The Flower Garden Sensory Bin (2024)

Sensory Play has always been a favorite with my kids! I'm a firm believer that childhood should be messy, and that kids should be allowed to explore and learn through different textures. I just prefer that the mess be contained, which is why I love Sensory Bins!

Sensory Play is especially important for Liam. After we received his Down syndrome diagnosis, I began researching, and I discovered that sensory issues can be quite common. I was determined to help him as much as I could, so I introduced sensory play and sensory bins when he was a baby. Thankfully, he's a BIG fan of messy play!

My girls love sensory bins, too. They get a lot of use in our home! I try to come up with at least one new sensory bin and sensory activity each month to keep things interesting, and they usually play with that bin for a few weeks before switching to a different sensory bin filler in our stockpile.

When I was brainstorming ideas for this month's theme (purple) for the Year of Color link party that I co-host, I decided to make a flower garden sensory bin using fake purple flowers that I recently bought. They paired perfectly with the black beans sensory bin filler that is part of our usual sensory bin rotation!

Flower Garden Sensory Bin

This fun sensory bin is very easy to set up, and is perfect for sensory AND pretend play! All the scooping, filling and pouring really helps strengthen Liam's fine and gross motor skills, too!

SUPPLIES:

• Sensory Bin with a lid (An under the bed storage tote works perfectly!)
• 8-10 lbs of black beans
• Several bunches of fake flowers (I just used purple for the theme, but get creative.)
• Small flower pots
• 2 garden shovels
• 1 garden rake
• Ziploc gallon bags for easy storage

SET UP:

1. Empty the beans into a clean sensory bin.
2. Separate the stems on one bunch of flowers, and cut each stem so they are only about 10-12 inches long.
3. Pull just the flowers off the second bunch (no stems).
4. Toss the flowers, flower pots and gardening tools into the sensory bin.
5. Have fun!

NOTE: I highly recommend playing with this sensory bin outdoors. Those beans have the tendency to go everywhere! (I learned that lesson!) We also use THIS ROUND PLAY MAT all the time! It's perfect for pretty much everything, especially toys with small pieces. After the kids are done playing, I just have to pull the drawstring, and it turns into a toy storage/travel bag. We take it on vacation every year!

PLAY:

Here are a few ideas to get started:

*Rake the beans with the garden rake.

*Plant the small flowers in the bin.

*Fill the pots with beans and plant the flowers.

*Create different floral arrangements by adding different flowers to the mix.

*Take pictures of their creations.

*Pick up the beans with a shovel and use it to fill all the pots.

*Scoop up the beans with the pots, and pour into other containers.

*Dig into the beans with bare hands for a full sensory experience!

CLEAN UP:

When the kids are done playing, clean up is so easy! I just shake all the beans that landed on the play mat back into the bin, put the flowers in a gallon ziploc bag, and let the kids pour the beans into a few gallon bags. I place everything back into the bin, put on the lid, and store it until the next use!

If your kids love sensory play as much as mine do, this fun sensory bin will keep them busy for a long time. And that, my friends, is a mom win!

All of my kids have played with sensory bins filled with beans before, but they loved The Flower Garden Sensory Bin! It was so much more than just sensory play, so they played for hours. This is definitely and idea that we will be adding to our regular sensory bin rotation!

Obviously, it's NOT Friday. I'm posting a bit late this month, but with good reason. Lexie and Lily's dance recital was on Saturday, and the week leading up to it was unbelievably chaotic. We lived and breathed dance, and I didn't have time to do anything else. It was well worth it, though. I will be sharing that adventure on my blog tomorrow, and let me just say, it's definitely the start of a new journey!

Plan ahead for next month:

Stop by on Friday, July 21st, to link up your RED posts!

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