Halloween Sensory Box

Ok, so it’s been a long while since I’ve pulled out a sensory box for J…like probably 3 months!  With Halloween coming up, I couldn’t resist pulling out the black beans, skeletons, and scary eye ball bouncy balls and making a spooky sensory box.

In the box:  Most of this I picked up in Target’s Dollar Spot

• Black beans, and a few white beans thrown in too
• Plastic ghosts and bats
• Bouncy eye balls
• Spider rings with the ring cut off
• Baby jar of orange pumpkins
• Baby jar of black spiders
• Plastic glow in the dark skeleton

He started out by just exploring the box, dumping and filling the bars.  The bouncy balls quickly got thrown across the room…you know to see them bounce…sigh.

The play soon changed into something totally different than I expected.  You see, J’s been really big into pretend play lately.  So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when he pretended to make us dinner.

I’d say we had quite the feast! 

Honestly, I’m pretty amazed at how different this play was compared to his previous sensory box experiences.  He used to just dump, fill, pour, and explore the contents of the box.  Now, he stretched his imagination and moved into a full on pretend play experience. 

I’m planning on continuing the sensory boxes with him until he looses interest in them.  Maybe it won’t take me three months to do another one!

There are small parts in this activity.  Please use your best judgment and supervise your children when playing with choking hazards.

Need more sensory tray ideas?  Check out my 25 Sensory Tray Ideas post!

Come on over to Facebook to see what else we’re up to.  Oh, and I’m also a Pinterest addict (you too?), so come over to see what I’m pinning!