Sensory bins are a great way for kindergarteners to work on academic and developmental skills at home. And boy, do I have some wonderful sensory bin ideas to share with you today!
Between the fine motor and language development, engaging sensory exploration, and wonderfully calming nature of sensory bins, they’re a must in my books.
That is why I incorporated sensory play into my curriculum for 4-6 year olds, Kindergarten at Home.
Kindergarten at Home is a 36-week curriculum that covers all core skills through play. From literacy and numeracy, to critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional wellness, your little one will be set to soar.
Take a peek inside! Check out Kindergarten at Home right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/kindergarten-at-home
In this post, I’ve rounded up the best sensory bin ideas for kindergarteners to learn about nature and work on literacy skills, numeracy skills, STEM skills, and fine motor skills.
With these sensory bin ideas, kindergarten-aged kids can have fun learning at home in a playful way! The ideas all use basic craft and sensory play materials and will help kindergarten-age children learn and explore:
- literacy skills such as letter recognition, phonics,sight words, and CVC words
- numeracy skills such as number recognition, counting, and number sense
- STEM skills for science, technology, engineering, and math
- fine motor skills to strengthen hands for future writing
- and nature exploration!
Before we get into the ideas, you’ll want to grab your free guide: Sensory Bins 101. This resource is filled with tips and tricks for using sensory bins in your home or classroom, and has some wonderful sensory bin ideas for inspiration.
Literacy Sensory Bin Ideas for Kindergarten at Home
Alphabet Soup Sensory Bin by Kindergarten Connection – With this simple sensory bin, Kindergarteners will practice matching uppercase letters with lowercase letters. All you need for this sensory bin is magnetic letters, water, scoops, and bowls.
Learning Names Sensory Bin by Nurture Store – This sensory bin aims for kindergartners to learn to recognize the letters in their names and how to spell their name. For this sensory bin, you’ll need a sensory filler material and letters.
Sound Matching Bin by Busy Toddler– This quick and easy phonics sensory bin is perfect for Kindergarteners learning the letter sounds. Simply collect objects in a sensory bin for the child to match the beginning sound to an alphabet chart.
Fall Leaves CVC Word Building Sensory Bin by Kindergarten Connections – For Kindergarteners learning CVC words, this sensory bin idea is lots of fun! Simply write letters on silk leaves with a permanent marker and place them in a bin. Then have your child build and write CVC words with the leaves.
Sight Word Sensory Bin by Fun with Mama – Sensory bins are a great way for kindergarteners to practice sight word recognition. Create a simple sensory bin with their favorite sensory materials and add sight word cards to find and read.
Numeracy Sensory Bin Ideas for Kindergarten at Home
Counting Worms Sensory Bin by Fantastic Fun and Learning – Kindergarteners can practice number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills with this fun sensory bin! All you need is dry black beans and fake worms, the printable die, and some large tweezers.
Number Hunt Math Sensory Bin by Busy Toddler – This simple sensory bin is a fun way for kindergarteners to practice number recognition and counting. To prepare this sensory bin, just fill a bin with rice or any other sensory material and hide some playing cards in it for your child to find and match to a number chart.
Telling Time Matching Sensory Bin by Life Over C’s– This fun sensory bin will help your kindergartener learn to read clocks and tell the time. Simply add this printable to a sensory bin and have your child turn the analog clock to the time on the digital clock card.
Rainbow Rice Addition Sensory Bin by Kindergarten Connection – This sensory bin idea is a great way for kindergarteners to practice addition. Fill a bin with sensory material and some fun objects! Then have your child roll a die, count out some objects, then roll again and add the two numbers together.
Domino Addition Sensory Bin by Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris– This fun sensory bin uses dominoes to teach your kindergartener addition. It’s an easy bin to create around any theme!
Nature Sensory Bin Ideas for Kindergarten at Home
Simple Nature Sensory Bin – A simple nature sensory bin such as this one uses a base of dried rice. Then you can easily add elements of nature that you would like to introduce to your kindergartener, depending on the season, such as flowers, nuts, seeds, fruit, and berries.
