sensory bin

Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin

‘Tis the season of giving and when I saw that package of Christmas bows waiting to be put on packages, I knew they were destined for another purpose in this house! Pretty much any item that comes through the door into our home becomes used for sensory play in one way or another. Using those decorative bows and some other sparkly festive items, I put together this Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin for the kids.

A few years ago, when I put together our Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin, I used a foil tray instead of a plastic bin. I like to change up the containers to keep it interesting and also to provide additional sensory input. The foil tray has ridges that provide that extra sensory feedback and it’s shiny so it provides a different visual component than a matte plastic container would.

When I saw how shiny the bows were, I decided that the foil tray would be the perfect container for this sensory bin. I looked around the house and in our sensory drawers and found some other items to complete this sensory play experience.

Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin:

Materials needed:

foil tray
Christmas gift bows
small decorative Christmas gifts (I found mine at the Dollar Store)
green shiny pompoms
mini Christmas ornaments

Place all the items into the foil tray. You can use a plastic bin if you don’t have a foil tray. You could also add ribbon curls or strips of holiday wrapping paper. The beauty of this sensory bin is that it uses items that you may already have. You could in fact create it after Christmas by reusing your gift wrap, bows and ribbons.

For dozens of other sensory bin ideas, check out all of our past Sensory Bins.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book all about it.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Christmas Ornament Sensory Bag

Take Flight with a Sky Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

Last year, we did a flight unit in our homeschool and I always like to add sensory elements to everything we study. It allows the kids to explore and use their imaginations and helps their retention. Recently, we created three sky sensory activities that would have complemented that unit nicely including this sky sensory bin. They would also work well with a weather unit.

For this sky sensory bin, we used a base of dry pasta that we dyed blue. If you’ve never dyed pasta before, you can read about how to do it using either rubbing alcohol or vinegar. (click those words and it will take you to simple tutorials for each method)

For the actual bin for this, I used a clear food storage container that was fairly deep. After filling it with the blue pasta shells, we added some of the items from the In the Sky Toob and used the remaining items from the tube to add to our Sky Sensory Bag and Sky Sensory Bottle.

The kids cut cloud shapes out of white foam and added them into the bin. We also added cotton balls to represent fluffy clouds. I like how colourful the items are. They make this such a cheerful looking sensory bin.

The hot air balloon from the In the Sky Toob was a particularly popular element and there were several imaginative play scenarios that resulted from it.

For dozens of other sensory bin ideas, check out all of our past Sensory Bins.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book all about it.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Joy Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

This Joy Sensory Bin is perfect for a bit of sensory play around the holidays. Even though we have been making sensory bins for a very long time now, it never ceases to amaze me how much enjoyment my kids still get out of them. I also am impressed at the different, out-of-the-box ways the kids think of playing when each bin.

I am in love with that picture because Dancing Queen’s face looks so peaceful which shows the power of sensory play with kids who have sensory needs and anxiety.

Making this sensory bin was a two part project. We made the letters for JOY by covering wooden letters with Modge Podge and sprinkling generously with silver glitter. When they were dry, I mixed Modge Podge with water and went over the sprinkles with it to seal them.

I used a blue bin and added fake snow (also called buffalo snow). I used a type that was iridescent because I liked the look of it but regular would work too.

I added white and blue pompoms, holiday shaped mini cookie cutters, white feathers, snowflake confetti in white, blue and silver, and the JOY letters.

Last year for Christmas, I made a Winter Wonderland sensory bin and while the kids loved it and we decided to use the same snow for this one because it was such a hit, I wanted to do something this year to convey a bit more about the real reason for the holidays so that is where the idea for the Joy Sensory Bin came from.

For hundreds of other sensory bin ideas, you can also follow my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Sensory Bins on Pinterest.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Eyeball Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

This sensory bin was most popular with my older kids. In fact, I happened to have it on the counter during a zombie theme party we had for our son and the preteen and teenage guests at the party loved it! Some of those boys spent more than twenty minutes playing in it. Don’t believe anyone who tries to tell you that sensory bins are only for little ones!

