Christmas Sensory Bin

I'm excited to be joining in today with Sugar Aunts' Christmas Carol Sensory Bin Blog Hop! Bloggers from all over are joining in to bring you a list of carol inspired sensory bins that you can re-create all season long!

What is your family's favourite Christmas Carol? My girls have a couple that they're quite enamoured with at the moment so when it came to choosing a carol for our bin I had a bit of choice. I decided to go with the carol I enjoy the most too: Colin Buchanan's The King of Christmas.



To begin with I went looking through the house for things I could use to symbolise the elements of Christmas mentioned in the song: the Christmas tree, fairy lights, candy cane and presents. At first I envisioned using pine needles as the base of the bin but the week got away from me before we had a chance to collect them, instead I opted to use one of our favourite bases-rice.

I then added a small potted plant for the Christmas tree, a couple of battery operated Christmas light necklaces for the lights (these have button batteries and are NOT suitable for mouthing children, they also require a HIGH amount of supervision), some candy canes, some Christmas decorations and jingle bells just because and some of our Christmas blocks as presents. I also added some felt hearts and crown stickers.

To invite the girls to play I simply placed the bin outside on the deck and played the carol on the ipad.

Squiggles immediately began exploring the rice with her hands. Running her fingers through and making patterns with her hands as well as scooping the rice up and watching it fall.

Bubbles went for the crown stickers first and stuck them to the felt hearts. A direction I hadn't seen the activity going in!

Squiggles then began decorating the tree whilst Bubbles buried her hearts.

At this point I added the 'presents' which I'd forgotten to add. Bubbles placed them carefully under the tree whilst Squiggles took great delight in tearing the wrapping paper open.

As they explored we all sang along with the carol. It was a nice, relaxing activity and as the weather turned cool the girls requested that the bin come inside, where they continued to explore as I prepared dinner.

Want to see more sensory bins based on Christmas Carols? Check out what these bloggers have created:

Away in the Manger | Sugar Aunts
Jingle Bells | Laly Mom

Frosty the Snowman | Still Playing School

Oh Holy Night | Teach Me Mommy

Jingle Bell Rock | Modern Preschool

O Christmas Tree | Best Toys 4 Toddlers

The Friendly Beasts | Line Upon Line Learning

King of Christmas | Squiggles and Bubbles

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas | Something to Offer

Silver Bells | One Time Through
Little Drummer Boy | Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails 

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.