What Is A Sensory Bin?
A sensory bin is typically a bin or container of various items that a child can touch and explore. This might include taste-safe items, toys, and even everyday household tools such as spoons, ladles, and even a spatula. You can customize each bin on a specific theme, such as a holiday or learning subject. Sensory bins are growing in popularity lately because it is convenient for parents and caregivers to put together, and it provides children with an engaging learning activity.
4th of July Sensory Bin
It’s July 4th, and you are trying to find a safe and age-appropriate activity for your infant or small toddler. Look no further! I have crafted an absolutely, no-brainer, fool-proof sensory bin for your little one.
Materials:
- Bin
- Water
- Pool Noodles (Red and Blue)
- Knife
- Towel
Let’s prepare the activity. Before you do anything, you will want to make sure you have pool noodles. I went to my local dollar store and found one pool noodle of each color. You’ll only be using less than a quarter of it, so you can save the rest for another time.
Now that you have your noodles, go ahead and cut pieces off with your knife. About 1.5 inches thick. I ended up with 3 pieces of each color but cut more if you’d like. Now, add water to your bin and toss in the pool noodles you just cut. Place the towel underneath where your child will be playing and then follow up by placing the bin of water down.
Watch out for splashing hands as babies especially love to splash. As long as you are making sure that your child isn’t biting off chunks of the pool noodles and eating them, you’ll be fine. A little water mess never hurt anyone.
Other Ways To Play
This is the perfect time to practice colors with your little one. As they are also building vocabulary and social skills when talking with you, you can add some educational content such as color reviews.
Practice stacking! While infants are too young to intentionally stack toys, younger toddlers around 13 months of age should be able to do this with the added challenge of the water. Meaning, the pool noodles will move and bob, thus, giving them a reason to concentrate a little harder to stack those noodles.
Prepositions! Prepositions are when you say things such as “Under” and “Over.” For this activity, practice taking 2 noodles, one red and one blue. Stack them and talk about how the red pool noodle is under the blue. You can also make a note when your child takes out a noodle from the bin and say “The blue pool noodle is OUT of the bin/water.”
Go to my Toddlers Grow Store and check out the many different toddler activities available now.
If you liked this, head over to Toddlers Grow the Podcast for more fun educational activities and helpful tips.
