Sensory bins are generally a big hit and they can be great for a new way to interact with your kiddo or for something for kiddos to do while you sit back and watch or get some things done! We are sharing ideas here that we have tried and enjoyed. Some of these are more involved, but some are simple ideas we use all the time!
Sink or Float: This idea is super simple. You just need a tub of water and some items from around the house. We do this one outside or in the shower bc there will be some splashing and spilling. Most of the time, I will just grab items from his toy bins. I don’t always know what will float and what will sink myself! We put in and take out items one by one to see what they will do, then practice saying the words sink and float. Lucian really loves this and after we do it once together, he will do it over and over again by himself.
Water Beads in the Water Table: Brooks loves his water table. Anytime a sensory activity includes with his water table it usually results in lots of fun and time spent playing! He really enjoyed the addition of water beads to the water table! Every time we went out to play he screamed “WA WA Beads”! The water beads bounce and that added another level of fun once he figured that out!
Car Wash: This one is another one we only do outside. you just need one container or dirt or sand with a bit of water added and a bin of soapy water. Add cars that you don’t mind getting wet and a scrub brush. Sometimes, I have to do this activity first to remind Lu that the cars won’t stay dirty! But once I show him that we will wash them, he dives right in!
Pick a Garden: We planted seeds this year to start our garden and Brooks really enjoyed watering the seeds and watching them turn into plants. Now he LOVES helping me pick tomatoes and cucumbers. That is what drove this idea for the garden play! He loves sand and dirt so the fact that he can hide (plant) the vegetables and then find them in the dirt allows for lots of imaginative play!
Tractor Fields: I used lines of rice, oatmeal, quinoa and flour then just added tractors and let him plow the fields. This led to LOTS of tractor races which is not what I expected but was pretty fun to watch!
Ice in the Water Table: Another very simple idea is to add ice to water play! Brooks LOVED this way more than I expected him to! He loves scooping and dumping so he had so much fun scooping and dumping the ice in all kinds of different containers! He also loves dumping the ice cold water on mom and dad to see our reaction too!
Rock Box: After getting a sandbox for out front yard, I had the idea to get a second box to put with it and fill with rocks. We happened to be working on another project that we needed a truckload of little rocks for, so we scooped some into a sandbox. Lucian and his friends love playing with construction equipment and shovels in this bin!
Let’s Make Ice Cream: Brooks really enjoyed this one! He LOVES ice cream so he had so much fun serving himself, mom, and dad ice cream surprises! Again because of his love for scooping and dumping this was PERFECT! He mainly scooped the sprinkles back and forth between different containers but he did make a few ice creams!
Don’t forget the watermelon bin and the corn bin we did in past posts. Update, our corn bin is still under our kitchen island and still gets lots of play!
And of course, we have fun sensory bin items in our Etsy store! Check them out here!