Make a Simple Animal Sensory Bin

Table of Contents:

1. Have an animal lover? Make this animal sensory bin ASAP!
2. It’s all about the animals.
3. Here’s what you need for the animal sensory bin
4. Time to get these animals rescued.
5. She restarted this activity then took it from there…
6. A simple animal sensory bin for the Mom win.
7. Will your child help rescue in this animal sensory bin?

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Have an animal lover? Make this animal sensory bin ASAP!

Here’s the story of how some tiny animals and cornmeal make for one fantastic toddler activity. Great toddler activities don’t have to be fancy to be awesome. And this animal sensory bin is proof.

Wondering if my daughter will make a giant mess with this bin? Nah, she’s good, because I taught her all about sensory bin etiquette and your toddler can learn too! Read about it here.

It’s all about the animals.

My daughter (3) loves her animals so we use them in activities all the time. Sure, I could branch out and put pom pom balls or trucks or people into her sensory bins…

But that’s not what she likes.

She likes animals so give me ALL THE ANIMAL SENSORY BINS.

Any way that I can change up a sensory bin to make it work with animals for her, you better believe I’m going to do it.

And that’s how I came up with this “Animal Help Sensory Bin” idea. It was perfect.

Here’s what you need for the animal sensory bin:

Materials:

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• Small animals – we have so many of these animals, but they’re the best, they don’t break, we love them.
• Sensory bin
• Storage container – I like a 28 qt large container and a 17 qt smaller one.
• Ice cube tray
• Plastic tongs – we use these A LOT.
• Cornmeal – about 2 lbs worth that I’ve had for about two years now, saved in a Ziplcock

You’ll probably want to set this all on a big blanket. Be smart about sensory bins, especially if your child is new to sensory play, and this sets EVERYONE up for success.

Dump the cornmeal and the animals into the smaller storage bin, then place it all inside the larger bin. Add the tongs and set the ice cube tray next to the bin.

RELATED: Ever wonder what kids are learning when they play with a sensory bin? Here’s the answer.

Time to get these animals rescued.

My daughter carefully used the tongs to rescue each animal to take them to safely in the ice cube tray.

I warned you this wasn’t a fancy activity, but it’s a good one. She had all sorts of imaginative play going on with these animals as she carried them to safety.

(Not to mention she’s getting a great fine motor skills work out going using those tongs to pinch.)

She restarted this activity then took it from there…

Once she had rescued all the animals from her sensory bin, she dumped them all back in the cornmeal. Time to find them again!

The next time, though, she moved on from rescuing them and started playing her own imaginative games with the supplies she had. She sat with that bin for more than 20 minutes playing with the animals and her cornmeal.

No surprise there. Sensory bins have a way of holding attention spans like no other activity can.

A simple animal sensory bin for the Mom win.

I was pretty happy with how this one came out, with no real effort or fuss from me. Toddler activities don’t need to be Pinterest worthy to be amazing. They just need to capture little attention spans… and this animal sensory bin does just that.

Will your child help rescue in this animal sensory bin?