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Little Bins for Little Hands

Learning Through Playing

Christmas Sensory Bin Play

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Christmas Sensory Bin

Invitation to play and create with trains and ornaments!

Christmas Sensory Bin With Colored Rice And Evergreens

 

Simple Christmas sensory bin set up

I thought it would be fun for Liam to create his Christmas sensory bin and he was super excited when he saw the colored rice drying on the counter. Get your quick and simple recipe here! Lately, he has been helping me gather items for the bin too. He seems to enjoy the complexity of assembling it from scratch! I made a few small purchase with an AC Moore coupon for a small selection of mini ornaments (maybe $5). The mini ornaments included bells, stars, bulbs, and snowflakes. From our collection, we added the red and green gems and white pom poms. I had him find some trains with cargo loaders.

christmas rice sensory bin set up

First we dumped! Then we mixed and swirled the colored rice around!

christmas rice sensory bin rice colors pouring and mixing

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Liam was a bit discouraged that the rice did not cover the entire bottom of the bin, so I cam up with the idea of cutting branches off our tree and using white pom poms for snow balls. That seemed to distract him enough. Plus the tree branches made for an awesome extention activity with fine motor skills.

christmas rice sensory bin adding tree pieces

Smells wonderful!

christmas rice sensory bin playing with pretend snow balls

and then the pretend snow came……

christmas rice sensory bin snowflake play

Thomas was delivering ornaments and Rocky was lifting jingle bells!

christmas rice sensory bin ornaments and bells

It seemed like our bin needed a tree

christmas tree making invitation to play

We filled the container with small rocks and he stuck our branches into the rocks to make a pretend Christmas tree for the trains. He went off to find his wooden Sir Topham Hat to oversea the work. I found ornament hangers and thought hey this is a good fine motor activity! He was very eager to decorate the tree and worked quickly at putting the hangers on each bulb!

christmas tree making fine motor skills

This sensory bin went beyond simple sensory play! He created a small world for his trains with the sensory materials and brought them to life with his own stories and ideas!

christmas rice sensory bin free play

Liam had lots to play with in this Christmas sensory bin. It has been one of our best yet with many small activities for him to play with again and again. He particularly relates to the trains and knows them all, so I hoped he would be able to play a bit longer with this bin.

christmas rice sensory bin complete

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More Great Christmas Activities To Enjoy 

Sand Ornament Christmas Sensory BinChristmas fine motor skills completed puzzles traychristmas candy science experiment activitygingerbread sensory play

 

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Comments

  4. This looks like so much fun! I love the beautiful red color you got in your ride contrasted with the green pine!

    Thanks for linking up to TGIF! I pinned this =)

    have a great weekend,
    Beth

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. […] Little Bins for Little Hands colored the rice and added branches, rocks, and bells to make it more festive. I love the use of actual branches from the tree. It adds another texture to the play and might even add a smell! That makes for a sensory experience! She uses 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar for every cup of rice and food coloring as desired. […]

    Reply

  2. […] Little Bins for Little Hands colored the rice and added branches, rocks, and bells to make it more festive. I love the use of actual branches from the tree. It adds another texture to the play and might even add a smell! That makes for a sensory experience! She uses 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar for every cup of rice and food coloring as desired. […]

    Reply

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