Construction Site Sensory Bin Gift

I LOVE making homemade gifts for my friends and their kids. A friends' son turned 4 and for his birthday I made him a construction site small world sensory bin. It was so easy to setup and I found everything at Walmart. I was running low on time so I couldn't go home to use any of the items I already had so I purchased everything at Walmart, although altogether was still very reasonable. The sand and rocks were found in the aquarium/fish section. The large rocks and colored rocks were found in the floral section.  I added a tin bucket and funnel and also some styrofoam balls which if I had more time I would have painted grey or black. The trucks were purchased in a pack and I threw in some nuts, bolts, and washers as well.  

I purchased a medium/large size plastic storage container and used black and yellow duct tape to decorate the top of the box. I didn't want to write on the lid so they could reuse the container for something else later. 

Click the links below to see some of the other 

Homemade Gifts I've given in the past! 

-Miniature Dinosaur Garden

-Homemade Slime in Mason Jars 

-Magnet Exploration Bucket

-Fairy Garden in a Planter Pot

-Coffee Can Stilts

-Treasure Rocks

More Ways to Follow the Fun!

Tracing Bottle Caps and Lids to Make an Outline Matching Activity/Puzzle

We have a huge lid and bottle cap collection that we play with often and in so many different ways. This was one of our newest activities where I simply traced them in different ways onto many different sheets of paper, so the boys could match them up with their outlines. I did many simple patterns for my youngest (almost 2) and some more difficult ones for my oldest (almost 5).  I traced them on cardstock to make them sturdier so we could save them, but i'll eventually get them laminated as well. This activity was a huge hit with both boys, and it was a great way to demonstrate and talk about circles, colors, counting, big/medium/small, as well as working on fine motor skills! It's also great to use as a busy bag!

I started with a few super simple ones for Little B. 

To keep it more simple for B, I gave him the lids/caps that matched each card. 

It was a great way to work on BIG/LITTLE. 

I was SO surprised at how precise he was putting the lids exactly within the circles they belonged!

And on this one we worked on BIG/MEDIUM/SMALL, 

as well as counting the number of circles and lids. 

Lots of my lids were the same size, but different colors, 

which made it more visually interesting. 

I made a few more difficult patters for L, 

and then I also just gave him the whole collection for him to sort through to look for the best fit to match. 

This one was the grand finale for my oldest!

More Ways to Follow the Fun!