We built this Easter Sensory Bin for $12 with items found at the Mighty Dollar Store, Michaels, and a few items we already had on hand.  Many sensory bins I am able to build with little or no cost when we have items already on hand.

Here are some of the items that went into our Easter Sensory Bin:

Easter Erasers  Three sets each of six different erasers for counting, sorting, matching, patterns)
Chickens that lay candy eggs.
Mama and baby ducks
Plastic Easter eggs of various colors (for hiding objects in, color matching, sorting, counting)
Easter Tongs (for fine motor skills in grasping and transferring, eye hand coordination)
Easter grass (to help hide items in)
Colorful Jacks ( to count, sort, match, make patterns, spin like tops, and learn to play “Jacks” good for eye hand coordination)
Wooden Eggs
Wooden letter blocks (spelling, letter recognition, stacking, building, counting, color matching)
Egg tray (pictured further down, it was great for sorting, color matching, and counting)



Yellow lacing buttons
Yellow lace
Colored Clothes Pins (matching, counting, sorting, fine motor skills in clipping them on cards and ribbons)
Orange Ribbon (measuring, lacing)
Green Ribbon
Colored Pom Poms (counting, sorting, matching colors, making patterns)
Mini Dominoes (stacking, counting, building, matching)
Stacking Sorting Sizing Cups
Chop Stick Tongs
Spring cookie cutters
Easter Container (holds smaller objects for transferring, sorting, counting)
Stone Cross Necklace (to symbolize Jesus Christ’s death on the cross)
Rock (to symbolize the stone that was rolled away and his resurrection)



My three year old daughter built the sensory bin all by herself.  She is going through a phase of stubborn independence and doesn’t want help, most of the time.  So this is one of those times where it was great to let her show her independence and build her own sensory bin from the items.



She knew exactly to put her grass in first.  Though I did stop her at one bag.  This stuff just takes over.  We could have easily just used a half a bag, or even done with out it.  It actually gets in the way when the children go to use the tongs to discover hidden objects.  They got a handful of grass everytime with every scoop.  So this is something I may leave out next Easter.



She had so much fun creating this bin.  She took her time in placing each item just “so” as she went along.

As soon as she had it built, she was ready to dig in and play.  She immediately started with the bunny shaped tongs, colored eggs, and the colorful egg tray.  She knew just what she wanted to do with it.



She enjoyed touching and feeling everything.  She wanted each egg upside down so after picking it up with her tongs from the bin, she placed it into the tray with the tongs, picked it back up with her hands to turn it the “right” way, and set it back into position.

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She enjoyed stacking these clothespins into the sorting cups and making rainbows with them.



She made pretty patterns with jacks and erasers.

 

She just had so much fun, and there were many more fun things she did with the sensory bin.  Here she is practicing picking up pom poms with her chop stick tongs, and placing them in the egg tray.  Sometimes she would drop one and have to chase it across the table to catch it with her tongs.



Little brother is two, and he had just as much fun with the sensory bin when he woke up from his nap.

He started off with unloading the bin.  First, he pulled out all the grass, and it was going everywhere until I offered him another bin to place it in.  He inspected everything in the sensory bin.  One of his favorites were the mini dominoes (he loves the larger dominoes to, but this time I found a mini set to include that he had not seen before), and the mini blocks.  He placed everything he could cram into the easter jar container and the lid did not want to go on it was so full.  But one thing he let me know for sure, he did not like Easter grass in his way.



A lacing activity with the large buttons quickly caught his eye.  He started lacing several buttons together and was very proud of himself.

He worked very carefully at putting the lace into the holes on the buttons.



Here he is saying “Look Mom, I did it!”



Building sensory activity bins with children is a lot of fun.   I love to set it out for them to play and find various items to experiment with.  It fosters the development of so many learning skills, including their imagination.

Children of various ages enjoy the bins too.  My older boys enjoy it almost as much as the younger children do.  I found them building with various items, having chicken and duck races, making nests for the eggs, spelling words with the letter blocks, spinning the jacks like tops, playing jacks, bouncing balls, playing dominoes, making patterns and designs, juggling eggs, and so on.

Have you tried using sensory bins with your children?  Be sure to leave us a comment and tell us about it.  Thank you.



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