Bring nature indoors with this Fall Leaf Sensory Bin and take your child's sensory play to a whole new level! This sensory bin is one of our favourites for tactile sensory play and it can be made using real leaves or fake leaves. Not only is it super easy to put together, but you can use things you already have at home. A huge plus, if you ask me!
We all know how essential sensory play is for our toddlers and preschoolers, but sometimes finding new ideas gets difficult or quite expensive. So, today we're sharing how to put together this budget-friendly and super-duper fun sensory bin... Autumn-themed!
This type of open-ended play encourages little ones to explore all five senses, and it also promotes creativity in a dynamic and fun way.
Read on to learn how to and take full advantage of everything sensory play has to offer!
Check out some of our awesome Sensory Bin Ideas and Leaf Activities including our fun Fall Sensory Bin.
How to Make a Fall Leaf Sensory Bin
Leaf Sensory Bin - Supplies:
- Small tray
- Red rice (use our coloured rice recipe to make your own)
- Leaves (real or fake - we used silk leaves)
- Fir cones and other autumn items
- Small scoops and spoons
Leaf Sensory Bin - Instructions:
STEP 1: Make coloured rice as your base.
Let's begin! For this sensory bin, we'll use coloured rice as the base. To make your own coloured rice I recommend you check out our Rainbow Rice Recipe. It is really easy to make coloured rice using food colouring, but you will need to make it ahead of time so it has time to dry before using it in your sensory bin. Red rice works really well with the autumn theme of this sensory bin, but you could use a different colour or even several colours if you prefer a more multi-coloured look!
STEP 2: Set up your leaf sensory bin.
Once you have your coloured rice ready (and fully dried), it's time to start setting up your leaf sensory bin. Pour the rice inside the tray and then add colourful leaves in warm shades like red, orange, yellow or brown. You can use fake leaves like we have (which last longer), or you can go outdoors and collect a few real leaves. You can also add other autumn items like fir cones.
Hint-hint: These Silk Leaves are perfect for the job and our Fall Sensory Bin Printables (shown below) work brilliantly with this set-up!
To get the best sensory play experience you may also want to add a few extra sensory bin items such as small scoops for your child to use to explore. (Having said that Ollie opted to use his hands, as he likes the feel of the rice pouring through his hands)
STEP 3: Invite your child to play with the leaf sensory bin
Encourage your child to explore the textures and colours within the leaf sensory bin! To make this play more interactive and educational, maybe share some fun facts about autumn.
Show your child how to scoop and pour rice (either with their hands or using small scoops), encourage them to move items around the tray or maybe even hide items under the rice. You could even use tweezers to pick up and move leaves.
Another great activity is to sort items in the sensory bin according to size or colour.
This leaf sensory bin is fun to leave out for several days so your child can try out a few different activities and let their play develop.
More Learning Ideas!
Don't stop there! Once you have your leaf sensory bin set up you can also use it to try out our Leaf Tracing Cards. These leaf alphabet tracing cards are great for learning sounds and writing letters, you can use a finger or stick to trace the letters in the coloured rice.
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