Let kids experience the wonders of sight and touch with self-made sensory bins for kids. If you are looking for fun indoor learning activities for young children, an at-home sensory project is easy to set up. And the neat thing is that you can put a wide variety of items into your sensory bin, creating unique sensory experiences that delight little minds.
Something as simple as a plastic bin could be used in a variety of ways to create engaging – and educational – activities for your child. Our Really Good Stuff® Classroom Stacking Bins are the perfect size for creating your own sensory bins at home. Once you have the bin, it’s time to plan what to put inside of it. Consider using items you already have at home to create sensory bins. Or you can purchase fun items to make your sensory bins even more engaging!
Simple Sensory Bin Ideas
Start by looking around the home for items to place inside of the bin. There are so many items that you probably already have at home that can be used to create sensory bins. For example: Rice, dried beans, cereal, dried noodles, pom-poms, beads, sand, rocks, dried corn, etc. Children will love feeling the different textures as they participate in this activity.
Another option is to create holiday-themed bins such as Easter with plastic eggs. The change of seasons also provides inspiration. One idea is to create a fall sensory bin using small gourds, acorns, leaves and dried corn.
Here are some ideas to make sensory bins educational:
- Hide plastic letters or numbers in the sensory bin and have your child search for a specific letter or number. Or, have your child take each letter or number out one by one as they put them in alphabetical or numerical order.
- Put tiny random items in your sensory bins that are a variety of different colors and have your child search for an item of each color, one at a time.
- Put a bunch of small items in a sensory bin and ask your child to collect a specific number of those items. For example, put 10 erasers in the bin and ask your child to collect seven of them. Extend the number of erasers depending on your child’s abilities and the size of your sensory bin.
- If you have plastic or 3-D geometric shapes, you can also do a shape hunt in the sensory materials. Shop plastic geometric shapes right here.
Ideas for Using Sensory Bins to Practice Fine Motor Skills
Sensory bins are great for practicing fine motor skills, too. Here are some ideas for using sensory bins to practice fine motor skills:
- Put kinetic sand or dough in the sensory bin and have your child mix in different things like glitter, beads, sequins, etc. Then, have your children make long strings of dough, and cut them into smaller pieces using dough-cutting scissors or safety scissors.
- If you have small plastic tweezers, have your children move items from inside of the bin to a cup or bowl. You can even give them a time limit to make the activity more exciting.
- Place pom-poms in the sensory bin. Then, have your children scoop them out one at a time and place them in the cups of a muffin pan.
- Put uncooked noodles in the sensory bin. Then, have your child use a plastic shovel to move the noodles from the bin into a different container.
Unique Sensory Bin Ideas
If you really want to create an out-of-the-box experience for your child with sensory bins, you can use some unique and engaging sensory items from Really Good Stuff®, such as:
- Small Insta-Snow® (makes 3 gallons!)
- Colorful Growing Orbs
- Magic Sand – 227 gm
- Excellerations Spectacular Sensory Sand White 10 lbs
- Calming Sensory Slime – Visual Kit
Sensory bins made at home can help your child explore, learn and grow, and they’re a lot of fun to create.
As always, our Really Good Stuff® team is here to help. For free resources to help teachers, parents, and children navigate this unprecedented time, check out the Really Good Stuff® free resources library. You can also search our blog for more free tips and ideas from real teachers.
By Nicole Morelli
4/10/2020
Nicole Morelli formerly taught first, second, and third grade. Before teaching, she was a paraprofessional, where she assisted in multiple elementary grades and a special needs class. Nicole has worked at Really Good Stuff for a little over two years as a Product Developer and Content Manager. Her specialties are STEM education and social-emotional learning. She has a lot of fun developing products for those topics!