How to Make Your Own Sensory Bins

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Sensory bins are a simple way to encourage your child to explore the world through their senses. It combines colors with textures in a ready-made play bin for those moments when you need your toddler to be occupied while you tend to other needs in the house. That’s right, a good sensory bin makes life easier and prevents bigger messes.

“Sensory bins allow children to calm and reset by taking in information from their senses," family therapist Stacy Haynes of Little Hands Services told Mom.com. "We consider mindfulness to be an effective strategy for adults and children alike. Teachers and parents can use these to help children to regulate themselves and to refocus when they are struggling to focus.”

Sensory bin ideas: Suggested themes, items you might want to include

Ideas for sensory bins are limitless. “I’ve made sensory binds for families and for teachers. Items such as bubbles, scratch and sniff stickers, soft blankets, squeeze balls, jump ropes, and fidget spinners are all great items to have,” Haynes continued.

Customize sensory bins and make them in just about any type of theme you want. Think about what your child is most interested in or what you want to highlight for this particular bin. You might decide to change out bin themes regularly to keep your child most engaged.

Some potential themes include:

Seasonal themes: Include items that pertain to the season you are in such as fall leaves or winter pine cones.
Ocean theme: Sand, shells, driftwood, and ocean glass are great additions to these bins.
Chicken life cycle: From baby chicks to feathers and plastic eggs, set this bin up as a science learning center as well
Arctic animals theme: Ice and snow can be really made to go along with the animals and igloos you’d find in an arctic setting
Alphabet themes: Make a bin that corresponds with a particular letter of the alphabet and include things that start with that letter

There are literally thousands of ideas about how to structure and theme a sensory bin. Take school lessons and turn them into a theme or design a theme around an upcoming vacation. Changing themes give kids new things to explore and become interested in. There are no limits with it.

How to make a sensory bin: Storage tub, sensory tools, and measuring cups

Making a sensory bin is easy and can often be done with items you already have around the house. A basic sensory bin will be a tub filled with a variety of textured items such as sand, pasta noodles, beans, rice, and rocks.

First, find a good container such as an unused storage tub. A tub with a cover is a great place to store everything so your sensory bin can be used over and over. Choose a filler such as sand, rice, or play puffs. You may want to include sensory tools such as measuring cups, siphons, and spoons so that your child can explore the filler with different things. This helps build fine motor skills in kids. Then add theme items as desired.

Keep in mind that some sensory bins just include different filler options with different types of containers. For example, you may have dye rice with food coloring and have a rainbow of filler options that your child sorts with measuring cups placing them in different bowls or containers.

If you want to dye rice, add one teaspoon of vinegar to one cup of uncooked rice in a bowl. Add food coloring and mix well. The more food coloring you add, the deeper the color will be. Mix well. Spread rice on a paper towel to dry. It will take approximately 10 minutes.

Follow safety precautions when doing sensory play

Use sensory bins at any time to help your child learn more about the world around them, but they are especially useful when you need thirty minutes to do something or want to redirect a child who is having trouble dealing with a particular situation.

Remember to think about safety:

Items in the sensory bin should always be age-appropriate for your child. You’ll want to avoid items that are choking hazards. If your child does have a sensory bin with items that are in question, he should always be supervised while playing with it.
Check items such as shells, pasta, beans, and marbles that may be used in a sensory bin. These, along with plastic toys or animals could be dangerous. Always use precaution.
Make sure the items that you use are safe for children to handle. Remember that your child may put items in their mouth so using non-toxic items is critical. In fact, when possible, use natural items rather than plastics or factory-made things.

A popular item for sensory bins is homemade playdough. Mom of three Jenny Pierce shared shared this hack for homemade playdough. “I use Kool-Aid to color the playdough. It’s so easy and it gives it a nice smell that the kids love,” she told Mom.com. A simple homemade playdough recipe mixes one cup flour, ¼ cup salt, ¾ cup water, one tablespoon cooking oil, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Mix thoroughly and add either food coloring or Kool-Aid to color for simple homemade playdough.