Have you ever wanted to make sensory bins but didn’t know what to fill them with for sensory play? Here is our list of the Top 10 Favorite Sensory Bin Fillers to try for quick and easy sensory bins any day of the year. We have quite a few resources to get you on your way to making awesome sensory bins for early childhood development. Fun sensory bin fillers for multiple ages to enjoy together.
Favorite Sensory Bin Fillers for Sensory Play
Simple Tactile Sensory Play for Young Kids!
Our sensory play resources. Click on links below.
5 Things To Know About Sensory Bins
How To Make Simple Sensory Bins
12 Tactile Sensory play Recipes
Sensory Bins or Small Worlds? What’s the difference?
Our Top 10 Fun Sensory Bins To Try
Do you have your favorite sensory bin fillers? We have tried many that are common to find and inexpensive as well. I like fillers I can easily store after play time is done and are easy to take back out again. These favorite sensory bin fillers don’t include ones that are too messy or or can only be used once, but we love those too! These are my favorite sensory bin fillers for easy storage.
Rice is number one our list of favorite sensory bin fillers! It is super simple to dye rice for beautiful colors to fit your themes, click here. Here’s our resource for more then 50 sensory bins for all seasons using rice! Rice is one of the quickest and easiest sensory bin fillers out there!
Check our one bag of rice and 10 ways to play!
Oatmeal, Corn Meal, or Flour
Simple staples from your pantry can make quick sensory fillers.
Aquarium Rocks
These brightly colored rocks make easy sensory fillers and fit so many play ideas! Check out these as part of our 20 books and sensory play ideas!
Easy to find and easy to make! They provide a very unique tactile sensory experience!
Colored Craft Sand
Colored craft sand is fun sensory filler that reminds of sand box play!
Grab some from the dollar store or make your own!
Water Sensory Play
Water and Ice is always easy and fun no matter the season!
All kinds of dried beans and peas make a great sensory bin filler!
Popping corn from the store makes a fun filler for easy play! {Note: I don’t recommend animal feed corn}
Pick up a bag at the craft store. Similar to rice but is perfect if you can’t or don’t want to use food for sensory play.
EASY recipe for super quick play this makes a fun and easy sensory bin filler any day! It also keeps nicely for quite awhile! Here’s a few variations for scented play including the homemade original recipe!
These sensory fillers make awesome any day play and can be easily adapted to fit your themes, lessons or play ideas. Each post will also share variations that we have tried through additional links to inspire you all year long.
Do you have a favorite sensory bin filler to share?
Non Food Sensory Bin Fillers (great resource)
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Kirstylee says
These ideas are great! I feel like I’m always using rice and pasta, so it’s nice to have a list of other fillers to refer to. Thanks for the ideas.
Pam says
When is a good age to start these? I worry about my little one putting everything in his mouth.
littlebins says
Well I guess that is really up for you to decide as a parent and how much supervision you are going to give. My son did not put things in his mouth very much. We gave him a mini rice bin on his 1st birthday because we were comfortable with it. We didn’t look back after that. You could try large fillers and closely supervise. I always hesitate to use food since I don’t want to encourage eating sensory bin fillers. If the child is still quite mouthy you could go the treasure basket route!
Charity says
I like oatmeal and Epsom salt for fillers.
littlebins says
Ooh yes I have wanted to try epsom salts too! Oatmeal is also a good one we will be using very soon for a baking bin 😉 Thank you for the reply!
Missy says
You have a good variety of filler ideas here! Our regular sensory bins have Easter grass, blue rice and lentils in them. We have also used wheat, sand, dirt and water beads and I made green jello for a sensory bin once. And, of course, water is always a favourite 🙂 I really have to work on finding a better storage system for my bins though. I like your idea of using the freezer bags. Thanks for sharing!
I found your post on the Bee Crafty Kids blog hop.
Grandma Graywolfe says
Wal-Mart sells 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags. These are perfect for most items. Including the filler.
littlebins says
Yes, zip lock bags have been my friend for so many things. What doesn’t stay in a bin gets put right into zip lock bags!
Lauren says
I love these ideas. I haven’t done corn kernels yet so I think we will use some this Fall! Thank you for sharing at our Pinning for Play link party!
Carrie says
Great resources!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Joanna says
I have used shredded paper from our school paper shredder – there is always lots of that around… and it’s free!
littlebins says
We have used that too! Very fun and easy clean up. Great free resources are always the best. We hid pom poms in ours and use tweezers to sort and count.
Angelina says
Wow, this is the most comprehensive list of ideas for sensory bins that I’ve ever seen in one place! I especially like that there is so much stuff for boys. I have a 4 year old girl and 2 year old boy who is always wanting to copy what his big sister is doing! Thanks for the great ideas! Pinning and “liking”!
(Stopping by from KBN FB hop!)
Angelina
littlebins says
Awesome! Glad you liked it and found some ideas to use!
Kristen Bobbitt says
Where do you buy your waterbeads? I want to get some for my kids for Christmas but there are so many options. Are they all good?
littlebins says
I like the ones that you have to hydrate. I buy them in the floral sections of craft stores. The already hydrated ones are ok too but don’t get as big!
Andi Ruch says
My preschool class loves the fake plastic snow, I usually pick it up after Christmas for less the 25 cents a bag. We put it in our sensory table with plastic snowmen one week and article animals another week. They also like bird seed, was that mentioned? I don’t remember it. I also love to pick up some cinnamon in bulk or cheap at the dollar store and add it to the oatmeal when we use it especially in the fall
Andi Ruch says
Oops article animals
Lauren says
I know this is an older post but maybe you’ll still see it! Why not use the feed corn?
littlebins says
Well we had success with one bag for a very long time and it was awesome. We moved and decided it would be time to clean out the bin and get a new bag. Well that bag hatched some sort of fly/insect and it was so gross. I tried another bag and it did the same. It may just depend on how fresh it is where you are. An associate built his kids a huge sensory bin in the house and filled it with corn. It did the same thing to him and it was a huge mess. Hope that helps!
Ellie says
If you freeze the feed corn in your freezer for a few days to a week, it will kill the eggs inside the corn and that won’t happen.
Sara says
Just wondering why you recommend not using animal feed corn for the bin. I was looking for a cheaper way to purchase corn and I though maybe animal feed but then I read this. Can you explain?
Sara says
Oops! I just saw another person asked the same question and you already posted an answer. I missed that comment the first time through. Thanks!
littlebins says
We have had issues with bugs hatching in several of the bags we have purchased. Some bags were fine but others not so much. It happens overnight and it’s pretty yucky. We had no idea that it was going to happen either.