October Sensory Box: Autumn and Apples

My absolute favorite part of every month is putting together a new sensory box for the kids!  Everyday materials become fascinating when viewed through the eyes of a child.

Note: If you aren't familiar with the concept of sensory boxes, a quick description: a sensory box is a container filled with various objects and materials of different types and textures that children are allowed to explore with their hands, eyes, and other senses (as appropriate for the materials, of course).  They are a great way for children to engage with their environment and develop their sensory perceptions.  It's also a great way to expose children to various objects they might not have a chance to interact with in their day-to-day lives. 

For October, our sensory box theme is "autumn and apples".

The base of our sensory box this month is hay, which was DEFIANTLY a new experience for my kids.  "Bigger bit" was especially puzzled by it. 

Our box this month is filled with:

- wooden apples.  (These came from the craft store, I believe they were originally intended as vase filler of some sort.)

- glass acorns, which came in a variety of sizes and colors (also from the craft store)

-  cinnamon-scented pine cones.  The cinnamon scent is an added layer of sensory experience for them, and I love that the house smells like cinnamon after we open the box!

- red pompoms.  There are quite a few different varieties in there.. shiny, plain, big, small.  "The princess" likes to pull out all the pompoms and sort them into various categories. 

- Rocks.  Hard to see these, as they are mostly underneath the pine cones, but they are in there.  The super smooth of the rocks is a nice contrast to the pokey pine cones. 

- Fake leaves.  (I just grabbed packages of 50 from the dollar store, tried to get a variety of colors and a few different shapes)

- Red pipe cleaners.  I bent these around so that "bigger bit" wouldn't poke herself with them. 

- Pieces of red fabric.  I have a few scraps of red leather left over from a project, red felt, red foam, and red silk in there. 

- A sheet of moss, cut into pieces (it's used in floral design, I assume.  You can see it in the upper corner of the picture, near the acorns).  

Other things: 

- a few small paper plates.  We always include these because "Bub" likes to arrange a variety of items into small piles on a paper plate, so that he can go from object to object and examine everything. 

- wooden boxes divided into compartments.  Each box (standing against the sides of the tub) is divided into 9 square compartments.  Good for sorting, one-to-one correspondence, etc.  

- spoons, scoops, etc.  Just a variety of whatever I toss in so they can scoop/spoon/transfer items as they want. 

Bub hunted through for the small shiny pompoms right away, and started putting one in each compartment of the wooden tray.  

"Bigger bit" was just perplexed by the hay!  She's seen it at the zoo and other places, but she was so fascinated by touching it!  She kept picking up one piece of hay, examining it, then putting it down again.  

Linking up to Montessori Monday!