Seashells Sensory Bin by Natural Beach Living – This simple seashell sensory bin is a great way to introduce your kindergartener to the different shapes, sizes, and colors of seashells. You can even use this sensory bin to start teaching your kindergartner to identify seashells by name.
Leaf Sensory Bin by Twin Mom Refreshed – Introduce your kindergartener to the different shapes, sizes, and colors of leaves with this simple nature sensory bin. To create this sensory bin, simply collect all the different leaves from around your yard and neighborhood and place them in a bin. This is also a great way to start teaching your kindergartener to identify leaves and trees.
Flower Sensory Soup by Living Life and Learning– Create this simple sensory bin and let your kindergartener explore different flowers. You can pick flowers from the backyard or buy a bouquet from the store for lots of variety. It’s a great way to teach your kindergartener the parts of flowers.
Rock Sensory Bin by 3 Dinosaurs– Kindergarteners can learn all about the different types of rocks with this simple rock sensory bin. Simply add some special rocks or found rocks into a bin with smaller rocks of sensory filler material.
STEM Sensory Bin Ideas for Kindergarten at Home
Engineering LEGO Sensory Bin by Little Bins with Little Hands– This cool STEM sensory bin would be so much fun for kindergarteners! Simply hide pieces of a LEGO set in a bin of rice and have your child find the pieces and build the LEGO set.
Magnetic Sensory Bin by Mrs. Plemon’s Kindergarten – Magnets are a lot of fun! Add them to a sensory bin with some magnet wands, and let your kindergartener discover the mystery of magnets!
Tide Pool Sensory Bin by Buggy and Buddy – This is a neat sensory bin idea where you’ll create your own mini tide pool then discover what happens during low tide and high tide.
Ocean Pollution Sensory Bin by Must Have Mom– This cool science sensory bin teaches kindergarteners about the harmful effects of pollution in the ocean and how experts clean up the water and the animals.
Kinetic Sandby Days with Grey– This fun sensory bin lets children build again and again with a neat matter. Preschoolers will love the sensory appeal, and you will love all of the learning!
Fine Motor Sensory Bin Ideas for Kindergarten at Home
Rainbow Fine Motor Sensory Bin – This simple fine motor sensory bin uses colorful beads, buttons, plastic eggs, and pipe cleaners. Kindergarteners will work on their fine motor skills by threading on pipe cleaners and opening and closing plastic eggs.
Super Sensory Scissor Skills Play with Spaghetti by Nurture Store – This is a fun and easy-to-make sensory bin. Boil up some spaghetti, add some color, and put it in a bin with some scissors for your kindergartener’s fun fine motor sensory bin!
Nuts and Bolts Sensory Bin by Preschool Powol Packets – A simple nuts and bolts sensory bin is a great way for kindergarteners to work on fine motor skills. All you need to do is collect nuts and bolts of various sizes, place them in a bin, and let your kids have fun screwing and twisting them together.
Lemon Squeeze Sensory Binby Days with Grey – This simple sensory bin hits all the senses and is a fun way for kindergarteners to strengthen fine motor skills. Add a bunch of lemons and water to a bin with some large droppers and a lemon press juicer for a really good fine motor muscle workout.
Sunflower Sensory Bin by Life Over C’s – This bright-colored sunflower sensory bin includes chopsticks and many small objects that will encourage your kindergartener to practice the fine motor skill of pinching. All you need is rice, sunflower seeds, little sunflowers, and chopsticks for kids.
Feed the Baby Birds Fine Motor Sensory Bin by Modern Preschool – This is another great sensory bin for kindergarteners that work on fine motor pinching. Using a clothespin, kids can pick up the little worms from the sensory material and place them in a cup.
There you have it, folks, 25 sensory bin ideas for kindergarten that cover literacy, numeracy, STEM, nature, and fine motor skills! I hope these ideas will make your learning at home hands-on and super fun!
And if you’re ready to have your entire Kindergarten Homeschool year planned for you—easy peasy and full of fun—check out Kindergarten at Home!
Your Complete 36-Week Curriculum for 4-6 Year Olds
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/kindergarten-at-home
xo
Sarah
