You may have noticed that I’m doing a sensory bin for each letter of the alphabet. What to do for letter X? After looking at some pretty cool light boxes on Pinterest, I decided we could make our own easy sensory activity for kids: X is for X-ray!
You can do this too – talk about simple! Here’s what you need to do:
1) Search for “x-rays” on google images. Print a few on plain paper and copy them onto overhead transparencies with a copy machine. That’s the hardest part of this, I promise.
2) Get out some white Christmas lights and place the lights inside of a large plastic container. My container is transparent. Either way works.
3) Put an opaque lid on the container. If you don’t have a lid, you could turn the box upside down. However, if your box is transparent you may want to put a liner inside (wax paper or something similar) so you can’t see the string of lights. Then put the box in a closet and turn out the lights. (Warning: when you’re done playing, be sure to unplug the lights, or they might start to melt the box. We had the lights on for 2+hours before I remembered to unplug them – no melting, but it was smelling pretty warm!)
4) Give your child the X-ray transparencies and other objects for some sensory fun! My Four counted the bones in this x-ray.
My Six pointed out the brain.
My Four had fun building with his Magna-Tiles on the light box.
We added these glass gems and tiles for more sensory fun. We talked about which were opaque and which were translucent.
This sensory activity kept my kids busy for a short time – less than ten minutes each. But it was a cinch to make, and I can see a great use for it in the future… as a fantastic prop for hospital pretend play!
If you want more light box ideas, here’s a great post from Happy Hooligans (guest posting on CBC Parents).
For many more fun learning ideas for letter X, click on the image below:
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