Christmas Sensory Bin Activity for Kids

Ah! I can’t believe it is the month of December! 

What an exciting time of the year and a perfect time to create a fun Holiday- themed sensory bin! 

We tailored ours to the Christmas theme but any holiday themed bin that you celebrate will work just as well! 

Within this themed bin I added in a couple of different manipulatives I’ve saved throughout the year! 

If you’d like to learn more about this holiday sensory play, I’ll be sharing how I made it below. 

If you are looking for holiday toy gift ideas for littles, I create a massive list for 1 year olds, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners! Just click the one you are interested in and you’ll be on your way! 

Supplies

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• Bin (one big bin and one small bin to help and contain it most of it.)

• Green uncooked lentils (but you can use whatever dry beans/rice you feel comfortable with.)

• Small manipualtives such as faux christmas trees, furry faux snowballs, pom poms, wooden trees, children’s cupcake tool kit..)

And, that’s all! 

Feel free to add manipulatives that work well for you and your child and vice versa. 

What are sensory bins for? 

I wrote a massive post on the benefits, what they are used for, over 101 sensory bin ideas .. Yes! Over 100! Go check it out! It’s a fun post and I love when friends, like you, find it useful! 

What are the benefits of sensory play?

Sensory play is beneficial in so many areas. 

For one, not only is it fun but there is a very important skill on the backend of things that is even “funner” in my opinion. 

Sensory Play allows for the building of nerve connections which allows children to build on and support even more complex learning skills. 

When a child plays with green lentils such as within this sensory bin, they are using their senses to play and essentially learn and engage with the use of the lentils.

Each scooping of the lentils and dropping of the lentils allows their auditory senses amongst some of the other senses to build on those neuron connections within the brain which supports so many types of development. 

Some of which are: 

• Language skills

• Social skills

• Fine motor skills

• Communication skills

• Cognitive skills

• Problem solving skills

I love this topic, and if you want to learn a little more about this, definitely check out this post right here. 

How I put this sensory bin for fun sensory play together: 

I added in the dry ingredients first. 

Then, I added in all of the manipulatives right on top. 

Use those faux snowballs to move the lentils around to stimulate the senses. 

Use scoopers and bowls for a fun scooping of dry beans. 

What other materials are you substituting for the ones we used? How did your Holiday themed sensory bin turn out?

Will you give this Christmas Sensory Bin Activity a try?

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