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.