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Goal APL-1: Children show curiosity and express interest in the world around them.

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Goal APL-1: Children show curiosity and express interest in the world around them.

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Discover things that interest and amaze them, and seek to share them with other. APL-1g

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Goal LDC-3: Children ask and answer question in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

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Goal LDC-3: Children ask and answer question in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

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Purposely try different way of doing things to see what and how they work. APL-2k

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Discovery

Expression

Problem-solving

Engagement

Understanding

Reflection

Exploration

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What is something surprising you found out recently?

How can reflecting on our experiences help us in future explorations?

What might happen if you tried something differently than usual?

How can we explore the environment in new ways?

Have you ever tried an experiment that didn't go as planned? What did you learn from it?

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A magnifying glass can be used to discover and explore things with a closer eye, especially in nature. A child may hold on up to a bug to learn about their tiny anatomy or to a leaf to study the intricate veins and design of it. 

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A shovel can help children look beyond the surface of an area. It allows them to explore aspects of the earth that aren't in plain sight, promoting curiosity and exploration.

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Watercolors can help a child to express their emotions through art. The combination of paint and water can also help their understanding of certain materials, learning when to use more or less water for the desired picture.

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Twine can help a child to explore different ways of creating and building things. They may use trial and error to see what works best for what they are trying to build. Can also help boost fine motor skills.

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This natural materials can help children explore geology. They can stack pebbles, engaging in problem solving to understand how to stack them without them falling over. 

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Playing with running water can help a child to understand how moving water works. They can touch the water, seeing what way the water moves around their hand and then reflect on it. 

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A child may reflect on where the pinecone came from and the purpose it serves. They can explore nature and discover the connecting parts of it.

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Child can explore the way sand feels on their hands or feet. They can study the sand to discover the materials it is made of.

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Building blocks can help children discover different ways that shapes fit together. They can engage in building structures and problem solving by exploring how to effectively stack the shapes.

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A coloring book allows children to express themselves through art and colors. They can explore color combinations and lines.

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In this article from Little Muddy Boots, the author talks about play-based learning using stones. Child may go out and collect stones, engaging in exploration play. They can then build towers with these stones, counting how many they can stack. They can then be asked to reflect on why they think certain rocks could be stacked, while others caused their tower to tumble over.

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5 Ways to Play with Stones - Little Muddy Boots

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We love using nature to help learn and play. Here are 5 different ways to play with stones. We hope you have fun!

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In this article from Fored BC Society, authors developed a lesson plan observing insects. Students will study these bugs then answer questions about their physical traits. This activity helps a child in understanding wildlife.

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Great Bug Expedition Activity | FORED BC Society CA

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Students explore local habitats, species of insects and plants, then record and share their observations.

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Fored BC Society presented a nature walk activity for children. Students can bring a pen and paper and write down things that they see. After they create their list, they can then go in and describe textures, shapes, and colors. Children learn through feeling, observation and memory.

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A Nature Walk Activity | FORED BC Society CA

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By collecting objects from the outdoors and creating a collage, students will explore the different textures of nature. Students will learn to tell a story without using words, and describe an image and the textures shown.

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An article from My Bright Wheel, suggests a lesson plan using a sensory bin. Bins can be filled with different materials like birdseed, pasta, and marbles. Children will feel like materials in the bin, exploring the different textures, sights, and smells. This play-based lesson plan allows children the strengthen they understanding of their senses and discover new materials.

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Sensory exploration plays a pivotal role in a child's development and there's no better tool to stimulate their senses and ignite their curiosity than a sensory bin. These simple yet captivating containers filled with various materials provide endless opportunities for learning and discovery. From the squishiness of play dough to the smoothness of sand, sensory bins engage children in hands-on experiences that promote cognitive, physical, and social-emotional growth.

In this article, we'll elaborate on everything you need to know about sensory bins, including their main benefits and instructions on how to make them.
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What is a sensory bin?

A sensory bin is any container like a plastic tub, box, tray, or bucket filled with materials to stimulate a child's senses. Sensory bins vary in size; however, the most critical considerations are choosing a large enough container and child-friendly sensory play materials.

