Birthday Cake Sensory Bin

This easy birthday cake sensory bin is perfect for any little aspiring chef! Made with homemade playdough and complete with loads of sprinkles and fake candles, this bin keeps preschoolers happily baking up something good!

After many years of mothering, I have learned that it is a good idea to have an activity planned for the afternoon. I usually have something set up for Harp like a paper craft or something she can get creative with, but lately we have been LOVING sensory bins. 

Harper loves to bake, so the idea for this birthday cake sensory bin came around. I thought she would love the chance to play with sprinkles, and I was right. When she came home from preschool, she was ready to get her hands into this bin! I have a feeling your little one will want to do the same should you recreate this project.

This was easy to assemble and super economical. You likely have all of the supplies on hand!

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Supplies:

1/2 cup of shampoo (any kind will do, including something from the dollar store!)

 2 tablespoons of water

1 cup of flour

Sprinkles

Silicone cupcake molds, small cake pans, small dishes for forming cakes. Your childs play food collection is a great place to find materials to use in this bin.

Washi Tape

Small Craft Sticks

A battery operated votive candle

Tissue Paper in orange, yellow or red

A baking dish or a bin with a lid

To make the birthday cake dough:

Add one cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of water and 1/2 cup of shampoo together in a medium bowl. 

Begin to stir, as the ingredients start to bind together, finishing mixing with your hands.

 If the dough feels sticky, you will add a little more flour, no more than 1/4 cup.

Test for stickiness. If the dough is still sticky, add a little more flour and continue to mix until it doesn't stick to your hands.

To make fake candles:

You will need a length of washi tape that can cover a craft stick on both sides.

Allow the tape to slightly overlap the craft stick and place small squares of tissue paper on the top of the stick. I layered orange and yellow tissue paper to resemble a flame.

Fold the tape up to cover the other side of the craft stick.

Trim the edges of the tape on the sides of the craft stick.

Trim your tissue paper to resemble a flame.

To assemble the birthday cake activity bin:

Pour a bottle of sprinkles in the bottom of the dish or storage container you plan to use.

Add the dough.

Add small dishes like play food dishes, silicone cupcake molds, small baking dishes.

Add the fake candles and a battery operated votive candle, if you have one.

Invite your child to explore the activity. They will form cakes, decorate with sprinkles and add candles to serve birthday cake!

Find more hands on play ideas here

In the Sky Bin

Sushi Bin

Play Doh Ideas

Cat in the Hat Pattern Making Sensory Bin

This year in honor of Dr.  Seuss's birthday we made this easy and fun Cat in the Hat Pattern Making sensory bin. This is a fun way to put your puffle to good use and work on pattern making skills which later help kids grasp math concepts.

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We love sensory bins, bags and play! Both of my kids still get excited when they see I have a new bin ready to explore. This one was a huge hit because they had been itching to get their hands into pluffle. This is such a fun squishy foam! It is a must have for sensory play!

Supplies:

Pluffel

Assorted red and white items.We used cotton balls, feathers, legos, mini clothespins and glittery Christmas scatter

Measuring spoons, tongs and other fun items to pick up the items in the bin with.

A large tray or a plastic storage bin.

Directions:

Pour pluffle on to a tray or into a storage bin.

Make sure you take a moment to squeeze, form and otherwise take in the pluffle; it is a great sensory play option and adults will enjoy the texture too.

Next, offer your child an assortment of red and white items.

We used tiny clothespins, legos in red and white, feathers, cotton balls, and Christmas scatter that was glittery and red.

Encourage your child to recreate the stripes of the Cat in the Hat's hat.

This is a great opportunity to use fine motor skills with the spoons and tongs. Encourage your child to try placing the items with those tools as well as their fingers.

When play time is over, you can snap a lid on the bin, or put it all back in the pluffle container for future play sessions. Pluffle never dries out!

You can find all of my sensory ideas here.

Favorites include:
Rainbow Rice BinVeggie Garden Sensory Bin

Rainbow Disc Sensory Bag

Give kids a fun way to sort colors while getting a little sensory play in with this rainbow disc sensory bag.

We love sensory play. From bins to bags, and even bottles; anyway you present sensory play we are in!

With the kids being out of school for so long I have been really busy coming up with activities to engage them, challenge them, and keep them entertained. We made this easy sensory bag to practice our color sorting and pattern making skills. It is perfect for adding some color to the day.

Supplies:

Hand Sanitizer or Hair Gel

Rainbow Counting Chips

Zipper Seal Bag

Sharpies

Directions:

Draw a rainbow on a zipper seal sandwich bag with Sharpies.

Add several squirts of hand sanitizer or hair gel (about a tablespoon or two of gel is ideal).

Drop transparent colored counting chips (or bingo markers) in the colors of the rainbow into the bag.

Seal well. If your child has 'rough hands' you might want to reinforce the sides with tape to prevent the sides from busting. (This is a good idea for toddlers, but can be skipped for older kids!)

If your child has 'gentle hands' you can skip the reinforcement with tape.

Invite your child to glide the discs thru the gel and place them on the color they match.

When finished, check the seal to be sure it is closed and store for another day when a quiet activity is needed.

