The Chaos and the Clutter

Sensory Bins

Penguin Sensory Bin

Penguin Sensory Bin

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Since we are studying penguins right now, it seemed only fitting that we make a penguin sensory bin this week.  Also, Granola Girl has been crazy about penguins for years now. She is obsessed!

This sensory bin was the easiest one to make to date and the least expensive. I only used things I already had in the house.

Penguin Sensory Bin

Penguin Sensory Bin:

Materials:

  • cotton balls
  • penguin TOOB
  • penguin puppet
  • stuffed penguin

I used a blue tub so that it would look like water. I filled it with a bag of cotton balls, creating one hole in the cotton balls for a swimming area for the penguins. Then I added some toy penguins from a Safari Penguin TOOB, a penguin puppet and one of Granola Girl’s stuffed penguins.

Even though this penguin sensory bin is about as simple as it gets, the kids got hours of play out of it. They created stories and even filled the puppet with cotton balls at one point. You just never know where their sensory play will take them!

The addition of the puppet gives extra opportunity for kids to create stories and use their imagination.

If you’re new to making sensory bins, this is a great one to get started with. It’s mess free. It’s easy to make and it’s super cute!

If you are looking for more sensory ideas or information, you may be interested in my book.

The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

For more sensory ideas, grab a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Dollar Store Sensory Bin

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Sensory bins can be great fun for kids of all ages.  Though normally used for Preschoolers and kids with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), the bins are a big hit with all of my kids.  Four of my kids have SPD so I make them every week, but they can get expensive. Yesterday, I visited the dollar store and picked up these items:

feather boa, cork coasters, brightly coloured scouring pads, sponges, non-slip pads, sandpaper, squishy balls, textured ball, netting, coloured corrugated cardboard

I paired those items up with things from around the house such as a beaded necklace, tin foil, bubble wrap, cotton balls, buttons, screws, rocks, beads, plastic leaves, dry pasta, sequins, velcro, and a few toys to make a sensory bin.

The bin ended up costing about $11 to make and most of the items can be re-purposed or re-used in future sensory bins.

You can find other great sensory bin ideas in my book and by following my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

 The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Under the Sea Theme Party

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Just for fun, and as a kick off for our homeschool “under the sea” unit, I decided to throw together a little party.  We invited a few friends at the last minute, which only added to the fun and it was a great day.

Sensory bin: rice (easier clean up than sand), seashells, various undersea creatures, colourful seashell beads, glass rocks

Obviously, I wasn’t going to buy 20 bags of Goldfish crackers to fill the pail with, so I stuffed the pail with plastic grocery bags to almost the top and then added the fish crackers.  The popcorn represented coral.  The goggles and seashell necklaces we had around the house.  The blow-up fish and octopus I found for .99 cents each at Michael’s.  I found the cutest seashell cupcake liners and filled them with guppies (candy).  That was about the extent of my decorating other than the Finding Nemo cups, plates, napkin, bowls, and placemats that I happened to have in the storage room anyway.  I had planned the day already and was in the midst of setting things out the night before when I remembered that years earlier, I had bought a Finding Nemo party set for $9.99 that was still in the storage room!

  • various fish shaped fruit snacks
  • octopus chicken hot dog
  • applesauce ocean w/ blue whale swimming
  • goldfish crackers
  • shark and fish cheese
  • crab seashell pasta salad

These cupcakes were super easy to decorate.  I just iced them with buttercream icing tinted blue, added a pretzel stick fishing rod and a candy fish, then drew the fishing line with edible markers.  White icing would have looked better for the fishing line though.

To make things go as smoothly as possible, I made up the craft table ahead of time with the glue, scissors, paint, paintbrushes, googly eyes,  toilet paper rolls, tissue paper strips I had cut out, and jellyfish bodies my boys had cut out.

To make the octopus craft, make slits all the way around a toilet paper roll about halfway up.  Curl each one around a thick marker or your finger.  Paint it blue, including underneath the “arms”.  Allow to dry and then decorate with googly eyes, bingo dabbers, paint, or clay.

To make the jellyfish craft, cut the body shape out of construction paper and tape or glue strips of tissue paper to the bottom.  (when we cut out the body shapes, we used scalloped scissors along the bottom) Decorate by glueing googly eyes and making spots with Bingo dabbers or paint.

The crafts were the biggest hit of the party.  Even the youngest kids (2 and 3 years old) enjoyed making these.

I sent each of the kids home with a little bag of just a few things including more seashell beads, a stencil, ring, and sea life grow creature.  I got a pack of 12 ocean themed stencils for .99 cents at Michael’s.

Here are some more pictures of how the day went.  There were 14 kids there and no major mishaps, so that qualifies as a big success with me!

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book. The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins