Reflections Sensory Bin

When you set a reflections sensory bin, it’s all about visual sensory system and playing with light and shadow. This type of activity is new to most of the kids and they find it fun and fascinating.

My son loves light play and I wanted to set up an activity where he could see the reflections of his favourite light cubes.

However, we came up against a problem. Our mirrors would not fill our sensory bin. No matter which way I placed the mirrors they wouldn’t cover the entire base.

I suddenly realised that we had a resource in the kitchen cupboard which would work just as well – tin foil! Our Reflections Sensory Bin was saved.

Materials and Setting for Reflection Sensory Bin

We used:

• sensory bin
• tin foil
• light cubes (set of 6)
• plastic toy animals

I covered both sides of a sensory bin with tin foil and then placed an additional sheet on the inside of the tub. I placed six light cubes into the bin and we turned off the light.

Let’s Play and Observe!

I had thought our colour changing light cubes were good before the activity but with the addition of tin foil they were brilliant!

As they slowly changed colour the reflections in the tin foil changed. From blues to reds to yellows and greens the sensory bin changed frequently.

I had expected my son to be interested in building towers with the light cubes. However, due to the tin foil he was captivated in the ever changing reflections whilst shouting out the different colours he could see.

He then went on to explore moving the light cubes around to see if the reflections changed if the cubes were pushed together or placed apart.

After a while though his plastic toy animals made an appearance.

He decided that the light cubes would make a great disco zoo for his animals. The zoo even included a dinosaur!

Tidying up was so easy. As my son turned off each individual light cube I folded up the tin foil for it to be reused again.

We love simple sensory fun!

Read and Learn About Light and Shadow

One sunny day Bear decides to go fishing, but his shadow keeps scaring the fish away, time and time again. Bear tries everything he can think of to get rid of this pesky nuisance. And at last he succeeds—or so he thinks! Find Moonbear’s Shadow by Frank Asch here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom

Learn about the importance of light in our every day lives. Discover how to make reflections, shadows, and rainbows. This is a great nonfiction read aloud book with places to stop to do activities together. If you are looking for clear, concise science books for kids, this is a perfect start! Find Light: Shadows, Mirrors, and Rainbows here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom

Other activities you can try

• Learn more about visual sensory processing.
• Go on backyard scavenger hunt!
• Make a galaxy I-spy sensory bottle.

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