For my self-care sensory bin I wanted to use the hot cocoa breaths exercise as inspiration. I had a heck of a time putting this one together. I’d planned to use chocolate-scented kinetic sand, but I couldn’t find any sold individually! So I took the chocolate-scented sand out of my sensory box for November. Then I set about the difficult task of finding a “tea set” that wasn’t pink! I don’t believe in making colors gender-specific, but some of the parents of the kids I work with do and I didn’t want any of the boys feeling like they weren’t supposed to be playing with the set! I tried looking for a “barista set,” but kept running into toy Keurigs! The set I ultimately like is this one (I got a different one first, but I didn’t realize it was silicone and the kinetic sand stuck to them!). I also added these fake marshmallows. I later got these fake marshmallows (not pictured), which are both harder (so they won’t come apart if kids bite them) and smaller (so I can use them for an in-person version of conversation cocoa). The kids have all made sure I know they prefer the original and bigger fake marshmallows and some of them still ask for the bigger marshmallows on a weekly basis.
You can find the rest of my themed sensory bins here.
And you can find the rest of my self-care-themed materials here.