Sharla Kostelyk

The seasons and the holidays are the perfect time to set up an invitation to play centered around the themes of the season. Our Pumpkin Spice Latte Sensory bin combines all of our favorite colors of Fall with a valuable sensory experience children will love. It’s easy to pull together, fun to play with, and easy to dispose of when interest wanes. Plus, we have all kinds of ideas to take your play experience even further. 

The varying cereal colors represent the colors of the actual liquid in a pumpkin spice latte. Pumpkin candies reinforce the pumpkin angle. The marshmallows represent the whipped cream on top. For older children not likely to put them in their mouths, you might also add coffee beans to get that amazing smell into the mix. Once interest has waned or the ingredients are stale, wait a few days and then reintroduce similar concepts with our taste safe pumpkin pie sensory bin.

Supplies for your Pumpkin Spice Latte Sensory Bin

• Reese’s Puffs Cereal
• Mini Marshmallows
• Pumpkin Candy
• Coffee Mug or Cup
• Whisk or Spoon
• Scoop

How to Make the Pumpkin Spice Latte Sensory Bin

• A metal or plastic mug or even a styrofoam cup is preferable so that it isn’t breakable. 
• Cover the entire bottom of the bin with cereal, then push some aside to make a spot for the marshmallows. This guarantees good coverage.
• Making separate areas for each ingredient helps kids view them as individual parts of a recipe. If you follow the recipe play suggestion, this can help.

Invitation to Play

• Provide scoops, spoons, and child-safe tongs for play.
• Encourage kids to scoop the various ingredients into the cup or mug.
• Kids can practice making layers of each ingredient.
• Mix the ingredients, and encourage kids to sort them back out before scooping.
• Give kids a specific recipe, eg two scoops of cereal, one scoop of marshmallows, and six pumpkins and have them create the recipe in a child-safe coffee mug. A styrofoam cup works just fine.
• Using the tongs and scoops to move ingredients around will help your child build stronger fine motor skills, muscle strength, and coordination. Provide bowls or plastic jars in the play area and demonstrate as needed to encourage this type of play. 

Important: While this pumpkin spice latte sensory bin is taste safe and can be used with little ones who put things in their mouths, supervision is still required. Please note that the pumpkin candy may be a choking hazard.

Why I’m Always Adding New Sensory Bin Ideas

If you’ve had any kids in occupational therapy, you’ve seen first hand the value and benefits of sensory play. For a child who is texture averse, simply engaging in sensory play can increase tolerance for different types of clothing or foods over time. It’s not an instant fix, but it can help!

Besides the benefits for kids with sensory aversions, this kind of play can help with emotional regulation, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, pretend play, and so much more.

Ask questions to get your child talking more as they play. Tell stories to inspire imagination and storytelling. Practice math skills, following instructions, and large muscle movements like stirring. You can even encourage cross body movements to improve cross dominance by asking a child to move the pumpkins from the top left corner to the bottom right corner while standing still.

As you explore sensory play with your children, you will come up with even more ideas to help your child grow and develop. 

More Pumpkin Play to Enjoy

If better emotional regulation is your goal, you will also enjoy our Pumpkin Emotions Game. Make our Puffy Paint Pumpkins for a fun art project with a sensory element. And just for grins, I’ll also mention our pumpkin slime recipe. Embrace the mess! If you are building a week around pumpkins, you might also enjoy this wooden pumpkin patch puzzle, or this book: Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie.

What could be more delightful than creating a sensory bin related to the season and the holidays that your child can also eat as they explore? Our Taste Safe Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin is one of the easiest sensory bins you’ve ever assembled, with all of the ingredients coming straight from the grocery store and the play tools are already in your kitchen. 

Everything in this fun and engaging sensory bin can be eaten. Once your child starts to tire of this one, be sure to check out our Pumpkin Spice Latte Sensory Bin for new smells, new textures, and new invitations to play. 

