sensory play

The Day the Crayons Quit Sensory Bin

Building a sensory bin around a book is a genius idea. Reading aloud is so incredibly valuable for our children. Not only will The Day the Crayons Quit Sensory Bin encourage you and your children to read aloud together, it will also provide positive sensory input. Plus, your kids will be working on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills, observation, and color theory.

Bright and engaging colors, a variety of interesting textures, and a story to tell, retell, and imagine will make this a sensory bin your kids won’t want to leave. The value of sensory input for children cannot be overstated. The same can be said for literacy. This activity encourages both.

About The Day the Crayons Quit

A delightful book, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Marichelle Daywalt, tells the story of a time when all the crayons were dissatisfied with their lot in life. Each of the crayons leaves behind a letter to explain their plight and a dissappointed young man must convince them to take up their posts again so that he can color. The book covers themes like communication, feelings, empathy, and respect.

Why Connect a Sensory Bin to a Picture Book

The beauty of reading picture books to children is that the pictures help to bring stories to life for children and help them engage with the story even as they work separately on the skill of picturing a story as they read. Reading out loud to your children has immense value because they can hear and understand far more than they can read on their own. So by reading, you are providing an enriched literary experience they will come to crave for themselves.

When you add a sensory bin to the picture book experience, you are extending the magic. You keep the story alive in their minds and give them one more way to explore the concepts introduced by the book. As they play, they replay or continue the story in their heads or outloud with each other. This gives kids practice using vocabulary, communicating with each other, using imagination, and exploring the world.

The connection between the sensory bin and the book strengthens neural pathways in the brain and improves comprehension through play. It’s a new way to process and work through new information.

How to Make a “The Day the Crayons Quit” Sensory Bin

Supplies Needed

Step-By-Step Instructions

Fill the sensory bin with rainbow rice.
Add rainbow pom poms and number mini erasers.
Add small bowl, tongs, magnifying glass, and dice.
Set the book next to the bin.

Suggested Activities to Go with The Day the Crayons Quit Sensory Bin

Read the book.
Roll the dice and find a matching number mini eraser with the magnifying glass.
Roll the dice and use the tongs to place the correct number of pom poms in the bowl.
Use the magnifying glass to take a closer look at the book.
Locate a color in the book and find the matching colored pom poms.

How to Play with A Sensory Bin

Sort and organize. This is such a valuable activity for kids. You can sort items in the bin by color, type, or size.
Encourage your children to enjoy free play in the bin and see how they approach the experience. Let them run their hands through the rice, scoop and pour it, and play for as long as they like.
Compare and contrast. Talk about how the textures, colors, shapes, and sizes of each object compares to the others. Use descriptive words like smooth, soft, fluffy, or bright to describe the objects and compare them.
Gather and distribute. Move all of the pom poms to the bowl. Then dump the pom poms and move all the number erasers to the bowl. Use tongs, tweezers, or thumb and index fingers to work on fine motor skills a variety of different ways.

Sensory Bin Variations

You do not have to use rainbow rice. You could use rainbow pasta, rainbow beans, or a different sensory bin filler in primary colors.

Be creative! You can find mini crayon erasers and all kinds of things to use in your sensory bin if you have the room in your budget, but you can also pick things up at yard sales, at thrift shops, and from around your home. For this sensory bin focus on primary colors or rainbow colors to go with the theme of the book.

Add funnels, scoops, tweezers, measuring cups, spoons, and other tools to help your child experience the different materials in the bin.

Learning Extension Activities for The Day the Crayons Quit

Create Your Own Follow-Up Story: The Day the Crayons Were Happy

The Day the Crayons Quit Coloring Page

Make Crayon Ornaments

How to Melt Crayons and Make New Ones

Beetlejuice Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

With the release of another Beetlejuice movie, there’s a whole new generation who will be introduced to the memorable characters. This Beetlejuice sensory bin would be fun to pair with a movie night or for Halloween. It’s spooky but not overly scary because it carries the quirky vibe from the movie.This sensory experience inspired by the unique world of Beetlejuice would also be a great addition to your classroom or party. It’s made with simple items that can often be purchased at a dollar store such as the Dollar Tree.

If you’re looking for similar ideas, check out our Eyeball Sensory Bin, Googly Eye Monster Slime, and Halloween Sensory Game. Or put them all together to create a themed sensory experience.

Beetlejuice Sensory Bin

Materials Needed:

Black Beans
Ping Pong Halloween Eye balls
Black and white pumpkins
Orange and black striped pumpkins
Green curly ribbon bow
Purple foam balls

dry black beans, green bow and ribbon curls, small striped pumpkins, and a bag of plastic eyeballs on a white background

Additional Ideas for your sensory bin:

Add Shovels, Scoops, and Tongs. These tools encourage fine motor skill development as kids dig, scoop, and sift through the bin. They can bury objects and dig them up using their tools.

