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Sensory Bin Favorites for Toddlers & Preschoolers
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items Everything you need for easy sensory play with little hands! From sensory bin fillers, tools and containers to themed finds, hands-on activities, and ready-to-play kits, there are lots of ideas for mixing things up.
Sections
6
🧺 Bins & Storage
🫘 Fillers
🥄 Scoops, Tongs & Tools
🎃 Seasonal & Themed Finds
🎨 Sensory Play Extras
📦 Ready-to-Play Sensory Kits
🧺 Bins & Storage
The bins, containers, and organizers I use to keep sensory play easy to set up, clean up, and store for next time.
Sensory bin hack! These mixing tubs are inexpensive, a great size for sensory play, and give kids plenty of room to scoop and dig without needing an expensive sensory table.
Small Mixing Tub
I use these all the time for smaller sensory bins! Not every setup needs to be huge, and these are perfect when I want something quick and simple without using a ton of filler.
Sure Fresh Plastic Storage Containers
Sensory bin to go! Fill one side with a little rice, beans, or pasta and use the other for tools and themed pieces. Pop the lid on and it’s an easy little activity to bring along.
Glad Crayola Take-Aways
🫘 Fillers
The base of the sensory bin! Different textures and materials for scooping, pouring, digging, sorting, and exploring.
One of the easiest sensory bin fillers! I use white rice plain or color it to match whatever theme we’re doing. I also like that it comes in different bag sizes depending on how much I need. 🌈
Enriched Long Grain White Rice
Probably my most-used sensory bin filler! I paint chickpeas different colors to match whatever theme we’re doing, then mix and match them to make my own custom filler blends. 🎨
Dry Chickpeas Garbanzo Beans
La Moderna has SO many fun pasta shapes! Shells, elbows, bow ties, wheels and more give you an easy way to change up the texture and look of a sensory bin without spending much.
La Moderna Pasta
An easy way to get a bunch of different colors, shapes, and sizes in one bag! I like this when I want a mixed filler without buying several different kinds of beans.
16 Bean Soup Starter - 20oz
Add a pair of tongs and a few little cups and you’ve got an easy color-sorting activity! You can also mix them into another filler for the kids to hunt for and pull out.
Pom Poms (Multi-Colored)
A great filler for BIG sensory bins! A 50 lb bag goes a long way when I’m filling something like a kiddie pool or water table, especially for farm and fall setups. 🌽
Corn - 50 lbs
Need green without having to dye anything? Green split peas are an easy shortcut for nature, spring, dinosaur, farm, and other green-themed bins.
Dry Green Split Peas
This one is all about the texture! It’s light and fluffy, doesn’t dry out, and the different colors make it easy to use on its own or mix a couple together for a themed bin.
Pluffle
A good one when I need more filler without buying a bunch of little bags. The 4 lb size can actually fill a decent-sized bin, and the neutral color lets whatever I add to it stand out.
Pinto Beans - 4lb
A fun change from all the rice, beans, and pasta! Use these for a construction site, dinosaur dig, garden, ocean floor, or anywhere you want a rocky texture.
Colorful Mini Decorative Accent Pebbles
Black beans make an awesome dark base for Halloween, space, construction, and other themes where you really want the colorful pieces to pop.
Dry Black Beans
A simple light-colored base when I don’t want the filler competing with everything else in the bin. These work especially well with bright or colorful themed pieces.
Great Northern Beans
🥄 Scoops, Tongs & Tools
Each tool works a little differently, giving kids different ways to grab, squeeze, scoop, and pour while they play.
These little Dollar Tree scoops are perfect for sensory bins! They’re a great size for little hands and work really well for scooping and pouring rice, beans, pasta, and other fillers.
Clear Plastic Scoops
A cheap set of measuring cups and spoons gives you so many different sizes to play with. Kids can scoop, fill, dump, compare, and transfer between them.
Plastic Measuring Cup & Spoon Sets
These give kids a few different ways to scoop, grab, pour, and transfer instead of every tool doing the same thing. I especially like that the different handles make little hands work in different ways.
Learning Resources Helping Hands
Paint brushes are such a simple sensory bin tool! I like using them for brushing filler away, uncovering hidden pieces, and pretend digging or ‘excavating.'
Paint Brushes with Wooden Handles
If you want a whole set instead of collecting tools one at a time, this has a little bit of everything! I also like that it comes with a storage bag so all the little sensory tools have somewhere to go when you’re done.
10 Pcs Wooden Sensory Bin Tools for Kids
🎃 Seasonal & Themed Finds
The fun little pieces that bring a sensory bin theme to life! I love swapping these out for different holidays, seasons, animals, and whatever else we’re into.
These little TOOBS are SO good for sensory bins! This one is insects, and there are tons of other themes too like dinosaurs, farm animals, ocean creatures, fairies and more.
