The Chaos and the Clutter

sensory bin

Jungle Sensory Bin with Printable Feelings Cards

matching two cards of a cartoon sad giraffe

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Sensory bins are a fun way to get your kids engaged in imaginative play. And while they’re perfect for encouraging your child to play independently, you can also use these learning tools to help reinforce important concepts, like emotions. With this fun jungle sensory bin, your preschooler can have fun playing with cute jungle animals while also practicing emotional identification.hands hold up card with animals on them above a bin of dry split peasThis activity is great for preschools, Kindergarten classrooms, or home. You can easily adapt the questions you ask for older and younger kids. Learning opportunities:

  • early reading
  • matching
  • jungle animals
  • emotions
  • sensory play

How to Make a Jungle Sensory Bin

Materials Needed:

  • Large bin or dish
  • Split peas or other green filler (see suggestions below)
  • Toy jungle animals
  • Printable jungle animal feelings cards (you can download those here)
  • Scissors
  • Laminator (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Fill the bin with your filler material.
  2. Add the jungle animal toys.
  3. Print out the jungle animal feelings cards and cut them out. Laminate for durability, if desired.
  4. Place the cards inside the bin with the toys.

process of cutting out jungle animal cards and putting them in a sensory bin

How Do You Play with this Feelings in the Jungle Sensory Bin?

After you put your jungle themed bin together with the filler, toys, and printable cards, it’s time for your kids to have some fun! Let your child explore the items in the bin independently first. Then, you can encourage them to identify the different feelings they see on the animal cards.

These simple prompts are a great way to get your kids thinking about the jungle themed animals inside their sensory bin:

  • Point at the sad lion.
  • Show me the angry zebra.
  • Find the happy giraffe.
  • Which animal is angry?
  • How is the zebra feeling?
  • Can you find the sad giraffe?
  • Why do you think the lion is crying?
  • Is the zebra excited?

matching two cards of a cartoon sad giraffe

Since this printable activity features a variety of feelings and emotions on each set of cards, your kid can have tons of fun playing with their favorite jungle animals and learning about feelings at the same time. The cards feature three different popular jungle animals: giraffes, lions, and zebras. And each animal displays 10 different emotions:

  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Disgusted
  • Shy
  • Confused
  • Scared
  • Shocked
  • Crying
  • Excited

cartoon jungle animals such as a lion and zebra

Jungle Sensory Bin Variations

  • Use different filler materials, like Easter grass, Spanish moss, small rocks, sand, water beads, or colored rice
  • Add other jungle themed toys, like small trees, sticks, flowers, or leaves
  • Provide fine motor toys, like tweezers or scoops, to add to the jungle fun
  • Use the cards outside of the box by helping your child match the different animal’s emotions

boy's hand plays with a toy animal in a bin of dry green lentils

Activities to Expand Your Jungle Sensory Bin Lesson

  • Read books about jungle animals or emotions
  • Identify your own emotions as they occur throughout the day
  • Discuss how different situations make you or your child feel as they’re happening
  • Draw or paint pictures of different jungle animals or emotions

cards of jungle animals in a bin of green split peas

Sign up with your email address to receive the free printable emotion matching cards.

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Easter Egg Hunt Sensory Bin

yellow and purple with toy sparkly eggs and the letters to spell Easter Egg Hunt

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Sensory bins are perfect for interactive play. And when you add in seasonal elements, they’re a fun way to celebrate a holiday with your little ones too. This adorable Easter egg hunt sensory bin is filled with unique ways for your kids to explore using an Easter theme, whether they’re learning at home or in the classroom.

yellow on one side, purple on the other with sparkly eggs and a fluffy chick. Text reads "Easter Egg Hunt Sensory Bin"Using common Easter themed items in your sensory bin is the perfect way to get your kids playing and learning by using their senses. Each item on the bin is designed to help your child learn as they play by engaging at least one of their senses – sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

Easter Egg Hunt Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

yellow and purple with toy sparkly eggs and the letters to spell Easter Egg HuntInstructions:

  1. Spread the yellow and purple Pluffle in the bottom of the bin, placing one colour on each side.
  2. Place the letters in the bin. You can use the letters to spell out words (like Easter Egg Hunt) or simply let your kids play with the letters and spell words on their own. Kids love to spell out their own names and familiar words. 
  3. Spread the sequin eggs and baby chick toys around inside the bin.
  4. Place the magnifying glass on top of the items for the kids to use.

collage of photos of a yellow and purple Easter sensory bin

Easter Sensory Bin Activities

Once you have your sensory bin set up, your kids can explore each item inside the bin as they play. These sensory bin activities are fun ways to encourage your kids to explore:

