Pumpkin Patch Sensory Bin/Small World

I just adore small worlds, I think they are so perfect to get kids wanting to play with some of their dolls or figures or whatever that they might not have played with in a while, or just gives them the opportunity for pretend play in a little setting that often has a scenario or theme already.

For this sensory bin/small world I made it pumpkin patch themed for the fall time. 

I made this for my daughter when she wasn't even 2 yet and now she's almost 4 but I got the pumpkin cut outs at Dollar Tree when the Halloween/Fall things were out. I can't imagine something like that would be too hard to find these days now though, or that it's even 100% necessary to the bin.

What you'll need to recreate a pumpkin patch sensory bin/small world like this is:
- ground coffee
- some Little People or other figures
- some green pipe cleaners
- a fake squash perhaps (Dollar Tree)
- a real small pumpkin
- pretend small pumpkin/whatever else little pumpkin things you might have that you could put into a pumpkin patch themed bin

I have that little pretend pumpkin and "welcome great pumpkin" sign from a Charlie Brown play set we have.

We took this bin outside to make it even more real since pumpkin patches are outdoors, and because this bin can be messy if coffee grounds start flying everywhere. They didn't with us, but some did get out of the bin which. I had it laid out on a outdoor blanket for easy clean up and comfort for Charlie sitting on the deck.

Have a Great Educational Fire Safety Week

October 4th through the 10th is Fire Safety Week! With the ideas from this post you and your kids are sure you have a fun and informative week learning about fire safety.

First I like to put up a word wall when we do a "theme" or "unit" in our home school, and we always do our fire safety theme during fire safety week. 

I have "Fire Safety Week" on orange paper as the title and then the other labels in orange as well: "signs, use, and do" as in signs of the fire, what firemen use and what firemen do. There's the "fireman" word that I have up there that I printed from a community helpers word wall download. Then all the yellows are what goes with each label. For signs we have fire, alarm, and smoke. For use we have hat, water, hose, fire engine, ladder, hydrant, extinguisher. For do we have put out, and save.

We checked out some great books for this week from the library, fiction and nonfiction:
-  At the Firehouse by Anne Rockwell
- Fire Safety by Lucia Raatma
- Firefighter Frank by Monica Wellington
- Firetrucks by Peter Brady

The book about Fire Safety is a really great one full of tips to get discussions going with your kids about how you guys can avoid fires in your home, and what to do if there is a fire. This sets the stage to practice fire drills in your home, and the stop, drop and roll.

(new watermark over my old blog name)

There are many more exciting things to do for Fire Safety Week than just have a word wall and read books though. Here is a firefighter sensory bin we have done in the past


One of the very best things you can do is tour a fire station. Call your local fire station and ask if you can arrange a tour for your kids, or make it a group thing and go with a group of parents and children. The tour we went on the firemen were really good with the kids and the tour was informative and fun, then they gave all the kids firefighter hats and coloring books. You can even bake cookies with your kids to bring them to the firemen.

  

Other things to do:
- Shape Firetrucks from Things to Share and Remember, we've made these before!

- Make a firefighter craft from Moms Town Toronto

- Do a fire safety smoke crawl and play some games too like Lalymom 

- Five Little Firefighters Poem and Craft from JDaniel4's Mom 

- Do this F is for Fire craft from I Can Teach My Child 

Sofia The First Glitter Sensory Bin

So I had some uncooked pasta that was spilled on to the floor and we weren't going to be cooking it after that so I thought I'd save it for making necklaces or sensory play or something like that. The only problem is these aren't the kind of noodles I would buy for that purpose, they were whole grain so they were darker and harder to dye and have the color show up well. But they still turned out pretty cute and my daughter liked the bin. 

