When you think about change, what does it mean to you?  What about in terms of re-purposing an item or changing an item altogether so that it can be used as something completely different? While I’m usually not one for change (ask anyone that knows me) I absolutely LOVE re-purposing materials and items to make them kid-friendly.

Last night, while I was doing my monthly trip to the Dollar Tree,  these scouring pads (which I found in the cleaning aisle) totally caught my eye. Bold colors,  an awesome scratchy texture…these things were screaming sensory and I just had to have them. They were rather large, and I didn’t necessarily want to put them into the sensory bin as is, so off to the paper cutter they went.

Tiny buckets and mini shovels were playful additions to the bin and were used for scooping, pouring, and dumping. This literally  kept my toddlers busy all morning long.

Then, just as I thought the activity was wrapping up, the whole thing expanded into imaginative play when my almost three year old asked to add a few boats to the mix. And before we knew it, a fleet of tiny boats had set sail into the sea of brightly, colored squares.