Jello Sensory Bin

I have been trying to get back into doing my messy sensory bins lately, because they are the most fun for the kids and because I would much rather do them outside that inside!  I had a ton of Jello boxes in my pantry and had just been waiting for something to do with them.  Alas, JELLO SENSORY BIN!

  

Grab all the Jello you have and different sized and shaped containers.  Make all your Jello the night before!



I tried using ice cube trays too, it didn't really work, so I wouldn't waste your time!

Next, get the container you usually do sensory bins in! I suggest you make sure the bin is clean, because the kids will likely be 'testing' the Jello.  Add all the Jello and utensils to play with it.  It was 45 Degrees here again yesterday and I thought the Jello would melt REALLY fast, so I added some ice cubes too!

NOTE: my container is really big for this activity, but I know my boys and I knew exactly what was going to happen once they were getting close to being done with the bin!!

Next, give the bin to the kids and let them go wild! This was also a good time to go over the colours of the Jello! Monkey has his colours down pat obviously, but little Logey is just starting to learn them!

Logey was having trouble keeping it on the spoon at first! Notice the green/red piece falling down

Sooooo...he started using his hands! Exactly what I wanted.  Fine motor skills and Sensory

I love the look on Logey's face here!  I think he is seriously shocked that Ethan is attempting to taste the Jello!

"What are you doing E?"

 Logey then realized he could taste it too!!

YUMMY!

Exactly as I expected, once the boys started getting bored of the Jello (which, by the way, was at least 45 minutes later) I introduced the hose!  My boys love water, as you have seen in pretty much every other post!  Monkey started filling the bin with the hose.  We learned that when he sprayed the water harder, it made bubbles from the Jello.  Who knew?  And so, our Jello bin turned into a BUBBLE BATH!  The boys started to wash all the utensils we were playing with....

And then....you guessed it....they got in the bin!

And you thought the cooler was small!

By the end of the activity the boys were soaking wet, I was pretty much soaking wet...but being wet actually didn't feel so bad since it was 45 degrees Celsius!  This was a super easy Sensory Bin, and gave the kids at least an hour of pure joy to play with!
 

Two happy boys!

IT'S HOT HERE!!!!

Well, to say it is hot here, would be an understatement!  It is SCORCHING here!!  Yesterday the temperature was 34 Degrees Celsius BUT with the humidex it felt like 42 DEGREES!!  We made an early trip to the park with the boys - They are really loving the new park here!  Since we are right beside a school, there are 3 playgrounds within about 1 minute of each other!  It is great because we can switch up the parks constantly! 

ANYWAYS...before we left I whipped up a quick batch of coloured ice cubes!  I grabbed all the trays I could find in my house (which sadly was like 8 or 9 trays!) Anyways, just added water and a few drops of food colouring, and re-arranged my freezer like 5 times to get them all to fit...without spilling any coloured water, I might add!

After we got home from the park, and were smoking hot already, I grabbed all the trays and quickly filled up the water table in the backyard.  Here is a few frozen ones, with Logey saying that they were 'COLD!"

Then I just dropped all the ice cubes into the table at once! (Not my finest moment! But the boys didn't really notice that)  I didn't really take into account how hot it actually was!  The ice cubes were completely melted in less than 2 minutes!  The water started changing all different colours right away though and it looked really neat.

Monkey got his hands in immediately trying to get the colours to change depending on what ice cube he was holding!

Logey was just trying as hard as he could to catch one!  As soon as he got his hands on one, he had to test out the flavour.  I don't think it tasted as good as he thought it would.

Since the ice cubes melted so fast, we turned our attention to colour mixing.  The boys had one section filled with a yellow and orangish colour, one with a blue colour and one with green.  They decided to mix the orange/yellow and the green one into the big blue one to see what colour they would get.  Monkey guessed that it would all turn green (probably because it is his favourite colour) and cousin Jake guessed it would all turn blue. 

So, it of course, turned BLACK!

We had a great time outside playing in the water and 'cooling' down a little with the ice cubes!  Monkey has been asking to do it again all day today, so my freezer will be full tonight!