Need some Valentine’s Day sensory bins that won’t break the bank?
Here’s my favorite of all the Valentine’s sensory bins I’ve done!
It’s unique yet simple, with lots of different textures and colors that look super interesting (even to grown ups like me 😉 )
Start out with some bowtie pasta – it’s Valentine’s Day so even your sensory bins gotta dress up a little 😆
Pour the pasta into a ziplock bag and add a few drops of red food coloring with a little water just to get enough to coat the pasta.
Some people swear by using another ingredient like hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol to make the color spread evenly, but since sensory stuff always ends up in someone’s mouth no matter how hard you try, I try to avoid chemical stuff if possible. I found with this, a little water added to the food coloring worked perfectly well.
Let it dry out – I started this in the morning, and it was fully dry by afternoon.
For a nice white color and smooth texture, I added a bag of dried white beans.
Everything else I added to this bin was compliments of the dollar tree’s Valentine’s day section 😃 I wanted to keep the color and heart theme so anything heart-shaped, white, red or pink in color, and with varying sizes and textures went right in my cart!
These balls are great because they not only have colors to name but also give opportunities to practice size comparison – is this ball big, medium, or small?
In case you’re new to my sensory posts – here’s my sensory tool recommendation!
These little things are worth the money (and really they aren’t that pricey – see them on Amazon here) because not only are they interesting to the kiddos but they are designed to work their fine motor muscles while introducing STEM concepts!
Each one uses a fine motor motion to work a simplified version of an engineering/simple machine concept!
And of course it wouldn’t be a Ms. Jerica sensory bin if she didn’t have something to tickle the kiddos with 😆 These crinkly papers are the perfect addition of texture to this bin.
These little heart containers were an amazing find and definitely this friend’s favorite!
Not only are they a great tool for fine motor (scooping, pouring, pinching, opening, shutting)…
…but they can also be used for language and math concepts (open, shut, empty, full)!
We practiced “open and shut” a lot with this one 🙂
“Open!”
“Shut!”
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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