I recently stocked up on some St. Patrick's Day items from the dollar store, which I basically tossed all together to create this simple St. Patrick's Day sensory bin. A sensory bin, which I might add, that is great for a wide variety of ages, from babies and up.
In this sensory bin, you'll find sparkly shamrocks, lucky coins in green and gold, and so much green that you might think Kermit the Frog was hanging out in there. Sadly, no Kermit, but there's still tons of sensory fun to be had.
So if you're looking for a quick and easy St. Patrick's Day sensory activity for toddlers or preschoolers, then look no further!
St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin: What You'll Need
I really love that this sensory bin uses non-food sensory bin fillers (see here and here for more non-food sensory bin ideas).
I also love that this sensory activity is low prep and uses items from the dollar store. As an added bonus, each of the materials can easily be reused for other St. Patrick's Day activities.
Here's what you'll need to recreate this St. Patrick's Day themed sensory bin at home:
- Green flexible mesh tubing, cut into short strips (see why below)
- Foam shamrocks - Some were even glittery, which is fun.
- Fabric shamrocks - The ones we used were stickers found at Dollarama
First, I cut up the mesh tubing for this sensory bin because otherwise it gets really tangled. And, honestly, I'm tired of untangling it. Especially after it has been wrapped around and around and around an exercise bike. Because that totally happened...(#LifeWithKids)
Anyway, this sensory bin is green, festive, and easy to put together. (Assuming you don't have to untangle the mesh tubing first, of course).
Playing in a St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin
This sensory bin provides a lot of different textures from the smooth foam to the puffy fabric shamrocks to the stretchy, albeit slight scratchy, tubing. And the green mess tubing makes me think of big fat spaghetti noodles or long worms or something. Needless to say, four year old K could hardly resist digging in.
The mesh tubing is so much fun to play with. It was probably K's favorite element in this sensory bin!
K also used the tubing to work on some fine motor skills practice by sliding one end of the tubing into the other to create a loop. You could also supply some scissors alongside this sensory bin to encourage some scissor skills practice, if you'd like.
So there you have it: a super simple St. Patrick's Day sensory bin that's perfect for toddlers and preschoolers and uses materials from the dollar store.
