Kid playing with St. Patrick's Day-themed sensory bin
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St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin

By Dyan Robson, And Next Comes L

Mar 10, 2016

The dollar store always has a ton of seasonal craft supplies that make great sensory bin fillers. When I found puffy fabric shamrocks and green glitter gravel, I just knew they'd make a perfect combination for a St. Patrick's Day sensory bin.

I decided to set up this sensory bin to specifically target fine motor skills by including lots of fine motor tools.

You Will Need:

  • green glitter gravel: I found this at a dollar store, but you could substitute Epsom salts. Just dye the Epsom salts green using liquid watercolours or food colouring.
  • fabric shamrocks: I also found these at the dollar store.
  • fine motor tools: I used tweezers, scoop tongs and small green plastic shot glasses.

All the supplies for a St Partick's Day sensory bin.

Instructions:

Place the glitter gravel and shamrocks in a glass baking dish or plastic sensory bin container and set out some fine motor tools.

Let the kids explore and experiment with the different tools. It's interesting to watch how they will take the materials in ways that you didn't intend.


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For instance, I set out the large tweezers as a way to pick up the shamrocks. However, my four-year-old picked up individual pieces of gravel with the tweezers and also stirred the gravel in a cup with the tweezers. In fact, I don't think he even touched a shamrock the entire time that he played with this sensory bin!

A child play's with the St. Patrick's Day sensory bin.

My son really enjoyed scooping and pouring the gravel using the scoop tongs and cups. He would happily scoop and pour for quite awhile, which is a great way to refine those fine motor skills!

A kid plays with a St. Patrick's Day sensory bun

Article Author Dyan Robson
Dyan Robson

Read more from Dyan here.

Married to her high school sweetheart, Dyan is mom to two boys, J and K, who also teaches piano out of her home. On her blog And Next Comes L, Dyan shares her story of raising a child with hyperlexia, hypernumeracy and autism, amongst a variety of sensory activities for kids. You can find out more about their story on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.