Are you looking for sensory bin fillers? We are sharing 25 of our favorite sensory bin fillers with you!
Filling The Sensory Bin
Our sensory bin is nothing fancy! A plastic tub. And it sits in a stand made of PVC pipe! (I’m clearly on a mission to make my classroom all PVC pipe!)
What makes the sensory bin so GREG-TASTIC is what goes inside! With some fairly cheap and easy items and some differentiated academic components, you have a super fun center/workstation/hippopotamus for your class!
Here’s how I differentiate my sensory bin:
I copy recording sheets on different color paper! The color of the paper matches the color of the group for centers.
When I create sensory bin resources, I create two different levels. The recording sheets have the same images so the ‘staches know what they’re looking for in the sensory bin!
For example: I made dinosaur bones and feet for CVC words and CVC-E words. The pink and purple group had dino feet on their pink and purple recording sheet. So they would grab a pink or purple recording sheet and because it has feet on it, they know to look for feet! Same with the blue and green group and CVC words on the bones!
Clear as mud?!
Sensory Bin Fillers
Halloween Fillers!
Oats and rubber critters from the Dollar Tree made a fun Halloween sensory bin! (The oats are messy but easy to clean up!)
This sensory bin uses orange rice and bowtie pasta dyed black!
The pumpkins are from our Pumpkin Research Project and the bats are from our Bats Research Project!
Here is our newest Halloween sensory bin! These are just split peas (green) and black beans! We found the skeleton hand at Dollar Tree and added that to the sensory bin for fine motor practice. They eyeballs are from the Dollar Tree as well!
They eyeballs are from our our Frankenstein creation!
Space Fillers
These are aquarium rocks! $5 for a bag and you have a fun space themed sensory bin!
The cards are from our Space Research Project!
Here’s another fun space sensory bin using aquarium rocks and the little aliens from Toy Story! We found these at Disney World!
These are available in our Martians And Aliens Creation!
Fairy Tales!
This is salt that I colored with food coloring! Yep, salt! I add in our letter gems and you have a magical fairy tale sensory bin! Wanna see how we made letter gems? Check out our post here!
Dinosaurs!
Floral moss from the Dollar Tree, some shells from Dollar Tree and plastic dinosaurs from Amazon! ROAR! (CLICK HERE to see the dinos on Amazon!)
The bones and feet are are from our Dinosaur Research Project!
Zoo!
This was perfect for the weeks leading up to the zoo trip! Green Crayola sand! And lion and tiger word cards!
Valentine’s Day!
This is a favorite! CARAMEL scented rice! I bought caramel extract and added a few drops to bags of rice and mixed! The whole classroom smelled like caramel for weeks! Add in some acrylic hearts from Dollar Tree and BAM!
This Valentine’s Day sensory bin uses glittery hearts and balls from Hobby Lobby! Because, well we love glitter!
The hearts are from our I HEART Valentine’s Day Creation!
Christmas/Holidays Around The World
We dyed pasta red and green for a festive feel! Add in ornaments and trees to differentiate learning! BAM!
The ornaments and trees are from our Christmas Tree Blackline Creation!
This is a fun sensory bin for Holidays Around The World! Simply cut up garland and add some small foam ornaments from Wal-Mart! The cards are from our Holidays Around The World research project!
This is peppermint scented rice. We dyed the rice red and add peppermint extract for a very fresh smell!
These Santa cards are from our Santa creation!
Football!
Beans and rubber footballs from Party City! I added word cards from my What Does The Fox Say CVC Word edition and BAM! Great fall sensory bin!
You could also use cards from our Football creation for your football sensory bin!
Winter And Snow
Epsom salt and blue gems from Dollar Tree create a winter wonderland!
The snowflakes are from our Blizzard Blackline Creation!
Fall
Oats and acrylic pumpkins, acorns and leaves from Dollar Tree!
This sensory bin for the fall is filled with corn that you would put in a bird feeder! We added some acorns and cards from our Rakin Leaves creation!
For this sensory bin we found some bags of glitter balls, fake pinecones and pumpkins at Hobby Lobby. We added turkey legs from our Thanksgiving Research Project!
St. Patrick’s Day!
Metallic beans! I used liquid metallic watercolor paint to make gold and silver beans! They were so shiny and sparkly! You know how I love sparkly things!
Add in some shamrocks and you’ve got a sensory bin fit for your leprechauns!
This sensory bin is lima beans dyed in rainbow colors! We added some glittery shamrocks and cards from our St. Patrick’s Day creation!
For this sensory bin, we used our metallic beans and added these glittery St. Patrick’s Day shapes from Michaels!
Easter!
Easter basket grass. Plastic eggs. Each egg is labeled with sight words! They match the sight words and write or color!
Click the picture to see my post about my plastic egg math and literacy center ideas!
We also used pasta dyed green and orange to make a fun carrot sensory bin!
For this sensory bin, we used our Carrot Sight Word game for sight words practice!
New Year’s Day!
For our New Year’s sensory bins we use disco balls from Hobby Lobby and some sparkly balls to go with the disco balls. We will use cards from our Smashing Disco Balls creation!
For this New Year sensory bin we use confetti and disco balls! The confetti is from Amazon! Click here to grab a bag or two!
We will use noisemakers and party hats from our Happy New Year creation in this sensory bin!
For more sensory bin information, check out these posts:
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9 comments
Do you have the measurements of you sensory bin? What I would need to make it? This looks like a perfect “lego” project for the Hubs!!!
This is amazing. It will be great for Sensory Processing Disorder children. How do you make the colored salt and the crayon colored rice? Thanks for sharing this.
what do the answer sheets look like. are students making words out of the cards, etc? I am new to kindergarten and need a lot of help.
The answer sheets are just pieces of paper that allow the students to color or write the answers. Recording sheets are included with all of my centers in my TPT Store!
Pom Poms are another favorite sensory bin filler for my kiddos. They love digging through pom poms! I also used shredded paper that I made from running construction paper through my home shredder.
How do you dye your rice and pasta?
I personally have done it with water colors and also with food coloring. Just put it in a ziploc bag with the food coloring and a little alcohol and shake! If with watercolor put in ziploc bag and shake!
Do you save all of your sensory bin materials for next year or do you have to keep buying new each year?
I save it when I can!