Insect Sensory Bin and Fine Motor Activity

I love a good fine motor activity that involves playing and learning! 

Don’t you? 

This bug sensory bin is a great way to learn so many different areas. 

You can learn about: 

• Insects

• Counting

• Colors

• Hand Eye coordination

• Practice on fine motor skills

• Sensory bin benefits

• Adding and subtracting 

And, so much more! 

The beauty of a sensory bin mixed with a bit of fine motor play! 

Love that 🙂 

I’ll be sharing below how I put this simple sensory bin/fine motor play activity together, what I used and what we learned! 

Note: Have you checked out our zipper board for practicing fine motor skills? You are in for a treat! 

Supplies: 

This post contains affiliate links. 

• Shredded paper (I used mostly green shredded paper to imitate spring grass) 🙂

• Insects – Bugs – Butterflies small word play toys

• Fine Motor Tool

• Tray or bin

How I put together this fun Insect Sensory Bin 

I used the tray to include all the goodies into. 

Gems and uncooked black beans were added to accentuate the pretend play a bit. 

The gems were the color blue as pretend play ocean water

The uncooked black beans were used as pretend play dirt. 

I did go a little overboard with the pretend play when adding other fun toy animals into the mix instead of it just being bugs. 

So, yes you can definitely make and improvise it to however you’d like!

Then, I placed a fine motor tool on the side. 

My little already knew what she wanted to do first. 

She picked up the fine motor tool and went straight for the ants in the pretend play dirt. 

Then, she went to the ocean animals. 

And, lastly she went into the grassy field with her fine motor tool. 

Bug Sensory Bin Activities for Preschool 

What we learned with this sensory bin:

• We talked about the animals and learned their names

• My LO learned their habitat (land, water, dirt)

• She practiced on fine motor skills (You can read more about fine motor below)

• We talked about the colors. 

• We counted gems. 

What other fun activities and learning ideas can you think of trying with this bug sensory bin? 

Bug Sensory Bin Kits

You can turn this into a fun pretend play kit by using a really fun kit from Ikea. 

Add a little of each material into the slots within the container. 

Then, remove them to play with. 

When you are done, add them back into the container! 

Easy peasy 🙂 

Examples of Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills Activities: 

• Grabbing a crayon and writing

• Tying a shoe

• Playing with play dough

• Stirring and scooping

• Pouring

• Pom pom push

• Pipe cleaners and colanders

• Uncooked spaghetti bead threading

• Uncooked rigatoni pasta threading with yarn

• Picking up rocks

• Poking a hole into play dough

• Creating necklaces and bracelets

• Squeezing toys

• Coloring

• Painting

• Drawing

• Writing

• Using do a dot markers

• Cutting 

• Picking up pom poms

• Matching printable activities

• Putting on socks

• Adding a straw into a kid friendly cup

What other fun fine motor skills activities can you think of? 

Maybe we can try it out too 🙂 

Leave me a comment below!