two different ways. They each had their choice of how they would do it.
The first way was the just made the constellation in the bin and match as best as they could to the picture. This gave them thoughts about space and how they would make it all fit in the bin.
The second way we did it was to first match the rocks to the page and then put it in the bin. The second way had more fine motor movements and still was fun. My youngest loves to put some type of action on the page while she is reading. We did a similar activity with 10 Black Dots.
We also talked about the different names each animal has. The story is about the great bear and how that is Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. We also talked about how they are a part of the big dipper and little dipper.
There is a great map at the back of the book of the stars for the northern and southern hemispheres. This is book and bin is great for all the space love kids out there.
Check out the other space and star themed activities:
- Space Themed Finds: ABC, Number Shape & Sight Words
- Making Constellations
- Space Water Bead Sensory Bin
- Easy Galaxy Oil Pastel Painting
- Easy To Make Torn Paper Planets
Be sure to check out all the Space Activities & Printables on 3 Dinosaurs.
Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com