Supplies for the Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin

• Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
• Pumpkin Candy
• Mini Marshmallows
• Mini Pie Crust
• Scoop or Spoon
• Whisk

How to Make a Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin

Combine all of the ingredients in a large, flat tub to allow easy access for your child. Add the tools of play (scoops, spoons, whisks, tongs, etc.). Set the sensory bin on a low, flat surface and invite your child to play. Demonstrate for a few minutes, or play along with your child. 

This activity engages the olfactory (smell) sense with the smell of cinnamon in the cereal, tactile (touch), and gustatory (taste) if the child decides to taste the edible parts of the sensory bin.

How to Encourage Sensory Play 

• Scooping and dumping helps your child improve fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and predictive play. Show them how once or twice. 
• Help your child practice taking oral instructions by giving them a recipe to create. For instance, have them combine a scoop of cereal with one spoonful of marshmallows and two spoonfuls of the pumpkin candies. Make up different “recipes” for them to follow.
• If the cereal is the crust, the pumpkin is the filling, and the marshmallows are the whipped cream, you can have your child practice following instructions again by having them “build” a pumpkin pie in a small bowl or pie tin one layer at a time. You can also use the mini pie crusts to do this activity. 
• Supervision is required. Be aware that the pumpkin candy may be a choking hazard for the littlest players, but in general this taste safe pumpkin pie sensory bin is ideal for those still putting everything in their mouths. 
• Have your child move ingredients into a jar or bowl one at a time using child-friendly tongs for improved pincer grip, muscle development, and fine motor skills. If necessary to keep it interesting, add racing against the clock. 

Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin Extension Activities

Reading books can be a great way of increasing interest in a sensory bin and vice versa. The books Too Many Pumpkins or Oh My Pumpkin Pie are both excellent options to explore the topic of pumpkins. You can also build a LEGO pumpkin, Smash and plant pumpkins in your yard, or make a real pumpkin pie together. What about making pumpkin slime, or your own DIY pumpkin pie scented moon sand. Our pumpkin puffy paint makes a great art project. Learn about managing big feelings with our Pumpkin Emotions Game.

Another great idea for sensory play is to engage with your child to improve verbal communication. This kind of interaction with a parent or caregiver is invaluable! Here are some examples of questions you can ask your child to get them talking more and learning to express themselves. 

• What is your favorite part about eating a marshmallow?
• How does the marshmallow feel when you squish it with your tongue?
• Have you ever tried to smash cereal with your tongue instead of using your teeth? 
• How would you describe the contents of this play bin?
• What colors do you see in the bucket?
• What was your favorite part of this play time?
• Can you tell me three words to describe pumpkins? 
• If your pumpkin had a name, what would it be?

Try telling a story about the pumpkin pie with your child. Just start a random story and invite them to help you finish it. “Jason went down to the pumpkin patch one day and found the perfect pumpkin. He brought it home and showed his mother. Together, Jason and his Mom . . .” Just keep telling the story until it ends with a pumpkin pie on the table, engaging your child to fill in the blanks all along the way. 

Why Is Sensory Play Important?

Well-rounded exposure to sensory play helps your child feel grounded and secure. Sensory play can lead to better emotional regulation, improved mood, better sleep, and better overall behavior in public spaces. Sensory feedback is crucial for child development as children are growing from infancy and trying to understand their world around them. It stimulates critical thinking, problem solving, spacial awareness, and tactile engagement.

Sensory play can also be an effective way of desensitizing a child who is overly sensitive and does not respond in normal ways to normal sites, sounds, and textures they encounter in their every day world.

Finally, sensory play encourages other skill development too — things like fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and visual perceptual skills are all positively impacted through sensory experiences like this one.

When you realize how engrossed child becomes in sensory play and how much it benefits your child while also allowing you some space to breathe, you will want to have one at-the-ready 24/7/365. We have so many amazing sensory bin ideas, we’ve got you covered to do just that! As soon as apple picking looms on the horizon wherever you live, put together this simple Apple Pie Sensory Bin. 

