Sensory bins are incredibly fun educational tools that inspire tactile learning by engaging a child’s senses as they rummage around to find what is within the container, what each object feels like, and how they can all interact with one another.
A lot of the time, parents and teachers will place small pieces of fruit inside a sensory bin since it’s a great way to familiarize children with the texture, smell, and taste of certain foods which they are going to be consuming on a regular basis, and using as part of different recipes as they grow older.
Peaches are one of the most popular foods that will commonly be found in sensory bins, specifically because of their unique texture.
They don’t feel too soft or mushy, so you won’t have to worry about your child accidentally crushing them and making a mess since peaches tend to be a lot firmer so they can be gently squeezed without juice flying everywhere.
If you’re thinking of creating your own sensory bin, we’ve got a few tips on how you can incorporate peaches, along with what other objects and foods are the best to pair with it.
How To Make A Peach Sensory Bin
There are two main types of sensory bins that will work well by incorporating peaches into the mixture, and the reason they both work better than the others comes down to the underlying layer used to form the basis of the bin, and the other toys, objects, and foods that surround the container, so without further ado, let’s take a look at both of them in closer detail right now!
Method 1: Water Filled Peach Sensory Bin
What You Will Need:
1 large metal or plastic bin
4 or 5 straws
4 or 5 plastic cups
Small pieces of sliced fruits (including the peaches)
Water droppers
Food coloring (optional)
Step1
Fill up the tub with cold water, and if you want the color to be a little more exciting and vibrant, don’t be afraid to drop in some food coloring so that it can blend in with the eye-catching fruits floating around.
Step 2
Slice up your fruit, including the peaches, and proceed by resting them on the water bed so that they can float around without sinking.
Step 3
You will then want to insert the straws, cups, and water droppers into the container, preferably around the outside of the fruit which should remain in the middle since this will signify to the child what should be at the center of their attention, along with making the sensory bin a lot tidier and more organized.
Activities To Try Out
Try and encourage the kids to scoop out the fruit using a spoon or a scooper, and then place them into the cups.
Younger children will already have a lot of fun scooping out the fruit at random, but if you want to make things slightly more challenging, you can ask them to sort the fruits into different cups, and then determine which cup has the most at the end.
Since sensory bins are all about engaging the senses, you can also ask the kids to take a sip of their lemonade or peach juice using the straws and see which descriptive words they use to set each cup apart.
You can also encourage the children to remove one fruit from each cup after they have all been collected so that they can gain an understanding of how their textures differ too.
Method 2: Dyed Rice Filler Peach Sensory Bin
What You Will Need:
Dyed rice filler
A handful of sliced fruit (including the peaches)
Laminated fruit cards
Step 1
Start by creating the base using the colorful dyed rice.
This will immediately make the sensory bin a lot more noticeable and appealing to play with as soon as the kids lay their eyes on it, but it’s when they actually start interacting with it that they can have the most fun when they are met with several different types of small fruits all resting alongside one another in the center of the container.
Step 2
Be sure to place the fruit cards around the outside of the bin and facing inwards so that the games are much more organized and easier to follow for the kids.
All you will need to put on these counters is the name of the fruit and a picture, or if you really want to engage their visual attention, you can simply put a picture of the fruit to encourage them to pick out the correct ones through appearance alone.
Activities To Try Out
One easy activity you can play with the kids is to organize the fruits (see also: 24 Fruit Loop Activities)with their corresponding picture which should be somewhere around the outside of the bin, but before the fruit is placed down, the children must use a word to describe what it feels or tastes like.
If you want to ramp the difficulty of this game up a notch, you could even make it so a descriptive word must be used each time a fruit is placed down, even if it’s the same food, but you are not allowed to describe it with a word you have used previously.
Another fun activity that works well for younger children who may not yet be comfortable with talking or using many words is simply placing the fruit with the corresponding cards and their pictures.
The challenge here comes from the fact that the fruit has been split up, so the child will have to use their visual interpretation of the size and color of the fruit to understand what it actually is.
This game works best when you have a range of fruits that look vastly different from one another, such as pairing up cucumber, peaches, and strawberries, for example.
Summary
The firm and sturdy texture of peaches makes them a great type of food for children to handle in a sensory bin, especially when you combine them with other small fruits and set up some immersive and educational games and activities for the kids to get stuck into!
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