  • Use the magnifying glass. Move the magnifying glass over each element in the sensory bin and explore the different colours and textures up close. Compare the fluffy chick’s feathers to the smooth letters to see how they are different.child's hand holding a magnifying glass over a sequined egg
  • Touch the different items in the bin. Use your fingers to touch each item in the bin and describe what each one feels like. Which items in the bin are soft? Which are hard?
  • Squish the Pluffle. Use your hands, a spoon, or a scoop to move the Pluffle around. Squish the Pluffle in your hands or combine the colours to see what happens.
  • Sort or spell with the letters. Put the letters in alphabetical order, sort them by colour, or spell Easter words with them inside the sensory bin.
  • Play hide and seek. Hide the eggs or chicks under the Pluffle and dig around in the bin to find them. Or play a game with a friend or sibling by hiding items inside the bin and asking someone else to find the hidden treasures.hand squishes purple and yellow Pluffle

Check out our other Easter sensory ideas:

Nature Inspired Easter Sensory Bin

plush bunny sits by a sensory bin filled with moss, grass, and toy butterflies

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Using nature as inspiration for your sensory bin is a great way to provide your toddler or preschooler with educational interactive fun. And since spring is right around the corner, Easter is the perfect time to create a nature activity for your kids. With this nature inspired Easter sensory bin, your little ones can have some educational fun while exploring nature at home. stuffed bunny, moss, grass, sticks, and toy insects. Text reads "Nature Inspired Easter Sensory Bin"Nature provides your kids with tons of opportunities to explore and meet their sensory needs. From smelling the flowers to touching the soft grass, there are several ways your child can use their senses while playing outside. And that’s why nature is the perfect inspiration for an Easter sensory bin.collage of photos of a hand playing in a Spring sensory bin

Nature Inspired Easter Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed: 

plush bunny sits by a sensory bin filled with moss, grass, and toy butterfliesInstructions: 

  1. Add the Spanish moss to the tray. Add the artificial grass on top. Spread out evenly.
  2. Place the artificial plants, flowers, and mini birch logs around the bin. 
  3. Add the stones, rocks, and gems to the bin. 
  4. Add the butterflies and dragonflies to the bin. 
  5. Set the bunny near the bin. 

collage of photos of creating an Easter sensory bin

Nature Inspired Sensory Bin Activities

Once you have your sensory bin put together, it’s time to let your kids explore.

If you’re looking for ways to encourage your kids to play, try these fun activity suggestions:

  • Play with the bunny in the bin. Encourage pretend play by asking your child to play with the bunny in the bin. They can make the bunny interact with the different elements of the bin and use their imagination as they play.
  • Touch the different elements and compare the textures. Explore their sense of touch by touching each item to see what it feels like. Then, compare the different textures to see which ones are similar, like the rocks and gems, and which ones are different, like the logs and moss.

hand playing in an Easter sensory bin

  • Listen to nature sounds. In addition to invoking your kids’ sense of touch, this nature inspired sensory bin can also let your child use their ears to hear. Figure out what sounds the elements make when rubbed together or moved from spot to spot.
  • Encourage imaginative play. After child plays with the bunny, your child can also use the butterflies and dragonflies for play. Show them how the insects interact with the different elements in the bin, then let them use their imagination to play with the toys.
  • Sort and organize. Practice sorting and organizing the elements in the bin into different categories, like colour, shape, or size.
  • Compare to nature. Take a look at each element in the bin and compare it to items found in nature. Ask your child what each item looks like and then let them guess what it is and where in nature you can find it.

hands holding toy butterflies

Check out some of our other Easter sensory activities for kids:

Easter Fluffy Slime

Eggs and Carrots Easter Sensory Bin

Sensory Sound Eggs

On the Go Christmas Sensory Tub

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The holidays are full of excitement. They also carry with them their fair share of stress, even for kids. It’s with that in mind that we created this On the Go Christmas Sensory Tub.

Sensory play can be very calming for kids. Being able to take something like this with them to events or in the vehicle can help your child better manage their emotions. It would also make a good addition to their Christmas Calm Down Kit. red and white sand with green jingle bells and clear gems with text "On the Go Christmas Sensory Tub"The items for this portable sensory activity were all purchased at the Dollar Store, so it is very inexpensive to create.

The red and white sand swirled together gives a bit of a candy cane look. The jingle bells add a sound element as well as giving a nice contrast of colour.

On the Go Christmas Sensory Tub:

Supplies needed:

Directions:

  1. In a bowl, mix together the red and white sand.
  2. Toss in the other materials. Mix together.
  3. Transfer into portable containers with lids.

As with all sensory activities, adult supervision should be used at all times.

Helpful tip: If you’re wanting to use this in the vehicle and are worried about mess or spills, you can transfer the contents to a resealable bag and seal to create a Christmas Sensory Bag.

