As a part of my postpartum preparation, I have been prepping sensory bin kits for my kids to entertain them while I am tending to the new baby. These bins are super easy to make! I buy supplies in bulk so I can quickly throw a bin together, and my kids have been having a blast playing with each kit!
After they are done playing, I pour the contents of the kits into a gallon size plastic bag to store for future use.
Head to our Amazon store to see all the items I bought to build these on-demand sensory bins!
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Sensory Bin Must Haves
The best tip I have for making sensory bins is to have some filler supplies on hand! It makes it super easy to throw a bin together last minute based on a theme.
Things I am considering when making a bin:
- Color and overall theme
- Activity (scooping, sweeping, pouring)
- Sensory Input (wet, dry, textures)
- Age and kids (choking hazards, for example). My kids don’t put things in their mouth at their age anymore, so if your kid is still a mouth explorer, certain items may not be safe for them in their bins.
First, you need something to put your sensory bin supplies into! I like these wooden boxes from Amazon that came with a bunch of tools for the kids to use as they explored their boxes.
But you can use a plastic bin, kitchen tray, or anything that contains the sensory bin contents! You probably have something sitting around your house that is easier to use.
For the tools, you can also use supplies from your kitchen, such as measuring cups and spoons, tongs, and make up brushes!
I like to have filler supplies in various colors on demand such as:
- Sand
- Kinetic Sand (or magnetic sand, I prefer this over playdoh because it doesn’t dry and lasts much longer)
- Flat marbles in various colors
- Colored Rice
- Beans, oats, and other pantry dry items
- Water beads
Then, I decide on an overall theme to my boxes to prep the smaller items that I want in them. For us currently, we are working on animal names and sounds, so I bought a bunch of small plastic animals to put into the bins.
I’ll also browse Etsy or Pinterest for sensory bins inspiration! I’ll see what someone else is putting in their bins that I already have and create a bin from that inspiration.
Let me share a few of the bins that I have created so far that my kids have loved, and I have prepped for them to play with when their baby sister arrives!
Apple Pie Sensory Bin
The apple pie bin was a huge hit with the kids! They had a lot of fun building apple pies and really explored the contents of the bin in a way I didn’t even plan!
In the bin I included:
- Oats as the filler
- Small pie tins
- Red and light orange wooden pieces to match the color theme
- Apple smooshy toys
- Fake apple slices
- Small wooden eggs with yolks
- Tan felt cut up into long strips to make the pie crust topping
The kids ended up making their own variations of apple pies and really enjoyed playing with the wooden eggs. They buried the smaller objects in the oats, and practiced scooping oats into the tin and other bowls they had available.
They did not care too much about the felt strips, so may reintroduce the weaving activity the next time we play with this kit!
Bumble Bee Sensory Bin
this is one of our newer creations that the kids had a lot of fun with! I used different types of fillers than they had previously had in their kits, so they explored sweeping in this one!
In this kit I included:
- Yellow, fine sand
- Flat, black marbles
- Bee charms of various sizes
- Wooden hive pieces that were yellow and orange (came in a larger kit of assorted wooden pieces)
I then put toys that were bumblebee related nearby, such as their bee hive toy that they put into their kits to play with as well.
In this kit, they practiced sweeping with the brush to find bees and scooping the sand and marbles into bowls. They also practiced with tongs to pinch the bees out of the sand!
Arctic Animal Sensory Bin
This bin focuses on the winter theme with arctic animals! There are a few versions of this that include water beads and fake snow too to make it a wet sensory bin!
In this kit I’ve included:
- White kinetic sand
- Fake ice cubes
- Arctic Animals with Igloo
- Dark blue wooden pieces
- Option to add on:
- Water Beads
- Fake Snow
Lemonade Stand Sensory Bin
The lemonade stand bin was a crowd favorite! The kids would pour the lemonade creations into cups from their play pitchers, and top it with lemons or limes.
In this kit I included:
- Yellow colored rice
- Blue kinetic sand
- Cups and pitchers from the kitchen
- Fake lemon and lime slices
- Fake ice cubes
- Random yellow blocks and toys from their playroom
In this activity the kids practiced their scooping and pouring skills! After they were done pouring, they would build small towers with the yellow blocks included in their kit. They had a lot of fun taking our lemonade orders and pouring us some “drinks.”
Farm Animal Sensory Bin
Back to our animal theme, this was one of the first sensory bins I created for the kids! I wanted to be able to use the bin to teach my 2-year-old animal names and sounds. With my 5-year-old, we focused on counting and math with the animals in her kit.
In the kit I included:
- Green kinetic sand
- Green colored rice
- Dried corn pieces
- Small plastic farm animals
The kids would build small areas for the animals in the sand or practice pouring the rice and corn into bowls.
We would point out different animals and the sounds they make.
Prepping for Baby Sister!
A part of my postpartum preparation has been to prepare my older kids with activities to entertain them so I can focus on the baby. We have family nearby that will be here to help with the older kids, but I wanted to help make their interaction with the kids easier with some play ideas!
I’ll continue to add the new bins I create over the next few weeks! I have some plans for a dinosaur bin, underwater bin, and some unicorn-themed ones too!