Sensory bin play activities are an excellent way to introduce children to different textures for exploration. A sensory bin can contain one or different filler varieties. What you decide depends on your goal. Examples of filler materials to include in a sensory bin include:

Colored rice

Water

Snow

Birdseed

Craft sand

Shredded paper

Water beads

Dry pasta

Ice

Mud

Rocks

Marbles

Dry beans

Why is a sensory bin important?

A sensory bin is a great way to introduce sensory play, allowing children to explore objects and develop sensory skills through tactile play. They also promote the development of other crucial skills for a child's development.

The best part is that they have unlimited use. You can use sensory bins at home or school to promote child development. Below we explore more benefits of sensory bins.

Facilitates sensory exploration

A sensory bin allows preschoolers to explore and develop their primary senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. This technique works since sensory bins can stimulate multiple senses simultaneously.

You should consider filling a sensory tub with all types of filler objects of different textures. It helps children understand that objects can be smooth, rough, warm, or cold.

Promotes body awareness

Body awareness is crucial for self-regulation. Sensory bin play activities allow children to know how different body parts like limbs, eyes, and ears relate. They also need self-regulation skills to control emotions and maintain a steady balance.

For example, sensory play activities are calming and excellent for regulating a child's emotions. Try different sensory play activities to find what calms your children when their emotions are high.

Supports learning and language development

Sensory bin play activities support learning and language development by stimulating multiple senses simultaneously. With a multisensory learning approach, children are engaging multiple senses and several different brain regions as they are learning, allowing them to build connections in the brain that help them retain information.

Learning through sensory play is descriptive and provides many opportunities for children to learn new concepts and vocabulary words in a hands-on way. For example, sensory bin activities can help teach concepts like "empty and full", "up and down", "sort and pour", or "above and below".

Fosters motor skills development

Motor skills are crucial for a child's physical strength and movement. Children use motor skills to crawl, run, walk, jump, eat, write, or draw. There are two types of motor skills: fine and gross motor skills.

Fine motor skills involve small muscle movements and are responsible for writing, drawing, zipping, and unzipping. On the other hand, gross motor skills involve large muscle movements and are responsible for walking, running, or jumping.

Sensory bin play activities are one way to promote motor skills development. For example, playing with mud, play dough, or rice in a sensory bin helps develop fine motor skills. Also, moving from one sensory bin station to another helps develop motor skills since children mostly explore through hands-on activities.

Aids math skills

In preschool, children are exposed to early math concepts like counting, sorting, volume, and shapes. A sensory bin aids math skills development as children play with different filler materials.

For example, they can practice counting by adding things like marbles to a bin. They can also learn about sorting and volume by separating similarly shaped objects and filling or emptying a sensory bin.

Encourages social skills development

Social skills set the foundation for how children relate with their peers at school, siblings, educators, and caregivers. Sensory bin activities promote social skills development in many ways.

These activities teach children how to take turns and work as a team, especially when playing with peers or siblings. They also learn how to coexist peacefully and respond to social situations.

Supports cognitive development

Sensory bin play activities for toddlers and preschoolers promote cognitive development. Some activities, like sorting objects, require problem-solving skills since the child has to identify similarities and differences to separate similar objects.

For example, you can ask them to sort out objects based on color or shape. This exercise stimulates their mind, helping to develop it further.

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Types of sensory bin activities

There are two primary types of sensory bin activities: wet and dry sensory bin activities. The type of sensory bin activity determines what fillers you use. Wet sensory bin activities use wet or sticky fillers, while dry sensory bin activities use dry fillers.

Wet sensory bin play activities use the following fillers:

On the other hand, dry sensory bin play activities use the following filters:

Gardening soil

Beads

Corn meal

Sand

Dry pasta

Dry beans

Dry rice

How to make a sensory bin

Making a sensory bin is fun, easy, and affordable since you can use materials you already have in your classroom or home. It's more exciting when you involve the children in making one. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to make a sensory bin.

Step 1: Choose a sensory bin container

You can use a variety of containers like boxes, trays, or buckets. The size of the container will depend on the number of children playing with the bin and your learning objectives.

Step 2: Pick a theme

Consider a theme your children are passionate about as this will make them more engaged in the learning process.

Step 3: Choose sensory bin fillers

Sensory bin fillers are also known as base materials. These can be relevant to your preferred theme and be interesting to look at and touch. This way, children are engaged while playing.

