This past week I created a Apple themed play box for little bit and I had a few people asked me a few questions about it! It was a huge hit and we have many more of these boxes in our future! I scored good old Pinterest for some ideas and then just combined a few of them together & then added my own twist! It was super easy to put together!
First I purchased a clear tub from target, just a medium sized one! I chose Apple theme simply because it is the beginning of the school year! I filled the bottom of the box with apple cinnamon oatmeal so that she would have something to feel and dig in, and then put in some cinnamon sticks!
The "apple trees" are just created by a paper towel roll cut in 1/2 to make two, scrap book paper (laminate for durability and rough hands ;)) and then little pom pom secured by Velcro!
The little wooden boxes came from a grocery cart kit we had but you could use any baskets to sort, and the mini apples are from Michaels.
I also had left over red pom-poms that I attached a green clothespin to in order to make it resemble an apple.
I already had a mini version of "Ten Apples On Top" by Dr. Seuss that we live in the container and read while we play with it as well!
Activities:
Sort the apples by color
Take the pom-poms on/off the tree
Hide the pom pom apples in the oatmeal and let her dig to find them
Read the story and stack the mini apples along with the story
Just dig in the oatmeal with the Cinnamon Sticks/hands
* I also gave her a little green shovel and she would pour oatmeal in the baskets and then empty them*
clip the green clothespins on the pop-poms (she needs lots of help with this one but loves it)
Sort the pop-poms and then green clothes pins in to different piles
We talk CONSTANTLY while she is playing with the items about the colors red and green & that we are playing with apples.
I by no means think that she is grasping it all but it is a fun way to introduce her to new concepts and let her explore, though I do know she is grasping more than I think!
The first time we played with it she wasn't able to velcro the apples back on by herself but by day 2 she had figured it out...great way to work on fine motor skills!! This is our "Ta-da" I did it pose!
Other theme boxes I am working on right now are the following :
Leaves/Fall
Halloween - Pumpkins
Winter - all things snow ( think lots of cotton balls..and even a little homemade snow!)
A box for every color (ROYGBIV)
Christmas Box
Shapes
I'm sure there will be many more as she gets older that deal with numbers and letters too! We only get out these boxes 1-2 times a week so that it keeps the "newness!"
If you search on pinterest you can find TONS of activities and ideas to help get your started. I think about 3-4 activities per box (including a book) is a great place to start! I hope this helped!!!
Happy box making!
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