Does your kiddo like animals? My 4 year old loves animals. And I mean L-O-V-E-S them! He carries them around in a basket, or a backpack or a construction hat (you use what you can, I guess!) and inserts them into all of his play. Blocks turn into a zoo, magnetic tiles become an animal train, and the play house turns into an animal house whenever that cutie is around! When I am creating activities for my littles, I like to use materials they are interested in. By using their interests, they are automatically more excited about the activity! So, naturally, I decided to create an animal activity for my animal lover. This Sensory Bin Animal Match was a perfect set-up for him (and the 2 year old as well!).
I got this wonderful animal figure and card set and it was perfect for this activity. My littles already love sensory play, and combined with animals? I knew this activity would be a hit.
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Materials
- Montessori animal figure and card set
- Large bag of rice
- Sensory Bin
- Cookie sheet
- Tongs
Set up
1. Add a large bag or rice to your sensory bin. You can use as much or as little as you’d like! If your kiddo is new to rice bins, I would begin with enough to cover the bottom about 1-2 inches deep. It can get messy if rice is thrown from the bin, and you don’t want to have a giant mess to clean up (wink, wink).
2. Place each animal in the rice bin (your little can help with this step if you’d like)!
3. Place the animal cards on the cookie sheet so that every animal is visible.
4. Hand your sweetie the tongs and ask them to match the animals to the cards!
Related: Have a little animal lover? Check this out for the perfect activity!
The best part about this sensory set up (besides the fact that animals were involved)? Fine motor practice! Fine motor skills are so incredibly important in the toddler years. As a Kindergarten teacher, I whole-heartedly believe that the more fine motor practice a child receives as a toddler, the easier the transition to writing will be in Kindergarten. And when I say fine motor practice, I am not talking about writing practice. I’m talking about:
- Strength through clamping tongs, squishing play dough, tearing paper, and squeezing slime.
- Coordination through peeling stickers, threading beads, and zipping zippers.
- Stamina through coloring with crayons, painting, and gluing gems.
This activity brings in a bit of each fine motor element mentioned above. Using tongs to pick up each animal and place it on the correct card requires ample strength, coordination, and stamina. Add to that the fact that your kiddos will be learning about animals AND matching them to the correct pictures? It’s a clear winner!
Play Time!
My kiddos did this activity over, and over, and over again! They just love using the tongs to grab each animal. And the concentration, oh the concentration on each of their sweet faces just amazed me. They were deep in focus-mode concentrating on each little animal. It was so much fun to watch.
As for my oldest? He, of course, loved the animal play! I’ve always said that he will probably become some sort of zoologist, marine biologist, veterinarian or wildlife something or other when he grows up. I’m sure that 4 is too young to tell, but for his age, he is definitely a little animal expert!
So, if you have a little animal lover in your life, go grab those animals and throw them in a sensory bin!
What animal activity does your child enjoy most?
Check out our Easy Animal Sort for more animal fun!