To dye the uncooked noodles you put them into a large Ziploc bag, add a little bit of alcohol and shake it up to coat the noodles, then the food coloring, adding more until you get the color you want. Like I mentioned noodles that aren't whole grain are much easier to dye and get vibrant color out of. When they are still wet you can shake some glitter into the bag and shake it around as well. Then pour them out onto a piece of foil and let it dry, I often sit them in the sun for the drying process.

Then I put them into a purple plastic bin, and then added the Sofia the First characters that we have. 

It was a good way for her interest in these to spark up again and have some fun pretend play with them!

Chocolate Cake Dough & Cars Dirt Road Sensory Bin for Toddlers

This is the perfect sensory bin for those little ones who love cars! It's very simple and frugal to put together too, seeing as you can reuse the cake dough again and again. 

You only need two things for this adorable sensory bin. A box of chocolate cake dough and some toy cars that can be rinsed off after play!

All you do is pour the box of cake mix into the bin, and then add the cars. The cake dough has a consistency similar to cloud dough. Kids can form it into balls in their hands and crumble it up again.

Birdseed Sensory Bin

I really like this birdseed sensory bin that my daughter helped me to make. We filled the sensory bin up with a birdseed mixture, you can find this at Menard's or a similar store. We added in some birds we got from the Dollar Tree, a yellow daisy sink strainer. We also had a little toy nest and a little toy bird bath to use, as well as a butterfly eraser I put in. 

It's a very close to nature sensory bin and the kids can use the sink strainer to scoop and pour and play with the bird seed. 

Frog Life Cycle Pond Sensory Bin

As part of our Habitat Series we're doing right now we are doing a unit on the habitat of the pond. Frogs live in ponds, and knowing the life cycle of a frog is important animal knowledge. So I made this sensory bin/small world that shows the life cycle of a frog in a cute and interactive way. Kids can play with it while learning and experiencing fun tactile sensory materials. 

To make this sensory bin/small world I first made a batch of blue homemade playdough to represent the water. My favorite homemade playdough recipe goes as follows:

1 cup of water
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup salt
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
blue food coloring (for this batch)

Mix them all together in a pot with a wooden spoon and then put it on the stove on medium heat and stir it constantly until it forms a ball, transfer it to a bowl, knead it until it is no longer sticky once it is cool enough.

Now, to make the bin look like the pond how I wanted I put the blue playdough down into more than half of the surface of the bin, stuck some small rocks into the edge for a border, and then poured some dry split peas into the remaining surface area of the bin. After that all there was to do was to put the life cycle of a frog pieces into the bin. I also added a little plastic fly we have to discuss how frogs eat flies. We also watched a video afterwards of a frog eating flies to connect the concept and make it more real.

You can buy the frog life cycle here  to make this bin or to use for your own educational activities.

Make sure you interact with your child(ren) as they play with this bin and explain the stages of the frog life cycle and the differences between each. Every day of the pond unit after we did this bin I am having my daughter show me the frog life cycle in order on her own.

Sensory Farm Small World

If you're looking for a sensory bin that includes some pretend play small world fun this is a great one. It's particularly great for a farm tot school or preschool theme. 

For this bin you will need:
- cornmeal
- baking soda
- water
- lemon-lime koolaid mix
- rocks
- some little people or other plastic farm animals, a tractor and farmer too if you can

First you'll need to make the dough by filling a bowl with the amount of baking soda you want and then very, very gradually adding water and mixing it together until it forms a dough that you can make into a ball and crumple again. Too much water will result in it just turning into liquid.

Once you have that dough made you can add some to the bottom of one half of a sensory bin, then put a row of rocks on it and pour some cornmeal on the bottom of the other half.

Then all you need to do is add in the animals and other things.

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Sensory Bin

Everything needed for this bin (except the super cute shamrock care bear, we've had that for years) can be found at Dollar Tree. As for the addition of a St Patrick's day stuffed animal I'm sure you could find a Beanie Baby of something of the sort. All you need is a pack of construction paper, and some gold coins. 