The most common sensory bin fillers are:

Dry rice

Dry pasta

Dry beans or lentils

Oatmeal

Mud

Sand

Water beads

Aquarium stones

Shaving cream

Step 4: Add more fun tools and objects

Adding tools, toys, and other child-friendly objects to the sensory bin makes the play more interesting. Examples of tools and objects you can add to a sensory bin include:

Natural materials like leaves, sticks, stones, pinecones, and sea shells

Tools like tweezers, tongs, scoops, and small spoons

Toys like dinosaurs, turtles, cars, fish, and snails

Sensory bin ideas

To support holistic development, consider dry and wet sensory bin ideas. Below are five different sensory bin ideas to help you get started.

Dinosaur sensory bin

A dinosaur sensory bin is a messy sensory play activity full of fun. You'll need:

Plastic bin

Sand

Plastic dinosaurs and trees

River rocks

Scoopers

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Fill the plastic bin with sand. Arrange the rocks and plastic trees around the bin. Add the toy dinosaurs. Children can sort or count the dinosaurs or make dinosaur tracks in the sand. They can also try burying the dinosaurs and digging them out with the scoopers.

Dishwashing sensory bin

For this activity, you'll need:

Plastic container

Dish soap

Plastic dishes, cups, utensils

Scrub brush

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Lay a beach towel on the floor. Fill the plastic container with warm water and dish soap. Stir to make soapy water. Place the container on top of the beach towel to catch any water spills. Add the dishes, cups, utensils, and scrub brush. Let the children play and splash in the water and "wash" the dishes!

Weather sensory bin

This is a great sensory bin for preschool and can be paired with other activities focused on the weather theme. You'll need:
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Dyed blue and white rice

Large cotton balls (for clouds)

Small white/silver poms (for snow)

Medium blue poms (for rain)

Wooden craft sun

Wooden craft rainbow

Golden pipe cleaners (bent for lightening)

Plastic bin

To dye jasmine rice blue, fill a gallon plastic ziploc bag with rice and a few drops of blue food coloring. Seal the bag and shake around to coat the rice with the dye. Open the bag and allow the rice to air dry for 10 minutes before pouring into the plastic bin. Add the cotton balls, poms, pipe cleaners, wooden craft sun, and rainbow to your bin.

Shaving cream sensory bin
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A shaving cream sensory bin is budget-friendly and easy to make. You'll need:

Shaving cream

Pool noodles

Large tub

Cut different colored pool noodles into slices and place in a large tub or container. Fill the tub with shaving cream and mix the noodle slices around. Have children sort or count the noodle slices or stack them into a tower.
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Car-themed sensory bin

You'll need the following materials:

Black beans

Yellow straws

Scissors

Red, green and yellow pom poms

Toilet paper rolls

Toy cars

Plastic bin

Pour dry black beans into a plastic container or bin. Cut up the yellow straws and place them in the bins to represent lines on a road. Add red, yellow, and green pom poms to look like traffic lights. Stick toilet paper rolls into the beans and add the toy cars!

These five sensory bin ideas are enough to get you started. Other sensory bin ideas you may consider include:
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Sensory bin play rules

Sensory bins for toddlers and preschoolers have many benefits and are a great way to incorporate a fun, hands-on activity into daily learning. But before you get started, there are some ground rules to keep in mind. Here are some sensory bin play rules to familiarize yourself with:

Be wary of choking hazards.

Check sensory items' shelf-life to ensure you don't use expired materials.

Focus on the sensory bin activities that children love and enjoy.

Have towels nearby, especially when indulging in messy sensory bin activities. The children can use the towels to wipe off their hands when they're done playing.

Wrapping up

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.

From exploring different textures to enhancing fine motor skills, sensory bins offer endless opportunities for growth and discovery. Incorporating sensory bins into early childhood education not only makes learning fun, but also fosters a lifelong love for exploration and creativity.

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Sensory bin play activities are vital for children's physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Here's how to make sensory bins for preschool.

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This lesson from Subject to Climate, incorporates art and emotion. An art piece of climate change is shown to the children and they are encouraged to express how the image makes them feel. Students are then given collage materials and asked to create a collage of how the image mad them feel. This lesson allows students to express emotion with creativity.

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In this art lesson plan for kids, students identify their emotional reactions to climate change artwork and then create their own climate change artwork.