Steps to Making a Sensory Bin

After you watch the video, you can find the steps written below.

Materials:

• Plastic bin (any size, Mrs. Alex used a sweater bin meant for storage under the bed)
• Plastic eggs (optional, but helpful)
• Paper grass (you can also use dry corn, water, sand, dry beans, dry oatmeal, pebbles or something else)
• Little toys or objects from around your house (toy cars, keychains, magnets, Q-tips, etc.)

Steps:

1. Use the paper grass (dry corn, sand, water, or another substance you chose) to fill your plastic container. It does not have to fill the container completely, but about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way full will be most helpful.
2. Then, place the items your child will find in the plastic eggs.
   • You can put all the objects in the plastic eggs first, or put half in plastic eggs and half directly in the bin.
   • If you don't have plastic eggs, you can use another object or just put each object directly in the bin.
3. Once you hide all the objects in the bin, encourage your child to dig through and find them all!

Extra steps or activities you can incorporate:

• Encourage your child to close their eyes as they find one and try to guess what the object is by feeling with their hands.
  • You can help them describe the shapes and details that they feel.
    • Do they feel wheels? What object might have wheels?
  • Once they identify the object, ask them what helped them figure out which object it was?
    • What helped you determine this was a car?
• You can start the activity with a scavenger hunt around the house. Encourage your child to look for small objects and toys, like what Mrs. Alex had in the video, and then make a list of all the objects you find.
  • Then, you can check the objects off as your child finds them in the bin.
• Create an alphabet list like Mrs. Alex, and then see how many letters you can check off while finding objects in the bin.