Just rip up the construction paper (one piece per color of the rainbow) into squares and arrange them in a row in a sensory bin. Add in the stuffed animal or whatever you're putting in the middle of your bin, and then place some gold coins around it.

Valentine's Search & Collect Sensory Bin

This is one of my favorite Valentine's sensory bins we've done! I love it so much because there's a game for the child to play while they also gain new tactile experiences and have holiday themed fun!

Isn't it beautiful?

All that you need to make it can be purchased from Dollar Tree.
- pink imitation rose petals
- red imitation rose petals
- sparkly hearts
- sparkly heart box

For the picture I put the sparkly hearts on top quite a bit so you could see them, but the whole point of the bin was that they are hidden beneath all the imitation rose petals and the child has to feel around to find them. There's all kinds of new tactile experiences within this bin. The imitation roses have a pretty one of a kind feeling, and the sparkly hearts and box both have that rough sparkly feeling.

Instruct the child to open up the lid to the heart box and fill it up with the sparkly hearts that they collect.

Scented Valentine's Day Sensory Bin

I adore this bin! It is perfect for Valentine's day, it's SCENTED, and it is extremely frugal. Costs $2 or $4 to put together.

The base material is rose scented epsom salt. Added are some sparkly hearts of pink and red. Both things are sold at Dollar Tree. I also put in a measuring spoon and offered a heart shaped bowl on the side, but which can also be purchased at Dollar Tree if you don't already have them.

Lots of good tactile experiences to be had within this bin. The smell of roses, the hard epsom salts that can be scooped and poured as well as played with in the hands, and the rough feeling sparkles on the hearts may be all new sensory materials for your little one to explore.

Halloween Sensory Bowl

Here's a fun idea for a Halloween themed sensory bin that we did in a big bowl. There's so many cute Halloween bowls at stores like Party City and Dollar Tree why not use one as a sensory bin. 

To make the base material I mixed dry split peas and dry black beans together to make a Halloweeny base. Then I added a bunch of candy corns which was kind of the base material also. Additions were:

• Halloween erasers (Dollar Tree)
• Sticky eyeballs (Party City)
• Scary hand cars (Dollar Tree)
• Witch fingers (Party City)
• Black bird (Dollar Tree)
• Sparkly skull (Dollar Tree)
• A few bugs/centipedes (Dollar Tree)

Letter M Sensory Bin

If you do letters of the week with your tot then adding a sensory bin with things that start with that letter is a great way to make the learning stick! Here's our Letter M Sensory Bin:

As you can see, the base material was marshmallows. Then I added in some things that started with the letter M, as well as a magnetic letter M and a block letter M to show the letter itself. I added a felt Madeline doll, a Little People character named Micheal, a maraca, two mice from a board game, a large coin for money, a pretend muffin, and a musical note I cut from black paper.

Little Mermaid Sensory Small World

Does your little one love the book or movie Little Mermaid? If so this sensory small world will be perfect for them. I'm always looking for ways to bring books and movies to life in fun ways, and I'm always looking for more and more ways to use our Little People. This bin is the best of both worlds for that.

To recreate this sensory small world you will need:
- Blue playdough
- Corn meal
- Some seashells
- Little People Little Mermaid figures. You can get Ariel as a mermaid and her 3 friends here and you can get Ariel as a person on land with Prince Eric here.
- We also added a little Sebastian figure we had and an aquarium toy

To set it up use the blue playdough to make an ocean by pushing it down to cover half or a little over half of the surface of the bin. Add the corn meal to the rest of the surface of the bin. Add in the Little People where they belong (mermaid in the ocean, others on the sand). Add in the extras, seashells either place, and aquarium toy in the ocean.

Glamorous Petting Zoo Sensory Bin

I've got a very fancy little girl who loves pink! So, just for her I set up this Glamorous Petting Zoo sensory bin/small world. She LOVED it and I bet your kids would too.

