Halloween Sensory Activity: Dollar Store Bin

BOO! It’s time for a Halloween sensory activity for CHEAP.

I’m a big fan of keeping toddler activities cheap – it’s literally been my MO since day 1.

But the Dollar store takes it up a notch, and I can now make Holiday activities for cheap too. This is a big deal in my life!

RELATED: Looking for more easy Halloween activities? Check out my post on “40+ Halloween Activities for Toddlers”.

I want to give my kids a great holiday…

But I’m not going to blow the budget! So I thought: orange rice and toys from the dollar store. Now that’s a winning combination!

PLUS – orange rice can be used long past Halloween and these Halloween supplies aren’t “one and done”. We can use them in other activities (like this Eyeball Soup) and save them for next year.

So for a recap: We have a reusable sensory base with reusable toys. All for $6. I can totally manage this.

Here’s how I made this awesome Halloween sensory activity.

First – you gotta dye the rice.

That’s the easiest thing!

How to dye rice:

The ratio of dying rice is 1 cup dry rice to 1 Tablespoon vinegar. Put it into a resealable bag with some generous squirts of food coloring.

Materials:

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• Orange food coloring (I’ve had this same bottle for three Halloweens now…)
• Black food coloring
• Rice
• Plastic bags

So for this I did about 10 cups of rice. I ended up putting 5 cups in a bag at a time to make sure the orange dye got good and distributed.

Lay it out to dry on a cookie sheet for a few hours (or pop it in the oven at 180 degrees for a few minutes) and your rice is ready to go.

RELATED: Here’s another Halloween sensory bin I made using orange rice.

Now for the Halloween toys…

I bought a few bags of eye balls and a few bags of Halloween plastic toys from the Dollar store. It felt like a solid investment.

I dumped those bags into the bin along with all the orange rice.

Nothing says Happy Halloween like a fun little sensory bin.

I love Holiday activities, I do…

But holiday activities can sometimes mean buying loads of stuff for one time use and that doesn’t have to be the case!

Buying just these few supplies will last years of Halloween fun – and for so cheap!

My kids had a blast working in this Halloween sensory activity.

Just for fun, I added in some jars and scoops that I keep lying around the house for sensory moments like this.

One of my kids made “monster ice cream”.

One started sorting the Halloween toys into the jars.

And one (the 24 month old) was content to just scoop, pour, bury, and dig.

You should definitely make a Halloween sensory activity!

Run to the dollar store and pick up some supplies for cheap! Making fun Halloween themed projects for your kids doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

When will you make a Halloween sensory activity?