Eyeball Sensory Bin...even popular with older kids. To make this eyeball sensory bin, I used purple water beads, water, googly eye stickers, bright coloured eyeball finger puppet rings, and cartoon eye glasses. I began by filling a clear plastic bin with water and the purple water beads to allow them to soak up the water. When the water had been absorbed, I added the other items.

One of the ways the kids played with this bin was to play seek-and-find with the eyeball stickers that were here and there and everywhere.

Eyeball sensory bin with purple water beads The cardboard on the cartoon glasses got wet from the water beads after a few days so we ended up having to take those out, but they were a fun element while they lasted. The kids enjoyed trying them on and laughing at each other! They also liked playing with the ring finger puppets.

This would be a good sensory bin to go along with a Monsters theme unit or for Hallowe’en.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Autumn Sensory Bin with Birdseed and Cinnamon

By Sharla Kostelyk

When it comes to sensory bins, I usually make a new one every week and have an easy time coming up with ideas. I have a storage cart that houses sensory supplies so in a pinch, I search through there for inspiration and it only takes me a few minutes to put together a new bin.

This summer was the busiest we have ever had (four different camps between VBS, day camp, horse camp, and mountain bike camp for five of the kids, extended family camping trip, my trip to Virginia to speak at a blogging conference, family road trip to Vancouver Island, out of town wedding in the mountains where my husband was the best man, and various day trips) and trying to get back into the swing of homeschooling this Fall has not gone as smoothly as planned.

Even something as simple as coming up with a new sensory bin can add to the general feeling of overwhelm. That’s where great friends come in! My friend Michelle gifted me this sensory bin in a bag. She was one of the moms that did the sensory bin swap with me last year and since then, we have given each other a few bins-in-a-bag.

Autumn Sensory Bin with birdseed and cinnamon Making a bin-in-a-bag couldn’t be simpler. You take your latest sensory bin and dump the contents into a resealable bag and then pass it along to someone so that their kids can enjoy a new sensory bin experience.

Michelle’s Autumn Sensory Bin contained:

birdseed
cinnamon
bright coloured feathers
fall leaves (plastic)
thin gold rope
two scoops
green pompoms
a rock
a clothespin

Granola Girl said that this bin reminder her of an I-Spy sensory bin. She enjoyed playing with the different textures and she liked the cinnamon scent (though Michelle’s daughter was not a fan of it apparently!). Between the colours and the smell, this sensory experience was a great way to welcome Fall!

Autumn Sensory Bin I’m thankful that I have friends who share their sensory bins with me when I’m in a bit of a creative funk! (Michelle did give me permission to post pictures of her lovely creation).

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Frozen Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

There’s a Disney movie you may have heard of called Frozen. I am probably one of the few people in North America who has not seen it. I heard little snippets of it once when the kid had friends over who had brought the movie with them and they were all watching it in the other room while I made supper, but I have never sat down and watched it.

I can deduce though given the amount of references to the movie, the frequency of times I’ve been subjected to listen to “Let it Go” sung by my tone deaf daughter, and what I see in stores that this movie is a big deal, in particular to children of a certain age. In this case, given that I haven’t seen the movie, I guess you could say that I was inspired by the movie’s popularity to make a Frozen sensory bin.

For the base, I used salt, but you could also use sugar (which I don’t recommend because it may be too tempting for kids to eat it!) or epsom salt. I added reusable plastic ice cubes in purple and various shades of blue. I froze these to begin with to add another sensory element to the bin of having something cold.

I added fuzzy pompoms in blue and white, glass beads in blue and clear, a tiny Elsa figurine, and some larger Frozen characters, Olaf, Kristof, Anna, and Hans or Sven ( I don’t know which is which!).

This Frozen sensory bin is a simple one but it combines several textures and opens itself up to imaginative play with the addition of the characters.

For hundreds of other sensory bin ideas, you can also follow my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Sensory Bins on Pinterest.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.