Making & Using Sensory Bins At Home

At Wolf, we understand that for Complex Learners sensory exploration is key in helping them learn – a great way to do this is through sensory bins. We chatted with Wolf OT, Nicole Braga O’Neill to learn more!

Many of you may have heard of sensory bins before but may not know where to get started or what to include to engage your child.  Some of you may not even know that a sensory bin can be used at home and not just in the classroom. Before we get into how you can build one at home, let’s first dive into what it is and why it’s so beneficial for students with learning differences.

Why Use Sensory Bins?

Sensory bins are a multisensory learning tool that incorporates many different sensory and motor experiences to immerse a student in a topic. For Complex Learners, this type of sensory experience allows them to access the topic at hand more easily because they’re engaging more of their senses with materials that encourage them to explore and interact.  These helpful learning tools aren’t just for younger students, but can be a tool to support many skill areas for older students, as well. 

As a parent of a Complex Learner, you know firsthand how critical the partnership between school and home is. When lessons taught at school are reinforced at home, they’re more likely to stick with a student and really make an impact. That’s why using sensory bins at home to help reinforce school lessons or specific skills they’re working on can be so impactful. 

How to build your own sensory bin

When building a sensory bin, a  good place to start is to decide on a theme. This could be a topic they are learning about in school, or maybe something that interests them out in the community.  Next, decide what your goal is for the sensory bin.  For younger learners, it could be sight words or even individual letter sounds as goal areas.  For older students, social studies vocabulary can be used, or a matching game of related pictures (i.e., a picture of a city landmark to match to its city of origin like the Empire State Building, New York City).  

A low-cost way to integrate these concepts is to print or make flashcards with the information on them.  Another method could be to buy small manipulatives that tie in the theme.  For example, if the theme is letter sounds, then an alphabet puzzle could be purchased and the pieces of the puzzle are hidden within the bin.

Lastly, decide on filler materials related to the topic, and tools.  Typically the materials are related to the topic somehow by way of its color or texture.  Different tools can be used to remove the pieces from within the bin to incorporate various fine motor skills (i.e., tongs, shovels, tweezers). Additionally, add books from the library, and coloring pages from online that are related to the specific topic to enhance the immersive experience.  

Younger Student Example:

Theme: Ocean

Goal: Vocabulary words

Making the bin:

1. Get a large container and fill it with filler material like water beads
2. In the beads, mix in your themed material (i.e. toy sea creatures and different types of fish)
3. Print out coloring book pages featuring different sea creatures
4. Create flashcards with a picture of different sea creatures and their name (i.e. a picture of a sea turtle, a picture of a jellyfish, a picture of a shark)
5. Using their hands, challenge your child to find all of the sea creatures and then match them to the flashcard
6. To end the activity, have your child color in the coloring pages for all the sea creatures they found

Older Student Example: 

Theme: Space Sensory Bin

Goal: Spelling and matching names of planets to planets

Making the bin: 

1. Get a large container and fill it with a bin filler like kinetic sand
2. In the sand, hide individual letters that spell out the name of the different planets
3. Create flashcards with the name and picture of a planet on one side and fun facts on the other
4. Add small models of the planets to the sand as well
5. Provide tongs for your child to use to dig out the letters and small planet models
6. Challenge your child to spell the different planets using the found letters and match the found models to the pictures on the flashcards

A great way to keep your child’s interest is to give them a small challenge each day, such as a fine motor day (as they find an item within the bin, they then type it and make a list).  Sensory bins provide endless opportunities for creativity, imagination, and immersive learning.  A good place to start is just with materials already available within your house to establish your child’s interest.  Then watch the fun and the magic happen!

Want to get notified when there’s a new World of Complex Learners blog post? Subscribe to our blog!