Kid Craft: Dollar Store Sensory Bin for Kids!

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Thekid craft we are working on this week is a sensory bin. Why a sensory bin?  Well… my little boy is having surgery nextweek to remove his adenoid. The surgery is called an adenoidectomy and will requirehim to be put under using general anesthesia {I am a bit of a nervous wreckabout it}. After the operation his activities will be restricted and we willneed some calming activities for him to do. So we have come up with a number oftoys and activities to keep his hands and his mind occupied while his bodyrecovers. One of these activities is a sensory bin.

A sensory bin can have acalming effect on children. It works on developing fine motor skills and can helpto soothe a child by encouraging them to focus on manipulative skills such aspouring, sifting, and scooping. By adding color to the sensory bin there are anumber of educational activities that can be incorporated into play as well.Perfect for a little boy recuperating after surgery.

I spent about a half hour at mylocal dollar store picking out everything I would need to make my little boy abright and cheerful sensory bin. I bought the plastic container, the rice and pastanoodles, and the toys for this bin. I decided halfway though my trip that dyingthe noodles and the rice would make it even more fun, so I picked up somerubbing alcohol too.

Once home I let my oldest son helpme dye the pasta noodles and rice that we would be using for the sensory bin.This was easy to do and did not make a huge mess since we used freezer bagsinstead of bowls. This in itself is a fun craft for preschool age children todo, so I thought I would share how we did this. It is always nice to know how to dye rice and how to dye pasta noodles!

Whatyou need:
·   Pasta noodles of various shapes and sizes (I used macaroni andziti)·   Long white rice·   Rubbing alcohol ·   Food coloring·   Freezer bags
Instructions
You will need 1 bag per coloryou plan on dying. We chose to dye our rice and pasta noodles four differentcolors, so we used four different bags. Place 1 Tablespoon of rubbingalcohol into each bag. Then add the food coloring ofchoice to each bag. Close the bag and squish it around in your hands todistribute the color.Divide pasta noodles and rice intoeach of the freezer bags. Use one bag for each color {feel free to mix andmatch the various pasta noodle shapes}.Close the bags and squish themixture of pasta noodles, rice, rubbing alcohol, and food coloring togetheruntil it is thoroughly mixed and the color has been distributed. Line a cookie sheet or otherflat surface with parchment paper or tin foil {to avoid staining} and then spreadthe dyed pasta noodles and rice and let dry overnight.


Once everything was dry and ready for play we dumped the dyedpasta noodles and rice into the dollar store plastic bin and then added some rice we had not dyed as well as some pinto beans to the mix. Then we added therest of our dollar store toys to create our very own sensory bin. We have seacreatures, Easter eggs, and sand toys in our sensory bin; but anything thatencourages creative play would work as well.
Haveyou ever played with or made a sensory bin?

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