5 fun DIY sensory bin themes to stimulate your child's senses (2024)

FAQs

What should I put in my sensory box? ›

What Is a Sensory Bin? A sensory bin is a shallow container that combines filler material and various small odds and ends. You fill the bin with a filler material such as sand or rice, then add items from around the house such as spoons or measuring cups. Let your child explore the items and have fun playing.

Practical Life Skills: Sensory bins provide a safe and controlled environment for children to practice practical life skills. Pouring and scooping materials like liquid or grains using cups, spoons, or tongs helps develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and concentration.

The Bin Supplies: You can fill your bins a few inches deep with age-appropriate items like dried rice/beans/pastas, pom poms, wool balls, dirt, rocks, water, sand—whatever you like!

Here's how: Fill a resealable plastic bag with tactile materials like hair gel, pumpkin seeds, shaving cream, or marbles. Reinforce the seal with strong tape, then use painter's or washi tape to secure the edges of the bag to the floor or a table where your baby can play.

A plastic bowl and Tupperware containers with dried pasta and/or dried rice in. Put the pasta or rice in the bowl for your child to move their hands through with you assisting and encouraging them hand over hand if required.

Put a funnel in the mouth of an empty water bottle and fill it about halfway with sand or rice. Add small toys, like alphabet beads, LEGO blocks, or mini-erasers. Then, fill the rest of the bottle with sand or rice, leaving about an inch of room at the top. This gives the contents room to move around and get mixed up.

In this article, we'll give you some ideas to help early learners explore their sense of touch, sight, smell, sound and taste. While of course we know there are more than five senses, these are the easiest ones to set up inside a classroom. So we'll keep things simple and stick with those.

What are the 8 sensory types? ›

Sensory play activities stimulate your child's senses which supports their brain and language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem-solving skills. With sensory play, there's always much more going on than meets the eye.

Children will learn that their bodies have many different parts, each with special functions. They are eager to hear, touch, see, smell and taste to help them make sense of and be a part of the world.

sensory bins are a powerful tool that ignites a child's imagination, curiosity, and learning potential. By engaging their senses, these bins provide children with valuable hands-on experiences that promote cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development.

Sensory bins provide children with the opportunity to explore and learn through hands-on tactile play that engages their senses. These bins encourage and support various types of development and are great activities to have in your home.

Babies love sensory play, but it can certainly get messy 🙃 Sensory bags are a great compromise: they allow your baby to explore without the mess that can come with open containers. Here's how: Fill a resealable plastic bag with tactile materials like hair gel, pumpkin seeds, shaving cream, or marbles.

Dish scourers, paint brushes, loofahs, feathers, sheepskin etc. Bubble wrap, survival blanket, lycra 'body sock' or 'dance sack' • Tubs of 'slime', lentils, sand. Can of shaving foam or moisturising mousse etc.

Developmentally appropriate practice would probably recommend sensory tables in a classroom setting for children up to age five (or preschool level). Why use a sensory table? Children learn through their senses. Sensory tables improve children's sense of touch which helps them perceive their environment accurately.