This on the go Christmas Sensory Tub engages the visual, tactile, and auditory (because of the jingle bells) sensory systems.

Check out these other holiday sensory activities:

Fill an Ornament Sensory Bag

Deconstructed Christmas Tree Sensory Bottle

Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin

Bee Life Cycle Sensory Bin

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A bee life cycle sensory bin is a hands-on way to reinforce learning for kids on this topic. You can use this bin in a science unit or at a sensory station in your home or classroom.Bee Life Cycle Sensory Bin #sensorybin #sensoryplay #beelifecycle #kidsactivities #scienceWalk kids through the transformation of a bee from egg to larva to pupa to a mature honey bee. You can either add everything to the bin all at once, or you can add them in after the amount of time they would happen in real life.

In that case, you would add the egg on the first day and it would “hatch” into the larva after 3 or 4 days, so you could add the larva on that day. The next stage takes between 6 and 11 days depending on whether the bee is a future queen or a worker bee.

Bee Life Cycle Sensory Bin:

Materials needed:

Life Cycle of a Honey BeeLife Cycle of a Honey BeeLife Cycle of a Honey BeeYellow Water BeadsYellow Water BeadsYellow Water BeadsBlack Water BeadsBlack Water BeadsBlack Water Beads

  1. Place the water beads in a plastic container. I used three packs of yellow beads and one pack of black water beads.
  2. Add water.
  3. Allow the water beads to expand fully (this will take several hours) before adding the items from the life cycle of a bee package.

Kids can use their hands to dig in the bin and touch each of the stages in the honey bee cycle. If you’ve included some honey, they will also be able to use their sense of taste and smell to enhance their learning.

This sensory bin engages the visual and tactile sensory systems and if honey is included, it also engages the olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) systems as well. This is hands-on learning at its best.

If you’re doing a learning unit on bees, here are some other great resources to check out:

Free Bee Life Cycle Printables from Homeschool Preschoool

How to Make a Bee Habitat from Natural Beach Living

Printable Life Cycle of a Bee Layer Book from Passionate Curiosity

Books that would go along well with this unit:

Are You a Bee?Are You a Bee?Are You a Bee?Book Plus Bee Life Cycle Foam ModelBook Plus Bee Life Cycle Foam ModelBook Plus Bee Life Cycle Foam ModelThe Life and Times of the HoneybeeThe Life and Times of the HoneybeeThe Life and Times of the HoneybeeThe Life Cycle of a HoneybeeThe Life Cycle of a HoneybeeThe Life Cycle of a HoneybeeThe Bee BookThe Bee BookThe Bee BookFive Bizzy Honey BeesFive Bizzy Honey BeesFive Bizzy Honey Bees

Check out some of our other science related sensory bins:

Solar System Sensory Bin Solar System sensory bin glows in the dark

Insect Sensory Bin 

Insect Sensory Bin with Pasta

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This Insect Sensory Bin is a great addition to a preschool unit on insects or Spring. It has a variety of textures and colours. This adds to both the visual and tactile sensory experiences.

Insect Sensory Bin #sensory #sensoryplay #sensorybins #sensoryscienceWe used this sensory bin while studying insects in our homeschool. The kids enjoyed playing in it. The green rice looks like grass and made us look forward to Spring.

My kids were quite surprised that there was a pasta shaped like insects! We used some of the pasta for the sensory bin and cooked the rest for lunch. This created a gustatory (taste) sensory experience for them as well.This particular sensory bin was one of the ones we had made in our sensory bin swap. That meant that when the kids and I got to the insect unit in our science, I could easily just dump the contents of the bag into a bin and voila!

Insect Sensory Bin:

*you can find a tutorial on how to dye rice for sensory play here.

Bug Shaped PastaBug Shaped PastaBug Shaped PastaStretchy BugsStretchy BugsStretchy BugsPlastic Bugs and ArachnidsPlastic Bugs and ArachnidsPlastic Bugs and Arachnids

A note about the dyed rice:

When you’re finished using this sensory bin, you can store the green rice in a resealable plastic bag. The green rice makes a nice sensory bin base for a lot of different themes because it looks like grass. You can also use it inside sensory bottles or bags.

Spiders are not insects:

Yes, I know that spiders are not an insect. The kids wanted to add them and we actually used it as a compare and contrast science lesson on why they are not an insect. If you prefer to have this be an authentic insect sensory bin, simply leave the spiders out!

Ideas to expand the learning:

  • Add magnifying glasses to the sensory bin.
  • Set out books about insects and let the kids try to match them up.
  • Add scoops, small cups, and tweezers for fine motor skill practise.

You may also be interested in checking out these sensory bins:

Frog Sensory Bin Frog Sensory Bin Play

Spring Sensory BinÂ