Bug Games and Sensory Bins

Today we were buggy for books!  After storytime we had lots of fun games to play!  The preschoolers played everything I have listed below.  The two's played ladybug pom-pom matching, ladybug puzzles, caterpillar push and the ladybug matching sensory bin.  By far the two's enjoyed the ladybug matching sensory bins the most.  What I did to help them reach the bowls better was tape the colored leaves onto the seats of our chairs and put the four bowls of Easter grass in the chairs.  I think I could have had double the amount of bowls out for the two's to dig in!  The two's also thoroughly enjoyed the caterpillar push.  They didn't seem to enjoy playing with the ladybug puzzle matching or pom-pom matching, but loved the other games.


I tried to do games a little differently this month, to help the flow a little better.    Instead of having the same game on both sides of the table, I put out different games on each side of the table.  Unfortunately it didn't help the kids move around easier, so back to the drawing board!


1.)Frog Alphabet Matching Sensory Bin

My original plan for this game was to spell jump on one side of the table and frog on the other.  That way the kids could dig through different sensory bins, find the frogs and match them to different letters.  But somehow my frogs that I made to spell out F-R-O-G decided that they didn't want to play, and some of the letters hopped away!  You can find the full frog and lily pad alphabet printable here.

2.) Caterpillar Pom-Pom Push

I found the idea for this awesome game online, but the link is no longer working.  Thank you to the wonderful person who came up with it, the kids had a blast!  We stored our pom-poms in the lid that the LEGO's came in, which works out great if you need something to keep your pom-poms in.

3.) Ladybug Pom-Pom Colors

For this game, the kids matched each colored pom-pom to the correct ladybug.  I got this idea from an alphabet ladybug printable, which I plan on using next time.  You can find the ladybug alphabet printable here.

4.) Bug Counting

This was a great idea in theory, but let me warn you...don't use foamies!  I had to walk away from this game, and when I came back all the cute little bug foamies were stuck to my leaves!  Aaahhh..lesson learned!  This is a printable that comes with cute little ladybugs with the correct number of dots on their backs to match up to the leaves, and you can find it here, along with a lot of other wonderful learning centers for spring.

5.) Ladybug Color Matching Sensory Bin

The kids did awesome with this sensory bin, and we used green Easter grass to hide our bugs in.  The last time we did color matching with the color word printed out it seemed to confuse the kids but today they didn't have any problems matching up the bugs to right leaf.  I found this wonderful printable here.

6.) Ladybug Puzzles

I found the idea for ladybug puzzles here, so I made my own.  I used a full sheet of paper, made the ladybug then just cut them in half!