Provide bins with a variety of sensory activities for children to explore. Bins focused on different textures might contain sand, grains of rice or dried beans. Fill other tubs with tactile materials such as play dough or modeling clay. Include sensory bins with scented items such as lemons or flowers (you will need to replace fresh items frequently). Take children on a nature walk and instruct them to each collect one item for a nature sensory bin. Examples include pine cones, bark or twigs. Place all of the children's items in a tub for exploration during class.
Literacy bins might include a stack of magazines and pages, scissors and glue. Task children to search for a particular letter, cut it out and stick a collage of all the letters onto plain paper. Fill a tub with word cards (preschoolers may need cards with pictures) and corresponding small items. Challenge the children to match the object with the word card.
Provide bins filled with small objects for sorting and classifying. Include cards that have various colors or shapes on them. Students sort the items from the tub onto the correct color or shape on the card. Stock a tub with laminated cards showing a pattern using the object (for example: red apple, green apple, red apple, green apple). Also include in the tub a variety of red, green, blue and yellow apples. Task the children with copying or continuing the pattern shown on the card.
Provide tubs with supplies for children to practice fine motor skills. Tubs might contain stencils for tracing, connect-the-dots worksheets, or beads and strings to allow the students to practice threading the beads. Fill a tub with cards resembling a shoe. Each card has holes punched in it for children to practice threading and tying laces. Provide a bin with two bowls, dried beans and tweezers. Children practice using tweezers to pick up the beans from one bowl and transfer them to the other bowl.