All you need is:

- A sensory bin

- Colored/floral scented Epsom Salt (purchased from Dollar Tree)

- Some Little People (or whatever kind) petting zoo animal figurines

- Things to represent their food, we again had Little People stuff, but play food from your child's kitchen would work just as well if it's all you've got

Pour the Epsom Salt in the bin and then add in the cute little animals and food. You can also give your child some Little People (or other doll/person figures) to play with in the petting zoo, to feed the animals, and pet them, etc. Their little imaginations will just soar with this bin!

Simple Oat Sensory Bin

In case you're wondering, the water mark underneath the title for the picture above is the name of my old blog. It's 100% my photo and my sensory bin. :)

Anyway, I just shared a fairly simple sensory bin that's great for measuring, scooping, and pouring/transferring just like this one is. Check it out here. All you have to do to make it is put some dry oats into a sensory bin and provide a measuring cup or spoon and another container along with it. Your toddler will dig in just like mine did!

Enjoy!

Wheat Germ Sensory Bin

So if you follow my blog, you know that my daughter likes to eat wheat germ.. but what you may not know is that it is also fun to play with! Introducing our Wheat Germ Sensory Bin!

All you need for it is a container of wheat germ put into a sensory bin really. But that would get a little boring after a while, after getting to just feel the initial new textures. Kids  love transferring so I provided a measuring spoon and another container for Charlie to transfer the wheat germ into. This went on for a while, transferring back and forth and so on.

This is good for strengthening practical life skills like measuring, scooping, pouring, etc. As well as the many benefits of sensory play that the wheat germ itself is providing.

And when is it not fun to put a baby in your sensory bin?!

Seaweed Sensory Bin for Babies

Isn't this bin cute and inviting? What baby or even toddler wouldn't like it? All you'll need for the base material is some Roasted Seaweed Snack from Trader Joe's. I'm sure there are other stores that sell something similar as well. This one is great because it provides a new texture for babies. It's crunchy, very thin, and a bit oily. Definitely some new textures to experience. Then just add in some bath toys that would be in a pond/ocean/body of water.

Finding Nemo Sensory Bin (Baby Safe)

For our ocean theme we've been doing lots of fun things! We had a movie time where we watched Finding Nemo. My little cutie only watched the first 20 minutes and then asked me if we could read instead. Makes me proud! BUT she does love the Finding Nemo characters, so I put together this adorable sensory bin.

This bin is totally baby safe, provided of course you're watching your baby while they play. Nothing in it is edible, but I consider it totally appropriate for babies to play with. It's even great for honing fine motor skills!

For the base material, I actually used three different materials. They were all blue though to represent the ocean. Pom poms of different sizes/textures/shades, cut up plastic straws, and hair rollers. You probably have most of this stuff around the house, could easily obtain it for cheap, or can substitute something else for it.

Then I added toy characters from Finding Nemo that can be purchased at Dollar Tree. It's adorable and sure to delight!

Coffee Shop Sensory Bin/Small World

Doesn't this sensory bin/small world look so inviting? I think it does!

Coffee beans are a great base material for sensory bins. I decided to add some more things to our usual coffee bean sensory bin to make it more interesting this time. I added coffee mugs from the play kitchen, Little People, and a Little People stand from the corner market play set. The point was to get my daughter to play with the Little People as if they were at a coffee shop, making them cups of coffee and such, and having them interact with each other. I still had out some measuring spoons and cups for more fun transferring. She had a lot of fun with it! 

Easter Sensory Bin

We're definitely gearing up for the Easter holiday here! Here's our Easter Sensory Bin for this year.

The base material was some blue Easter grass and some green Easter grass. I really like the new Easter grasses they have out this year, they're like a cross between paper shred and foil shred. Really great, new sensory experience for kiddos.

Then I added some really simple things. Though it was simple my daughter (at 2 years old) still really enjoyed it. I added a stuffed animal bunny, some plastic eggs in different designs, and a windup chick.