While we mainly prefer simple sensory bin activities around here, occasionally, I get a bit more elaborate, like I did with this medieval sensory bin small world activity for kids.
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Medieval Sensory Bin Small World Activity for Kids
After the success of the dinosaur dig and Arctic small world sensory bins, I was excited to put together a bin with the Knights and Dragon TOOB that I had purchased.I also finally had a quick craft to do using some of the toilet paper rolls that I have been collecting: a miniature castle for all of the knights.
Here's what I used to make this sensory bin:
- Large plastic bin
- Coffee grinds
- Glass beads, two shades of blue and some green
- Tin foil
- Gravel rocks
- Homemade cardboard castle using toilet paper rolls
- Flameless tea light candle
- Safari Ltd. Knights and Dragon TOOB
I then laid the gravel on one side of the river and coffee grounds and green glass beads on the other side of the river.
I placed the castle in one corner, with the flameless tea light candle in the center of the castle. I needed a fire for the castle and the flameless candle worked perfectly.
Then I set up the figurines from the TOOB. I was missing the dragon when I originally photographed the bin, but quickly tossed it in while J was playing with it.
The castle was made using four toilet paper rolls. I clipped the tops to look like castle turrets. Then I hot glued some cardboard pieces on to make walls.
I learned my lesson about using coffee grounds as dirt when I did the dinosaur dig sensory bin, so this time I prepared for the mess by laying an old shower curtain down as a splat mat. It made for such an easy clean up!
The bin was set up for J to explore while K had his nap.
The bin was set up for J to explore while K had his nap.
J began exploring this bin by picking up an individual gravel rock, tossing it into the "dirt," and then practiced some addition on one of his many calculators. Every time he tossed a stone, he would punch +1 into his calculator.
Eventually, all the rocks were tossed into the dirt.
Then J started using the dragon to make designs and marks in the coffee grounds.
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| Using the dragon to make marks in the dirt. |
The dragon was eventually buried a few different times.
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| Poor dragon is buried in dirt and laying in the river. |
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| The dragon is buried again! |
Then he started burying some "fallen" knights.
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| Battle has ended. |
As soon as this poor knight was buried, J told me he that he was all done. He spent a solid 30 minutes with this bin so it was definitely a hit. Although it was a lot of work to clean up, J had a lot of fun and it was just plain cool. I loved the way this bin turned out!