Toddler Sensory Bins

I came across the idea to use sensory bins with Emily a few months ago. I heard that they were great for helping her development and learning. The different textures, colors, shapes, and activities that can be done with them offer a ton of learning opportunities. So I knew I wanted to give them a try with her. 

There are places you can buy sensory bins already made, but after looking up some ideas, I decided to head to the Dollar Tree and pick up some supplies to make them ourselves. I made her 4 different bins with different themes and I’m sharing what we came up with and how I went about creating them.

I started by picking out themes for my bins. The party favor section and the toy section at the Dollar Tree have great options. Emily helped me pick out Under the Sea, Airplanes, All the Colors, and Play Food as our themes. 

Once we had items to go in our bins, we went to look for filler to fill each one of the bins. We were looking for things like rice, pasta, rocks, and brown sugar. We decided on blue gem stones for our Under the Sea bin, rice for the All the Colors bin, rocks for the Airplane bin, and pasta for the Play Food bin. I also grabbed some fun tools for her to use to play in the bins with. 

Once I had everything I needed, it only took about 10 minutes to put them all together. I spent less than $25 total and we have had so much fun playing with them. For easier clean up, I like to use a plastic table cloth so I can easily put back anything that came out of the bins during our playtime.

Have you ever made or used sensory bins before with your toddler? I would love ideas for new themes we can try for our next bins!