I'm so excited to share with you our newest sensory bin! I was making some macaroni and cheese for my boys the other day and I realized the pasta shapes would make such a fun sensory bin! Thankfully, I had another box so I was able to quickly put together an insect sensory bin for my children to play with. Here's what you need to make this insect sensory bin: Back to Nature Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese Box dry black beans plastic tub large Ziploc plastic bags about 3 … [Read more...]
Ladybug Alphabet Matching Game
Do you know what ladybugs like to eat? They love aphids! I created a ladybug and aphid activity to help kids match uppercase letters to lowercase letters. In this game, the ladybug will eat the "aphids" marked with an alphabet letter. The child will draw an aphid card from the pile and find the matching lowercase letter on the aphid on the printable. Color or mark the aphids as you find the matches! This activity that is geared towards preschoolers and kindergarteners. Here's what you need … [Read more...]
If You Give a Toddler a Sensory Bin…
If you have a toddler, you KNOW that they love to make messes! It doesn't really matter where they are are, they just love to take a part things, throw items, and get into cupboards that they know they aren't supposed to get into! Am I right??! While I was playing with my toddler the other day, I came up with a cheeky little story about what happens when you give a toddler a sensory bin. This story is similar to the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you give a toddler a sensory bin, I … [Read more...]
Arctic Animals Sensory Bin
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for details. We are just over-the-moon excited about our latest sensory bin! This Arctic Animal Sensory Bin is just SO much fun and I know your kids will love it, too! We have been learning about arctic animals in our preschool at home, so this went perfectly with our theme. To set it up, I filled a bin up of water and put a bowl inside of it. I didn't put too much water in the bin, just about 4 inches deep. I … [Read more...]
Spooky Noodles Sensory Activity
Here's a super fun sensory activity that's great to do for Halloween or any time of the year! We LOVED playing with these soft, squishy noodles. All 3 of my boys enjoyed getting their hands in the noodles. And a few were eaten, too! These noodles are so much fun to hold and slip through your fingers! And tongs are super fun to use with them! Materials Needed: spaghetti noodles food coloring olive oil Ziploc bag Here's how you make … [Read more...]
Halloween Sensory Bin
One of my favorite activities to put together for my kids is creating sensory bins for them to play with. This month, we created a Halloween sensory bin. My boys are loving it and play with it all the time! Here's what we used in our bin: large clear plastic bin dry black and white beans small Halloween-themed erasers (Target dollar section) glow-in-the-dark snakes and stretchy worms (Dollar Tree) Halloween vase with LED candle (Dollar Tree) balloon pumpkins (tutorial … [Read more...]
Insect Sensory Bin and Alphabet Activity
Spring is a great time to do an insect theme with preschoolers. We've done a lot of crafts and activities about insects in the past, but today I'm sharing our insect sensory bin with an alphabet activity. This post contains affiliate links. For more info on this, please see my disclosure policy. In this sensory bin, we used the following: ground coffee green felt plastic insects alphabet stickers gems shallow plastic bin I first glued green felt to the sides of the plastic … [Read more...]
Frog Life Cycle Sensory Bin
Kids are naturally curious about things in nature and frogs are very fun to study with preschoolers. To learn about the life cycle of a frog, we made a pond sensory bin. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. We were at Michaels craft store last week and we found a product we just had to try out! I noticed they had life cycle kits for ladybugs, bees, plants, butterflies, turtles, and more! But I just had to get the Life Cycle of a Frog because I knew my boys would love … [Read more...]
Playing with Colored Rice
Playing with colored rice is one of the easiest play ideas. We've been playing with colored rice as a sensory base for a long time. But I realize some of you may not know how wonderful colored rice is to play with. It's easy to make and leads to lots of play time in sensory bins. Before I share how we played with it, I'll share how to color rice. Here's what you need: 1 tablespoon (about) of rubbing alcohol 1 bag of white rice food coloring (I used gel food coloring) Ziploc … [Read more...]
“Leaves” Book Activities
One of my favorite books for preschoolers during fall is called Leaves. It's a book about a bear's first year of hibernation. I love this book because it talks about the beautiful leaves of fall and also goes through the seasonal changes in trees. It's a book with simple words and beautiful illustrations that make it easy for kids to understand. After reading this book to my kids, we made a sensory bin to go along with it. First, we gathered beautiful fall leaves from outside. Is this a … [Read more...]