Safari Ltd® TOOBS® Insects
I love breaking these thin noodles into little pieces to make ‘grass’ for sensory bins! They’re really easy to break to whatever length I need, and you can leave them natural or add color to match your theme. 🌱
Iberia Fidelini Pasta
Dollar Tree is one of my favorite places to look for little seasonal pieces to add to sensory bins! These foam shapes are an easy, inexpensive way to match whatever holiday or theme we’re doing.
Glitter Foam Star Scatter
Tiny stars make an easy base for a space or nighttime bin! Add planets, astronauts, moons, or glow-in-the-dark stars and you’ve already got a theme going. ⭐
Barilla Protein+ Stars
Throw a bunch of googly eyes into a Halloween or monster bin and let the kids hunt for them! 👀 You could even add different sizes and have them match up pairs or sort them once they find them.
Crafter's Square Plastic Googly Eyes
An easy fall sensory bin! The pasta is already shaped and colored like little fall leaves, so toss in some acorns, mini pumpkins, or scoops and half the theme is already done. 🍂
Fall Leaf Shaped Italian Pasta
The shapes basically make the theme for you! 🐠 Add some blue filler, shells, little sea animals, or gems and you’ve got an easy ocean sensory bin.
Under the Sea Shaped Italian Pasta
An easy way to add color without dyeing pasta yourself! Use it for rainbow or spring bins, color sorting, or anywhere you want a little extra color. 🌈
Barilla Classic Tri-Color Rotini Pasta
🎨 Sensory Play Extras
More ways to get little hands playing! Dough, kinetic sand, building, threading, textures, and other hands-on sensory activities.
My son LOVES this one! 🚧 He can scoop and dump the Kinetic Sand with the truck, use the crane to move it around, and build and smash things over and over. This one gets a lot of play at our house.
Kinetic Sand Construction Site Kit
A fun one for open-ended play! There are 16 colors to mix, squish, roll, and turn into little characters or whatever else they come up with. I also like that you get a bunch of colors together instead of buying them one at a time.
Chuckle & Roar Whoa Dough Sensory Dough Kit
These can turn into so many little activities! Make shapes and letters, thread beads onto them, poke them through holes, or cut them into pieces and use a magnet to hunt for them.
Thick Pipe Cleaners Craft 20 Colors
A fun way to sneak some letter practice into sensory play! Kids use the Playfoam to build the letters right on the cards while working on letter shapes and sounds. I like that it feels more like playing than sitting down to practice ABCs.
Educational Insights Playfoam Shape & Learn Letter Sounding
Bend, stick, twist, and shape these into pictures, letters, or little creations, then pull them apart and start again. The individual packs are great for tossing in a bag too!
Wikki Stix - Individually Packaged
Ribbon and trim add totally different textures to sensory play! Michaels has lots of bundles with different colors and styles for pulling, sorting, weaving, threading, and exploring.
Bright Trim Bundle
📦 Ready-to-Play Sensory Kits
Sensory play without all the prep! These kits come with the fillers, themed pieces, tools, or activities already put together and ready to play.
This one comes with SO much! You get the space-themed filler plus planets, astronauts, aliens, stars, a rocket, scoop, bowl, and more. Just pour it into a bin and you’ve got an entire space setup without having to hunt down all the little pieces your...
Outer Space Sensory Bin Pour and Play: Planets, Astronauts, Galaxy Rice
Such a cute spring sensory bin! 🌼 The green rice and flower pasta come with bees, ladybugs, flowers, little wooden pieces, a scoop and more. I love how much is included to make a whole little garden setup.
Flower Sensory Bin, Spring Sensory, Taste Safe
For the kid who wants to build their own dinosaur world! 🦕 There’s playdough for making mountains, nests and dino footprints, plus dinosaurs, eggs, fossils, bones and other little pieces to create with.
Dinosaur Play Dough Kit Sensory Play
I like that this one has different size options, so you can grab a little filler for a smaller bin or enough for a bigger setup. 🌊 You can also add the play kit with fish, shells, and ocean pieces if you want the whole theme ready to go.
Sensory Bin Filler + Play Kit - Ocean Explorers
So many cute themes to choose from! Each little double-sided jar has play dough on one side and themed pieces on the other, so everything stays together. They’re also small enough to bring along for restaurants, travel, or anytime you need an easy ac...
Munchkin Duos; Double-Sided Play Dough Jars
Not sure what to actually DO with a sensory bin? This one comes with 50 guided activities plus the little pieces and tools to do them.
Chuckle & Roar 2-in-1 Seek & Write Sensory Bin
I like that this is more than just a sensory kit. You get the actual table, two removable bins AND everything to set up the ice cream sensory activity. When sensory play is done, the top goes back on and it can be used as a regular little activity ta...
Deluxe Sensory Table: Ice Cream Shop
A smaller option when you don’t need a whole sensory bin! 🐄 This one has stretchy cloud clay, farm animals, tools and little pieces for building their own farm scenes. Everything packs back into the resealable pouch when they’re done.
Sensory Activities Kit: Farm Animal