Sensory bins don't need to be elaborate or fancy. Sometimes keeping things simple goes a long way.
Personally, I find that I learn a lot about my children's personalities with simple activities like this scarf sensory bin because they both tend to explore the same materials in such different ways. For instance, one might count the scarves or turn the scarves into letters (that's hyperlexia and hypernumeracy for you!), while the other might throw the scarves around or get dressed up in them.
Seriously, you might be surprised by how engaging a simple activity like this one is for kids, regardless of their age. It's baby friendly and great for toddlers and preschoolers. It also includes a variety of different textures and colors, offering lots of great tactile and visual sensory input.
What You'll Need for this Scarf Sensory Bin
This sensory bin requires zero prep. Simply grab the materials, which in this case are scarves, and add them to a large plastic bin. I'm all about using what I have on hand so I used my personal collection of infinity scarves.
Of course, there are lots of different types of scarves that you could include in your sensory bin. You could even mix and match a variety of different types to offer more textures, colors, and fabrics. For instance, you could use:
- Winter scarves - They come in a wide variety of textures, patterns, and materials. Some even have some embellishments like fringes.
- Play silks - Yes, they're more expensive than the other options on this list, but they're luxurious and quite large.
- Juggling/sensory scarves - They're super lightweight and come in a variety of bright colors.
- Bandanas - They come in lots of different colors.
Scarves are fun for kids to play with for a variety of reasons. There are so many bright colors, fun patterns, different textures, and neat embellishments such as fringes to explore. So it offers a lot of tactical and visual sensory input in one bin!
Here's a closer look at what our scarf sensory bin looked like:
Time for Some Scarf Play!
It was interesting to see how four year old K played with this sensory bin. First, he carried the bin of scarves around, which turns out to be a great heavy work idea for kids. I mean look how far he had to stretch his arms to carry it around!
He then decided to throw the scarves around from a variety of places, including standing on a chair. At one point, I was required to hold the bin on top of my head so that he could toss the scarves in. I obliged, of course, because why not?
K also loved laying in the bin of scarves (both boys love full body sensory exploration like this!). And I admit it looked really comfortable! If I could fit, then I would certainly give it a try as well, but, alas, I do not fit.
After laying around in the sensory bin for a while, he decided to start sorting and throwing out all the scarves, which he had so much fun doing!
While, admittedly, this scarf sensory bin is such a simple idea, it was incredibly engaging for my son. He had so much fun playing with all of the different scarves.
