Sensory bins are a fabulous way for kids to explore their sense of touch, sight, and sound . Sometimes even smell and taste can be incorporated into the experience for them. But that isn’t the only benefit of a sensory bin, children develop; hand eye coordination, fine motor, language, social, dramatic play, and cognitive skills. They can be soothing and distracting to agitated children and whether your child is gifted, developmentally delayed or anywhere else on the spectrum sensory bins are an invaluable tool in development.
I have a little one who loves fairies and all things sparkly so I thought a fairy bin would be perfect for her and I was right, she played with the bin for hours, we put it away and pulled it out the next day for tons of fun again. Simply pulled together from some items I picked up at Hobby Lobby, and some items I already had on hand in our craft bins and from outside. I recommend picking up a cheap shower curtain liner from Dollar Tree to use as a drop cloth under mess bins, it contains the mess well and we get several used out of it before it begins to tear, or for a few dollars more you can get a sturdier one from Walmart or Target.
First the fairies, I love Toobs they are great for sensory bins and small world play, the set I used here was the Safari Ltd Fairy Fantasies, this set includes several fairies from a cute little girl fairy to a beautiful queen.
I started building layers with things we had on hand indoors and out.
Since fairies live in gardens I layered about 2″ of organic soil in the bottom.
I topped the soil with moss from Dollar Tree, and I only used about 1/3 of the bag so I still have plenty left over for other projects or bins. I also grabbed a pack of moss covered fake rocks in the floral section of Dollar Tree and scattered a few around for fairies to rest on.
We went outdoors and collected sticks, small thick branches, rocks and leaves to make it feel woodsy and garden like. To add another sense in the mix we picked fresh Rosemary and Basil from the garden to include in our bin, pinching them lightly releases the oils and made it smell wonderful! A small dish of water with a drop of blue food coloring provides a lovely pool for fairies to swim A few silk flowers from our craft stash, a bucket on its side ( she even made them a little bed of leaves inside for naps) and a succulent plant and a handful of garden bugs my son added in and we were almost ready to go.
Hobby Lobby has a wonderful section with items for a fairy garden and I caught them on sale for 40% so we picked up a little chair from there and also a picket fence, silk mini flowers, and beaded garland-because it is a well known fact that fairies love bling!
You can make your fairy sensory bin as simple or as elaborate as you wish, this is a theme we will revisit time and again so I didnt mind investing a little more money on the initial setup. Have you made a sensory bin with your child? What is your favorite theme?