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.
Rainbow Pouring Station Sensory Bin
This sensory bin is perfect when your learning theme of the week is the Weather, Rainbows, Springs, or even Colors. It’s very easy to set up as it only requires a few materials. We used it to learn about rainbows for our Weather theme of the week.
Materials:
- Water
- Food Coloring
- Cups or Small Containers
- Large Sensory Bin
- Spoons and pipettes, towels and rags (optional)
To prep the sensory bin, you’re going to want to set out a handful of cups or small containers first. I used 6 so that we can have all of the major colors of the rainbow each in their own cup. I also used Rubbermaid containers, the small ones barely anyone uses. I added food coloring to each container. The yellow container only got the yellow food coloring, the green container got the yellow and blue coloring, and so on. Next, you can have the children also help add water to each one. When you are ready, place them into the large bin the children can pour into. Optionally, you can give the children spoons and ladles to increase interaction.
For this sensory bin, I like to encourage children to practice pouring with intention. Meaning, I could ask them to pour a certain color in first and see if they can follow the simple instructions. Also, you’ll want to see how the children can play with one another independently. Listen to how they communicate amongst themselves and how they solve problems.
Other Ways To Play
This is an excellent activity to practice your children’s cognitive abilities. Can they tell you what color they are about to pour out or scoop up? Can they point to another item in the room that is also that same color? Build vocabulary by labeling and naming the tools they are using. “Can you pour the red water out of the cup?” Or something like, “How much blue water can you scoop up with the spoon?”
Consider bringing a ruler or even a straw as a measuring tool into the sensory bin. Measure the height of the water in the bin in comparison to how height it is in the smaller cups. It doesn’t have to be an exact science, just another activity the children can practice reaching a goal. In this case, practice learning how to measure. Or at least practice acting like they are really measuring.
Finally, the children might be really excited to simply pour everything out at once without giving it a second thought. That’s okay. You might just have to go make more colors soon. This time, consider mixing glitter in or fun confetti. But be warned, this will be harder to clean up. But still super fun!
Go to my Toddlers Grow Store and check out this Toddlers Lesson Plan for yourself. It comes with easy-to-follow instructions, a materials list, and an already-to-go parent activity description. Perfect for your informal learning software.
If you liked this, head over to Toddlers Grow the Podcast for more fun educational activities and helpful tips.
