Nocturnal Animals Sensory Bin

Fall is a perfect time of year to explore the subject of night time withyour kids or students. With darkness falling before most little ones' bedtimes, you may find that your children are already asking lots of questions about what goes on after sunset.

Nocturnal animals are particularly fascinating to young children. In their minds, everyone and everything goes to bed in the evening. To think that there are animals moving around outside in the dark is practically mind-blowing!

A fun way to learn more about nocturnal animals is through play with a sensory bin or small world (or a hybrid of the two, which is what I went for with today's activity).

What You Need:

• a plastic storage container
• black felt, foam, or paper to line the container
• star stickers (a moon would be a nice addition too)
• dry black beans, or rice or noodles dyed black (I used turtle beans from a bulk foods store. Black craft pom poms would make a good non-food alternative.)
• nocturnal animal toys
• materials to represent a forest habitat

Include your child in putting together their sensory bin. Have them sort through their animal toys or figurines, looking for those that are nocturnal. Some nocturnal animals that your children may be familiar with are raccoons, mice, rabbits, bats, skunks, porcupines and owls (note: while planning this activity for my son, I learned that snowy owls are diurnal, which means that they are active during both day and night).

My son loved digging his hands into the beans in our sensory bin. 

He also used the small tree and the rocks to make a den for the raccoon to live in. Then he set about burying everything.

Use the materials and animals in your own bin to prompt discussion about night time animals. Along with the bin, you might also set out a picture book about nocturnal animals. I've found that my son and the kids I've looked after have used the images in the books I've paired with their sensory bins to engage in some great imaginative play.

Be sure to save your black beans or other filler for other sensory bins. My son has already decided that the black beans would make good pavement for playing road construction!