Floral Sensory Bin For Toddlers & Kids

This natural floral sensory bin is a great way to teach toddlers and kids about flowers, colors, and shapes. Even better, it gets all five senses going, including smell.

Sensory bins for babies, toddlers, and kids feature a variety of fillers, from rice to water beads. It varies depending on the child’s age, and there are different themes and toys you can incorporate depending on what stage your child is at in their development.

My son loves just about any sensory bin I’ve put in front of him. I’ve done some as simple as dirt with some farm animals and scoops, and they were still a huge success!

Recently though, he’s shown an interest in both flowers and smelling things. He hadn’t yet made the connection that flowers smell good since it’s currently Winter, and his Mama has a black thumb.

Seriously, for someone trying to homestead, I have a serious knack for killing all of my plants. There’s always next year.

I recently ordered a huge bag of dried lavender petals, and after my son insisted on smelling them over and over for about thirty minutes, the idea struck: A floral sensory bin!

It’s perfect! He learned how to say the word “flower” this week, and he constantly wants to smell everything I use, from essential oils to wax melts. It was a match made in heaven.

Why You Should Incorporate Sensory Activities Into Your Schedule

Sensory play is important for development. It stimulates our kids’ senses and allows them to learn through creative play while getting their hands dirty. It encourages our children to explore and create with physical items.

In this case, instead of telling my son that flowers smell good and describing what they look like, he was able to make those connections himself.

I raise my son in a modern environment. He has access to games on my phone and any television show at any point in time.

And yet, he’d still rather have a box full of random objects and scoops. I’ll take it!

Whether you homeschool or not, you should incorporate sensory activities into your schedule as often as you can. You don’t have to include specific items for your child to benefit, and it doesn’t even need to be Pinterest-worthy.

Dump a pack of uncooked pasta and throw some random small toys from around the house in a small tub and your kid will have a blast getting creative.

This specific sensory bin hits all the main senses, most importantly smell.

Lavender has a strong scent that my son seems to enjoy. I don’t feel the need to add any essential oils or other natural scents, because the flowers did enough.

Unless your child has a severely sensitive nose or allergy to any of the flowers or specific ingredients, this should be a very safe and natural way to explore their sense of smell and touch.

This activity also helps your toddler or child work on color recognition and fine motor skills. They’ll have fun scooping the rice and dried flowers into scoops, and they’ll learn the effective (and ineffective) ways to transfer the rice from one spot to another.

My son quickly realized that using his hands to put each individual grain of rice on the scoop was way more time consuming than learning how to use a scoop properly. He wouldn’t have learned that any other way than through trial and error. That’s the beauty of sensory bins!

Natural Floral Sensory Bin Idea For Toddlers & Kids

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Here’s What You’ll Need:

• Plastic Tubs (or some sort of container)
• Dyed Rice
• Lavender and Other Various Flowers (dried or fresh)
• Scoops

 

There are different ways to dye rice for sensory bins. I simply added a few drops of food coloring the day before the activity and mixed it up with gloved hands. None of the colors rubbed off on my son.

Next time I’m interested in looking at alternative, natural ways to dye the rice, but this was a nice, quick option.

You can also fill your sensory bins with beans, pom-poms, and dirt, among other things. I chose rice, so I could dye it purple and yellow to work on color recognition.

If you have carpet or you want to minimize the clean-up, lay out a towel or blanket for your kids to play on before handing them the sensory bin. Or there’s always the good ol’ outdoors! We have all wooden floors, so I wasn’t too concerned about the mess.

There you have it! My easy-peasy floral sensory bin for toddlers and kids. You’re able to customize it and make it however you want, adding anything you have around your house for your kids to play with. Don’t worry too much about the specifics. Your kids will love it regardless.

I can’t say I blame them either, who wouldn’t like playing with dried rice and pretty flowers?

If this post inspired you to make your own floral sensory bin, I’d love to hear about it, or better yet – see it! Leave a comment below letting me know how it went, or snap a picture and tag me on Instagram.

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