Incorporate Characters: Position your Beetlejuice and Lydia figurines within the scene to give kids an opportunity to act out scenarios. Perhaps Lydia is searching for Beetlejuice, or the sandworm is chasing them both!

Set up scenes. Create a small “graveyard” area with miniature tombstones or small creepy trees. Position your Lydia and Beetlejuice figurines within a scene or set the sandworm up so that it is chasing them.

Incorporate other senses. Play spooky music for auditory stimulation. Include citrus scents with candles or essential oils to engage the olfactory sensory system.

bright green tray with dry black beans, purple pompoms, plastic eyeballs, green ribbon curls, a green pincher, and striped play pumpkin

Other Beetlejuice themed play ideas:

Beetlejuice coloring book
Handbook for the Recently Deceased Notebook
make a “darkly delicious” recipe inspired by Tim Burton’s classic
dress as the characters
host a fun Halloween family movie night
make googly eye slime

Benefits of Sensory Play

Sensory bins are a great way to stimulate your child’s senses, improve fine motor skills, and encourage imaginative play.

Fine Motor Skills: Grasping, pinching, and scooping help to strengthen muscles in the hands and improve coordination.
Sensory Exploration: The various textures in this sensory tray stimulate the sense of touch and provide a calming, focused play experience.
Imaginative Play: The Beetlejuice theme encourages kids to use their imagination, reenacting scenes from the movie or making up their own storylines with the characters.
Language Development: Playing with a themed bin like this one encourages kids to engage in conversation, storytelling, and descriptive language as they talk about the different textures, characters, and elements they discover.

Sensory Play Tips

Supervise Young Children: If the sensory tub contains small items, make sure young children are supervised to prevent choking.
Store Materials for Future Play: When the bin has served its purpose, you can store the dry black beans in a sealed container to use for future sensory bins.
Encourage Open-Ended Play: Allow your child to explore the bin in their own way. Some might enjoy scooping and sorting, while others may create elaborate stories with the items.

bright green tray with dry black beans, purple pompoms, plastic eyeballs, green ribbon curls, a green pincher, and striped play pumpkin

I hope you and your child or students enjoy this Beetlejuice sensory experience. Just remember, you only need to say his name three times!

Cool Whip Play Dough

By Sharla Kostelyk

Did you know that the simple act of playing with play dough has incredible benefits for kids? It’s a fantastic tool to keep in your parenting toolbox at all times. This taste-safe recipe for Cool Whip Play Dough is a fun way to engage your kids in sensory play for thirty minutes, an hour, or maybe an entire afternoon.

We like to make new and exciting playdough recipes to change things up, even though we love our Basic Homemade Playdough Recipe for everyday use. This recipe is so fun for kids because it is edible playdough, and they can help make this simple recipe. In fact, I recommend letting your kids help whenever possible!

Pro Tip: This is the perfect way to use up Cool Whip you forgot about over the holidays and found in your freezer three months later!

Cool Whip Play Dough Recipe

8 oz. frozen Cool Whip
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 cups cornstarch
Food coloring – optional

How to Make Cool Whip Play Dough

In a medium bowl, add the frozen Cool Whip and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Stir to mix together well.
Add 1 cup of cornstarch to the Cool Whip and powdered sugar, then mix again.
If you’d like to add food coloring, add 4-5 drops and mix in.
Place the Cool Whip mixture back into the container and refreeze overnight.
Add the Cool Whip mixture into a bowl.
Add another cup of cornstarch and mix well with a spoon.
If the mixture is still sticky, add another 1⁄2 cup of cornstarch and knead with your hands.
Play!

Pro Tip: If the Cool Whip play dough is still sticky, add the remaining 1⁄2 cup of cornstarch and knead well. More cornstarch may be needed as the dough absorbs moisture in the air over the next few days.

How to Store Cool Whip Play Dough

This is not the kind of play dough you can keep on the counter. Instead, store your leftover edible playdough in an air tight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Variations

You can substitute some of the cornstarch with chocolate cocoa powder or strawberry drink mix powder for different flavors.

A bit of peppermint flavoring (not extract) will make this the perfect Christmas or winter play dough and add that amazing smell for sensory play. I don’t recommend using extracts because of the bitter taste of uncooked alcohol, but you can find alcohol-free flavoring oils in the cake decorating section of your local craft store.

Playing with Play Dough

I’m always looking for common household objects that will make our playdough play more fun. Set out the play dough with a few interesting possibilities and create an invitation to play. Here are some fantastic ideas for things that either cut play dough or make fun imprints, and most of these you already have or can grab at the dollar store.

