What can you put in your sensory bin, or use for practicing everyday tasks for pouring or transferring activities?
What are some advantages and disadvantages and what do you have to keep in mind?
Introduction
The sky is the limit - you can basically use almost anything.
There are three groups of materials with their respective advantages and disadvantges. How to dye the materials will be covered in a seperate section to keep this short and neat.
dyeing information properties of the material, tactile experience tips
food stuff
- + cheap
- + easy to get
- + usually easy to dye
- + compostable
- + some edible
- - ethical concerns because food is made for eating (however most are good to use forever - if stored in an airtight container, and you could use expired goods)
- Pasta
- easy to dye
- rough to smooth
- Beans
- dyeable
- smooth and cool
- Chicken peas
- easy to dye
- slightly rough and warm
- Corn
- dyeable
- smooth with pointy end, quite heavy, cool
- Rice
- easy to dye
- easy to rill, slightly rough, sometimes pointy
- Grain (spelt, oat, ...)
- dyeable
- slightly rough, sometimes pointy
- Oatflakes
- dyeable
- slightly rough, very lightweight
- Semolina, Couscous, Polenta
- easy to rill, slightly rough, quite heavy
- Salt
- dyeable
- easy to rill, rough and can stick to hands, because it's hygroscope
- Tapioka
- limitedly dyeable
- wet, a little bit sticky, soft
- Water
- dyeable
- Whipped cream
- dyeable
- wet, soft, smooth
Natural materials
- + available everywhere
- + cheap
- + compostable
- - some with limited shelf life
- Chestnuts, acorns, hazelnuts, walnuts
- smooth and cool
- Wood (twigs, slices)
- rough to smooth and warm
- Spruce cone, beechnut
- rough and warm
- Leaves
- smooth and cool, sometimes rough
- Grass and moss
- smooth and soft and cool
- Earth
- slightly wet, soft to rough
- Stones and gravel
- cold and smooth to slightly rough
- Sand
- dyeable
- easy to rill, rough
- Shells
- cool and smooth
- Straw
- smooth to pointy, warm
- cherry stone
- can be made warm
- quite smooth, lukewarm
- Feathers
- leicht, weich und flauschig
- Schnee und Eis(Würfel)
- kalt, feucht, weich oder glatt
Non-food
- + some recycled materials
- + some can be reused
- + mostly unlimited shelflife
- + some very cheap
- - many non-compostable
- - some are hard to come by or expensive
- (Wooden) Beads
- smooth and warm
- Buttons
- can be used for threading activities
- Wooden cubes / small blocks
- easy to dye
- can be used for building
- Wool, threads, fabric scraps, cotton wool
- soft and warm
- Paper, scraps of paper
- lightweight and warm
- Packaging material (styrofoam)
- lightweight and slightly rough
- Water beads
- dyeable
- wet, smooth and cool
- there are various sizes
- Glassnuggets, marbles
- smooth and cool
- Pompoms
- smooth and warm
- Bird sand
- easy to rill, slightly rough
- Kinetic sand
- you can make your own or buy it
- rough, slightly wet
- Straws (in pieces or whole)
- smooth and warm
- Lego
- cool and smooth
- Pearler beads
- can be used for threading activities or to make patterns
- Colored gravel
- slightly rough
- Instant snow
- slightly wet and smooth
- you can cool it in the fridge
- Shaving foam
- dyeable
- wett, smooth, soft