Tadpole Sensory Bin

We’re starting a fun spring theme called Pond Life from Experience Preschool. We’re going to hesitantly say it’s spring in Wisconsin. It was such a beautiful day today we can’t help but have spring fever! During morning outdoor time, we played with this fun tadpole sensory bin.

Learning about tadpoles is part of the Life Around the Pond weekly theme. We’re also talking about turtles, snakes, frogs, and ducks.

Swiming Tadpoles is a sensory STEAM Station from week one of Pond Life. We love the STEAM Station ideas in the front of each teacher guide! They really make learning fun and hands on.

To make this sensory bin, just cook some penne noodles. You don’t want to overcook them and make them mushy so cook on the shorter side. I added a drop of blue food coloring to the water and gave them scoops and containers to put them in. You can add rocks or little plant pieces but my kids loved it just with water.

Tadpole Sensory Bin

We took our sensory bins outside since everyone was already dressed to get wet! It wasn’t too cold so they didn’t mind getting their hands wet for a bit.

Kids love water so no explanation needed – just play! However, we did talk about how tadpoles might feel.

They would be hard to catch so we might need to use a net. We used these sand sifter scoops but soon they were discarded to just use their hands.

It’s funny how cooked penne pasta is perfect for pretending we’re catching tadpoles.

Scoop them, catch them, dump them back in the bin and do it again!

Our noodles last for the duration of the activity, easily 30 minutes. I could see bits of starch in the water and some of the kids broke some of the noodles apart but in all, they held up well to the play.

It’s so fun to catch noodle tadpoles! They would also be minnows.

Enjoy this fun idea from Experience Curriculum Pond Life theme!

More Pond Life Activities

• What’s in the Box? Pond Life
• At the Pond Shape Snake
• Pond Fishing Snack
• Ponds and Muck
• Pond Sensory Bin