If you all are anything like me you’re printing a ton of resources to use in your classroom and there are paper scraps everywhere. Literally. I had recently created a task for my students using astrobright paper and looked at all those bright, beautiful scraps and thought to myself “There has to be something I can do with these extra pieces.” And not much later that’s when it hit me, toss these scraps into my sensory bin!
I have students who love to snip paper and rip paper. Giving them an outlet to do those things was a great idea! I put the scraps, a few trinkets, and a couple pairs of scissors (I had a pretty safe and responsible class at the time) into my sensory bin and let students have a go at it! Some students enjoyed sorting out paper by color. Other students liked to take the scissors and snip the paper. Others even liked to “make it rain” in our sensory box. I even had one student who would take the strips of paper to build letters of the alphabet.
If you’re looking for what is seriously the EASIEST sensory bin ever, you’ve found it! Grab all those scraps you’re not going to be able to reuse in art projects and toss them in your sensory bin. You’ll be surprised with what your students come up with!
Hi! I just found your blog and love it! I am a MOId teacher and I have a few students with Autism. I have one student that rips up everything around him when he is agitated. Would it be good to have a small bin of paper on his side of the table to rip up when he is agitated?
Yes! That would be a great idea. Pair it with identifying the emotion. It could definitely be part of a calm down system for your student.
I have a great sensory bin made from a water table but, my students K-1st love to climb in it? What can I do to stop them from doing this?
Diana,
I would use a combination of visual rules (feet on floor, hands in bin, etc.) and reinforcement of those rules (token, tangible, edible, etc.).