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Spring is in the air and sensory bins are a wonderful way to help your child adapt to the changing of the season, by exploring the change through their senses. We have pit together all our favourite spring-themed sensory bins that we know your child will enjoy.
What are Sensory Bins?
A sensory bin is a hands on learning experience that incorporates the senses. It usually takes the form of a shallow container that holds small toys, fine motor tools and a filler material. They are meant to allow your child to explore the items using their senses. Generally filler materials include things such as rice and sand but can varies widely. Tools include items such as spoons or measuring cups while the toys can be anything from dinosaurs to cars.
There are many benefits to using sensory play at Spring as well as through out the year. These include developing fine motor skills, academic learning, language skills, self-regulation, focus and concentration, sensory integration, imagination and social skills.
- Sensory bins provide an opportunity to develop language skills as your little one explore new materials, sensations and tools.
- The opportunity for your child’s imagination to take center stage in sensory play is immense. Whether they are exploring the materials or engaging in small world play, sensory bin are wonderful ways for your child to flex their imaginations.
- Sensory bins can be used with multiple children to help foster cooperative play and to strengthen social skills.
- Tactile learning and sensory integration is enhanced through the exploration or new textures, sound, sights and smells and occasionally tastes.
- Sensory bins strengthening fine motor skills through scooping and pour, transferring and measuring.
- Sensory bins can be modified to meet a wide range of learning outcomes, including learning colours, letters, and density and volume.
Ways to Contain the Mess
The mess created from sensory play is usually the number one reason why parents (myself included) don’t engage in sensory play as often as we would like. There are ways that you can help contain the mess from sensory bins as well as make the clean up process easier.
- Take the sensory bin outside. If weather permits, set up you messy sensory play ideas outside.
- Protect your floors with a kiddie pool, table clothes or plastic shower curtain.
- Reduce the size of the sensory bin. The smaller the sensory bin the smaller the mess.
- Choose a type of filler that is less messy and easier to clean up. Water is my favourite. Just place a towel under the bin and around the immediate play area for the easiest clean up.
Manage Your Expectations
It is only around the age 3 or 4 that my kids started to play with a sensory bin for 30 or more minutes, sometimes for hours. Before that, they would play with it for a few minutes, sometimes more sometimes less. So when you create a sensory bin, it is helpful to use a bin that has a lid so that you can close it off and set aside while they aren’t playing with it. When they comes home from school or wake up from a nap, you can pull it out again and let them naturally come back and engage with the material through out the day.
Spring Sensory Bins for Kids
Spring Bug Sensory Bin
This sensory bin captures the essence of spring with a bug-themed setup, inviting kids to explore various textures and miniatures that mimic the outdoor world of insects, enhancing their sensory and cognitive skills through interactive play.
Easter Chick Sensory Bin
This vibrant Easter-themed sensory bin captures the essence of spring with fluffy yellow chicks, colorful eggs, and soft, textured materials to mimic a chick’s natural environment. It’s a perfect hands-on activity that encourages fine motor skills development and imaginative play around the Easter holiday.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Bin
Inspired by the beloved children’s book, this sensory bin features elements that represent the various foods the caterpillar eats through, alongside a toy caterpillar and butterfly. It offers a tactile and visual storytelling experience, enhancing comprehension and retelling skills through sensory play.
Bug Sensory Bin for Kids
Dive into the tiny world of insects with a bug-themed sensory bin filled with faux grass, toy bugs, and natural elements like leaves and sticks. This engaging activity invites exploration and learning about different bugs, promoting curiosity and respect for nature.
Beautiful Birds Sensory Bin
Designed to enchant and educate, this sensory bin features elements inspired by birds, incorporating feathers, nests, and figurine toys, offering children a tactile and visual exploration of avian life.
Easy Dandelion Water Table Activity
A simple, yet captivating activity that utilizes a water table filled with floating dandelions, encouraging children to explore the properties of water and nature. This activity fosters fine motor skills and scientific curiosity, making it a delightful way to engage with the natural world.
Bug Sensory Bin with Taste-Safe Water Beads
This innovative sensory bin combines the fascination of bugs with the safe, squishy fun of taste-safe water beads, making it ideal for younger children. It encourages sensory exploration and learning about insects in a safe, interactive environment that little ones can even taste without risk.
Spring Sensory Bin
Filled with greenery, and spring-themed items, this sensory bin is tailored for toddlers, providing a safe and engaging environment for them to develop their fine motor skills and sensory awareness.
Bee Counting Sensory Bin
Get ready to create a bee counting sensory bin for kids aged 3 to 5 using vibrant colored rice, soft pom poms, and cardboard tubes. This delightful hands-on experience will not only engage your child’s senses but also provide valuable learning opportunities.
Tulip Sensory Bin for Spring
This vibrant sensory bin celebrates the beauty of tulips and springtime, using artificial tulips and colorful materials to create a visually stimulating and tactile play experience for children.
Garden Water Table Sensory Activity
Merging the concepts of gardening and water play, this sensory activity uses a water table to simulate a garden environment, encouraging kids to explore water dynamics and plant life through immersive play.
Pom Pom Seed Garden Sensory Bin
Imaginative and colorful, this sensory bin uses pom poms as seeds, inviting children to “plant” a garden, thereby fostering their creativity, fine motor skills, and understanding of how plants grow.
Spring Flower Fine Motor Threading
Focused on developing fine motor skills, this activity involves threading spring flowers, providing a fun and educational way for kids to improve their dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
Birdseed Kitchen Sensory Bin
Utilizing birdseed as a base material, this kitchen-themed sensory bin allows children to explore textures and engage in pretend play, simulating cooking and baking experiences in a unique sensory context.
Flour Frogs Sensory Bin
This creative sensory bin uses flour as a base to create a swampy environment for frog figurines, offering kids a tactile experience as they learn about amphibian habitats through sensory exploration.
Bumble Bee Sensory Bin
A delightful exploration of the world of bumblebees, this sensory bin incorporates yellow colored rice, bee figurines, and flowers, providing a multi-sensory experience that educates and entertains children about these vital pollinators.
Activity Overview
- Age Suitability: These sensory bins are good for toddlers aged children 3 years old and up with adult assistance.
- Mess Level: The mess level for these sensory bins vary.
- Difficulty to Create: Low to medium.
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlersincludes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschoolwhich includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years.That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
Thesetoddler and preschool lesson plans and activitieswill definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book:Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more informationExciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy atAmazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book:Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copyhere.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book:Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast?The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 yearsold and up.
TV Show:Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV showCurious Craftingwhich launched in July 2022 onTVOkidsandTVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.