Sensory bin ideas can be overwhelming to look at because of all the options. You can purchase an assortment of premade ones or custom-make one for your kids. The sensory bin can be a calming and time-consuming activity for your children. Read on for some common questions and our sensory bin ideas!
What age range are these sensory bin ideas good for?
These sensory bin ideas are good for children over two years old or are at a point where they don’t put things in their mouth (that they aren’t supposed to). Dried beans, dried rice, dried pasta, and kinetic sand are not necessarily meant to be digested so base the age you give these items to on their maturity level.
What is the purpose of these sensory bin ideas?
Sensory bins are great for a calm activity that enables your children to work on their fine motor skills. If you want to use the sensory bin with your kids you can play games like I Spy, and practice skills like counting and number recognition!
How do I keep the sensory bin clean up easy?
My favorite tip for this is to put a clean blanket down on the floor first, and then place the bin on top. I give instructions to my children that they are not allowed to dump the supplies on the ground or they will lose the privilege of the toy that day. Then any extra that flies out (and trust me, there is still a lot), can get swept into a pile on the blanket and then poured back into the bucket!
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If you don’t want to make your own sensory bin, check out some of the ones we found on Amazon!
Farm Sensory Bin with Kinetic Sand
Water and Kinetic Sand Sensory Bin
Rabbit and Hamster Sensory Bin
Personal Sensory Bin Ideas- Step-by-step instructions:
Container Sensory Bin Ideas:
First you, choose the container you want to use for your sensory bin. I started with a bin that measured 14 x9 x 6 ½ inches. Very similar to these. But with my two kids wanting lots of space to play, this quickly became too small. I then swapped some storage things around in our house and ended with an under bed storage that measures 32 ½ x 18 X 6 ½ inches. Like this one from Amazon.
The under-bed storage is my favorite solution because it’s big enough to allow several children to play and shallow enough that it’s easy to hide when we’re done!
If you don’t want to use a large storage bin, other ideas include:
Suitcases
Wooden trays
Deep baking pans
Filler Sensory Bin Ideas:
Next, pick out your sensory bin filler. There is an assortment of ideas for this. We use a combination of dried beans and rice.
You can also use:
Bird seed
Dried pasta.
Water
Kinetic Sand
Beads
Toys For Your Sensory Bin:
Finally, pick your toys to go in the sensory bin. There is almost an unlimited amount of ideas for this. You can use random stuff you pick up around the house or go with themes.
We currently have some cars and trucks, spoons, a butter knife, toy dinosaurs, and cups. Below are some themed sensory bin ideas that you can add to existing sensory bins or rotate throughout the year!
Themed Sensory Bin Ideas Include:
Christmas/Winter: mittens, trains, green or red colored fillers, Christmas-shaped cookie cutters, bells
Valentine’s Day: pink and white colored fillers, heart-shaped cookie cutters
Cooking: measuring cups and spoons, funnels, tongs, ladles, sponge, small (non-breakable) cups and bowls, bean and rice filler
Farm: tractors, animal toys of varying sizes, child-sized gardening tools
Rainbow: cotton balls, rainbow-colored beads
Summer: water, ice cubes, stones, sand toys
If you’re looking for other things to do with your kids, check out our Activities for Kids page! Do your kids play with a sensory bin? Let us know in the comments below what else you would include in one!
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