Simple, $10 Taste Safe St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin
Looking for a fun, sensory friendly way to entertain your kids? This simple St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin costs just $10 to make and is great for toddlers or preschool aged kids. Read on to hear how easy it is to make this sensory bin and celebrate the upcoming St. Paddy’s Day holiday!
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When I say that this sensory bin activity is easy to make, I mean it! You need just a few items, less than 5 minutes and just $10! This sensory bin is made of a base of rice, so it is taste safe for the little ones that like to put everything in their mouth, but you’ll still want to keep a close eye on them. Below, we will recap what you need to make this Fourth of July sensory bin and then let you know what you can do with it to keep your kids entertained.
What you need:
- 2-3 cups of Rice ($2 at Walmart)
- Food coloring (green) - $9 for 12 pack on Amazon (equals out to $0.75)
- Gold Coins - $1 at Dollar Tree
- Variety of St. Patrick's Themed Items - $4-6 at Hobby Lobby depending what you choose!
The first step for putting this St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin together is to dye your rice. If you haven’t used food coloring to dye your rice before, that’s OK because it is beyond easy.
Pour 3 cups rice into a ziploc bag.
Add in 3 teaspoons vinegar (1 teaspoon per cup of rice)
Drop in food coloring to your preference.
Shake the bag like a madman until it’s the perfect shade.
After the rice has been dyed, it is recommended you let it dry out before using it so the dye doesn’t come off on your hands or your little one’s hands when playing with the colored rice in a sensory bin. You can spread it out on paper towel and/or a cookie sheet to help it dry quicker. Mom tip: I like to dye more rice than I might need so I always have some on hand for sensory play with my toddler.
Once your rice has dried, you are ready to put this simple sensory bin together! In whatever bin you are using, lay out your colored rice.
With the base of your sensory bin created, you can now set it up for your activity! I added in gold stars, shamrocks, rainbows and little St. Paddy’s themed gnomes. He started by digging out each of the coins from the bin and placing them in a cup before moving on to the other items.
What I love about sensory activities like this Fourth of July bin is the versatility it offers. There are so many educational and developmental activities you can work on. These different activities can help encourage and develop fine motor skills, color identification, counting, problem solving and more.
These are several ideas of different ways your children can learn and play with this bin:
Find the item:
Do a rice scavenger hunt! Call out an item and have your child pull one of them from the bin and set it aside.
Practice counting:
Have your child identify the amount of each item in the bin.
Sort the items:
Have your child group each item they find. Put the coins in one pile, gnomes in another, etc.
Scoop and strain:
Give your kid a measuring cup, measuring spoons, maybe even a strainer and let them go to town having fun! R loved being able to scoop up the rice and the items into the measuring cup. When he was done, he’d dumb it back out and start again.
Each of these ideas is a fun way to keep your child involved with this St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin idea, but I’m sure there are some that I missed. Tell us below how else you would use this sensory bin!
