Shark Week

It’s SHARK WEEK! 🦈 .
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We’re still thinking about sensory-based play this week, but mixed in a little shark and sea creatures theme to keep it fresh ✌🏻
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We recently cleaned out our messy basement and came across a few gems 💎 ...so I guess it was worth it 🤷🏻‍♀️
Also we can see the floor now, so I guess that’s another plus 🧹
We found a great memory foam mattress topper...but it was torn from the way it was folded 😭😭😭 So, I was able to cut it up into chunks to make this life-size sensory bin 🙌🏻 My preschool therapy clients loooved it and when I brought it home my own kiddo didn’t want to get out of it. So this “indoor pool” as my son calls it, has become a permanent fixture in our living room 😐
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This activity is really great for developing proprioception as well as facilitating pretend play. PROPRIOCEPTION is a fancy word for body awareness, or having an understanding of where different parts of your body are in relation to one another. The pool is big enough for a little body to lay out on, flop in, and hide under the foam pieces. The super soft foam allows the kiddo to do lots of pushing and squeezing. It also allows the parent or therapist to give some great deep pressure stimulation. Some of my clients really liked having foam on top of them and feeling me push it down onto their back or limbs. Remember that sensory input can be very calming for some kiddos!
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We also tossed in a bunch of rubber sea creatures which they were able to use for pretend play. We were able to act out scenes of the animals jumping, hiding, swimming, diving, splashing, etc. It’s also a good opportunity to learn ocean animal vocabulary