Sensory bins are, indeed, the most quintessential sensory feedback play to give your child interesting and dynamic experiences with texture, touch, and grounding. Once your kiddos are all done with this one, switch it up and keep the sensory play going. 

How to Make an Apple Pie Sensory Bin

Supplies

• Oats – I bought mine from the grocery store, but you could also buy them at a bulk store or on Amazon. 
• Red and Bright Green Pom Poms – I ordered mine in a bulk package from Amazon, but your local craft store will also have them.
• Cinnamon Sticks – Find these in the spice section of your grocery store.
• Brown and Tan Felt – This is easy to find at a craft store or you can sometimes find it at a dollar store.
• Silicone Muffin Cups
• Child-Safe Tongs or Scoops

Setting Up the Sensory Bin 

1. Put the oats in the bottom first.
2. Strew the other materials out on top.

To prepare for apple pie sensory play, read a book or watch a video about making apple pie. Talk about the different parts of a pie (crust, apples, seasoning, etc.) and how a pie is made. 

Introduce the sensory bin by showing your child each of the different parts and placing it in his/her hand. Talk about the texture — how does it feel in your hand and how does it make you feel? If any of the textures are unpleasant for your child, you can remove those items and try re-introducing them later. 

Allow free play with the apple pie sensory bin in any way that works for you. It could be for fifteen minutes first thing in the morning while you get your coffee. Or it could be an hour in the evening while you make dinner. It could even be in the afternoon while younger siblings are taking a nap or just whenever it fits into your day. There is no set amount of time so you can set limits or let your child play for as long as they like. 

For extra sensory fun, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, apple extract, or maple extract and stir it into the oats before you add the other ingredients. Alternatively, you could stir in a small amount (a few drops) or Fall scented essential oils.

More Ways to Play with Your Apple Pie Sensory Bin

Practice math skills. Adding. Subtracting. Fractions. All kinds of skills can be practiced in hands on ways using the various parts of the pie. 

Practice language skills. As your child to describe the pieces of the sensory bin. The textures, the colors, the smells, the feelings it evokes; these are all things your child can describe in words. You can also have your child talk you through how to make a pie and the parts of a pie, etc.

Practice following instructions. Make up recipes for your child to follow. Like this. “Add five green apples, four red apples, a scoop of oats, and two cinnamon sticks. Top with the crust. You made a pie!” Then try a different “recipe.”

Encourage use of the tongs, scoops, spoons, etc. to give your child practice in hand-eye coordination, muscle development, and fine motor skills. 

Sort the pom poms into the two different colors using the tongs. 

Extend the Apple Pie Sensory Bin with other activities related to an apple pie theme. Go pick apples. Make apple pie and/or apple sauce together. Read books about apples and pie. Do apple experiments and make apple art. 

Fantastic Apple and Pie Books To Read 

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

Amelia Plants and Apple Tree by Elena Magidson

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

Apple Pie Tired by Beth Charles

Pie In the Sky by Louis Ehlert. This one is about cherry pie, but it is an excellent apple pie adjacent read. 

We have even more beautiful apple books to read on our post about Taste Safe Apple Pie Sensory Bin fun. It’s a completely different sensory bin with the same theme so you can keep going! 

Why Use Sensory Bins

Sensory bins have a way of distracting kids from big emotions, helping them calm down, self-regulate, and focus on something new. The tactile experience can help sensory averse kids become more used to a variety of textures and smells. It also provides much needed sensory play for overall vagus nerve health and sensory integration. Besides all of the sensory benefits, these bins also provide fine motor skill and large motor skill work (playing with tongs and scoops or standing over the bin both use different muscle groups), hand-eye coordination, visual perceptual skills, and more. Read more about the importance of sensory play for all children here.