Fun Summer Sensory Bin

With school out and the kids home, I’m always looking for fun activities to keep them engaged and to have creative fun. It feels like we are outside most of the summer, but on those rare rainy days, or when we are cooling off indoors, a project like a summer sensory bin is perfect for my littles! Apple and Adelaide especially enjoyed playing with this summer sensory bin, and it was simple enough to put together!

Why We Love Sensory Play

We love sensory play because it is a great screen-free way to keep our kiddos busy and having fun, awesome for if you need a quiet moment or have something that you need to get done. All the mamas know what I mean, these moments can sometimes feel rare!

Sensory play has a lot of benefits for children from supporting language and development, a great way to work on fine motor skills, cognitive growth, problem solving skills, and more. I also find it’s really calming for my kids, I notice this each time they are finished playing. Overall, it can be a wonderful way to support cognitive brain development through play! Summer sensory bin toddlers to summer sensory bin preschool these are perfect for a range of ages!

Sensory Play Ideas

You can really get creative with the type of summer sensory bin ideas that you create. I love the idea of making them seasonal, like this summer sensory bin! From the holidays, to springtime, summer or fall, or even specific celebrations like Valentine’s Day, Birthdays, Halloween, Easter — you get the picture! One tip that I have is to walk the aisles in craft stores, dollar stores, the dollar spot in Target. You never know what small items you might come across that will spark an idea that is perfect for a summer sensory bin for preschool! We also collect little tools this way too, like play tweezers, little scoops and more!

Summer Sensory Bin

For a summer sensory bin, I couldn’t resist a beach theme, especially since we just had our family beach vacation! First, you’ll want to grab a clear plastic bin. My guess is you may already have something like this on hand at home! Next you’ll pick the base. You can go with rice, tiny pasta, or even something like kinetic sand. Next add all of your fun accessories: tiny towels, mermaid dolls, “sun” umbrellas, seashells, sea creatures, get as creative as you’d like! We will also often add things like mini pom poms and gem stones — my girls love this! Little glass stones that would normally be used as vase filler, can mimic the look of water! Pictured here, we printed one of our Artful Home summer printables, so cute!

I’ll often add some play dough to our sensory bins, a mini rolling pin, and some cookie cutters that go along with the theme. My girls will honestly play with these for close to an hour in one sitting, and we can pull the same bin out and reuse it whenever they want!

I truly do believe, if you go through your kids toys and craft supplies, and check your pantry, you’d be surprised how much of this you may already have on hand. These are so much fun to put together!

Watch the video here! 

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