You can find all of my sensory play ideas here:

Reader favorites include:

Sensory party in a bag

Birthday Cake Sensory Bin

Squishy Eye Sensory Bag

Squishy, silly, sensory play with a spooky feel just in time for Halloween!

We love sensory play! Bins, bag and sensory activities are always a hit with my kids!

I made this easy but oh so fun  spooky eyes sensory bag for Harper. It is perfect for Halloween and can be used in several ways. 

This bag makes a great stress reliever for little hands. Kids feel stress too, and squishing this bag helps them to relieve some of it. But, this spooky eye sensory bag is also a fun way to practice sorting skills.

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Supplies:
Hair gel
Zipper seal bag
Googly Eyes

Squeeze about 1/4 cup of hair gel into a zipper seal bag.

Add googly eyes.

Seal the bag.

If your child has a tendency to use rough hands or is a toddler, you might want to reinforce the sides of the bag with duct tape.

Invite your child to squish, squeeze and sort the spooky eyes sensory bag!

You might also like these  sensory activities.
Unicorn Fine Motor Play is a whimsical way to engage the senses.

Sushi Sensory Bin

A few weeks ago while shopping at my Kroger I saw these adorable erasers- sushi style- in the clearance section. At 69 cents they were a steal. I couldn't pass them up! My husband said "What are you going to do with them?".

What am I going to do with them? Make a sensory bin of course! A Sushi themed sensory bin sounded like fun to me!

I picked up a bag of long grain white rice, one pound was on sale for $1.09. I used this as my base.

My son was intrigued. He couldn't wait to get his hands in the bin of rice!

Next we added our Sushi Erasers.

Again, Eager Hands were grasping to get involved. Not that I can blame him!

Finally, we finished the bin off with a pair of chopsticks.

And there you have our under $2 sensory bin! It was easy to make and fun for Roo to play with.

I liked that we could enjoy the feeling of rice when we touched the bin, the rice was fun for roo to dig around in. He likes the way it sounds when he picks up a handful and drops it in the bin. The chopsticks are great for his fine motor skill development.

When he grew tired of picking up the erasers with the chopsticks he fed rice to an assortment of dinosaurs. Then he decided to toss handfuls of rice into his barnyard toy for the other animals to eat... and yes, it got messy. But, I went with it! After all this was my big idea of fun and dried rice is pretty easy to sweep up.

Do you engage in sensory play with your kids? I would love to hear about your favorite sensory bins.

Flower Garden Sensory Bin

Flowers are so much fun for little hands! Harper loves to pick them, plant them and even pull the weeds. I made a fun flower garden sensory bin for her and this super simple bin has not disappointed Harp at all!

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Supplies:

Dried black beans

Artificial flowers

Small terracotta pots

Sand toys

A clip case box

Instructions:
Pour the dried black beans into the container.
Add Terracotta Pots and artificial flowers.

Offer a variety of tools to explore the beans with. Plastic serving tongs, sand toys
like shovels and rakes, kitchen spoons and small gardening spades are all fun options for

small hands. I chose items that would fit into the container with the lid for easy clean up and storage.

This is a sensory bin your little ones will want to play with many more times.

With supervision allow your child to explore the beans, the tools and plant the flowers.

This bin was so simple. But, the best things in life usually are.

As I put the bin out, Harp was ready to start gardening right away. Rolf heard the beans being poured into a pot and he exclaimed "I love these bins!"

He naturally wanted to play too. Harper was more than happy to share her flower garden with Rolf.

The kids loved the sound the beans made when poured into the pots. They also like the smoothness of the beans.

To make it even more realistic, I later added a drop of rose to a few flowers and jasmine to a few others to add the fun of fragrance to the bin.

Wen playtime was over it was simple to lay everything in the box and snap the lid on for easy storage. 

We will definitely be playing with this again! 

You might also like this In the Sky Sensory Bin.
Find all of my sensory bin ideas here

Find more flower crafts for kids here.

Unicorn Fine Motor Bin

Little hands will love this fun threading bin! It is a great fine motor exercise that kids will be magically enchanted with!

Harper and I love to make and play with bins. They are perfect for an afterschool activity for her, and she is always curious about what she might find in one of our bins. This was a really easy bin that I put together literally from our junk drawer. 

We had a bunch of Ikea straws from a recent binge visit and a few sections of ribbon. I ran across these leftover party favor unicorns and knew immediately what we would do with these goodies. In case you don't have all these things at home, this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will earn a small commission from the advertiser.

Supplies:
Straws; I used soda and milkshake straws in assorted colors to offer variety.

I used 4 straws of each color

Ribbon; 12” length; add several strands.

Plastic Unicorn Figurines

A plastic bin with a clip on lid

Instructions:

Cut your straws by color in assorted lengths

As you cut the straws add it to the plastic bin to layer the colors

Tie a knot one on end of the ribbons. Depending upon the width of your ribbon you may want to add
several knots so that the straws will not slip off

Add a few unicorn figurines for fun

With supervision, allow your child to explore the texture and colors of the straws in the bin and thread
them onto the ribbon.

This was a fun fine motor activity for Harp with an added touch of unicorn fun. She happily threaded straws most of the afternoon!


Find  unicorn gift ideas here.