Plastic Cups
Plastic Cookie Cutters (letters and numbers are fabulous!)
Cookie Press Cutters
Dough Roller
Toy Rings or Jewelry
Lego® or Duplo® (this may be a permanent sacrifice, so proceed with caution).
Plastic silverwear (knives, forks, spoons)
Combs
Plastic Beads
Bubble Wrap
Hair Brush
Whisk
Plastic Animals
tooth brushes
doggy toothbrush
leaves, flowers, and plants

Pro Tip: Contain the mess with play dough mats. I hear parents mention repeatedly that the reason they don’t do “XYZ” is because they don’t like the mess. As grown-ups we can figure out ways to contain and deal with that mess for a few years so that our kids get the powerful benefits of sensory play. Our Play Dough Mats Bundle can help you, and will even extend the fun! As a side note, this edible play dough wipes up easily with a hot wash cloth, and stray pieces on the floor may be snapped up by your pets.

The Benefits of Play Dough Play

This playdough provides significant sensory feedback, including tactile (touch), proprioceptive from the squeezing and squishing of the dough, and gustatory (taste) sensory input. If you add smelly food-safe flavoring oils it can also add olfactory (smell) sensory input just like our Pudding Playdough or Melting Ice Cream Playdough.

Besides sensory input, play dough also builds fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, imagination, concentration, and problem solving.

Like most sensory play, playdough is therapeutic and can relieve stress or tension as a calm-down activity for both kids and adults. Try our Calming Lavender Scented Playdough.

This is a huge list of benefits, and doesn’t even touch on ideas for using play dough to extend learning in math, science, and other academic areas — check out Dinosaur Fossils in Playdough as an example!

Tips to Keep Play Dough Time Fun and Interesting

Even though the sensory input is invaluable, some kids might find play dough boring after a while, and need inspiration to keep enjoying the experience. Here are some ideas.

Change up the toys. Don’t give your child all the things for play dough all at once, keep a few different bags of play dough tools and toys to rotate through.

Change up the recipes. We have a huge and growing collection of play dough recipes on our site!

Connect it to hobbies and interests. Whatever your child is into right now can be connected to sensory play whether its play dough or sensory bins. Dinosaurs? No problem. Counting. Easy! Flowers? Piece of cake!

Change the smell. Some kids may dislike the natural smell of our play dough recipes. Add a drop or two of essential oils, extracts, or food-safe flavorings to keep it fresh. *Make sure to use food-safe ingredients if your child puts everything in their mouths!

More Thematic Play Dough Recipes Your Child will Love

Frozen Inspired Elsa Microwave Playdough

Peter Rabbit Playdough Invitation to Play

Apple Tree Colour and Counting Playdough Game

Rainbow Playdough Colour and Counting Game

5 Little Ducks Activities for Preschool

By Sharla Kostelyk

Give your little one a chance to have some fun as they learn with these cute 5 Little Ducts activities. Make your own duck-filled sensory bottle for your kids to play with as they enjoy the book. They’ll have fun using their different senses to play along as you read a sweet nursery rhyme book.

5 Little Ducks Sensory Bottle:

Supplies needed:

16 ounce sensory bottle
5 ounce bottle of Elmer’s Clear Glue
5 small rubber duck toys
Blue glass stones/gems
Water

Instructions:

Open the sensory bottle. Pour the whole bottle of glue into the bottle.
Add the glass stones and gems to the bottom of the bottle, then place the ducks inside.
Fill the bottle with water, leaving a little room at the top empty.
Close the lid. Secure the lid with tape or glue, if desired, to ensure the bottle doesn’t leak.
Shake the contents of the bottle until all the glue, gems, and ducks move around freely.

Note: You may have bubbles appear shaking the bottle for the first time. Allow the bubbles to settle and disappear after shaking.

5 Little Ducks Preschool Activities

This cute duck craft is the perfect way to have some fun as you read! That’s because this sensory bottle goes along with the story in the popular children’s book, 5 Little Ducks.

In the book, a mother duck patiently awaits Spring, when her five baby ducks – all grown up – return with their new families. Throughout the story, your preschooler will have the chance to practice counting and color recognition, making it a great way to reinforce the concepts they’re learning in school.

Read the book aloud to your kids or watch this YouTube read-along.

And after you finish reading the story, you can continue the learning process as your little ones make and play with their own sensory bottle. Once the bottle is put together, they can:

Count the ducks in the bottle as they are reading, moving the bottle around.
Match the colors in the bottle to the colors in the book.
Watch the gems sink to the bottom while the ducks float to the top.

Other Activities to Correspond with the 5 Little Ducks Book and Song:

You may be interested in these other book related kids activities:

Jungle Sensory Bin with Printable Feelings Cards

By Sharla Kostelyk

Sensory bins are a fun way to get your kids engaged in imaginative play. And while they’re perfect for encouraging your child to play independently, you can also use these learning tools to help reinforce important concepts, like emotions. With this fun jungle sensory bin, your preschooler can have fun playing with cute jungle animals while also practicing emotional identification.This activity is great for preschools, Kindergarten classrooms, or home. You can easily adapt the questions you ask for older and younger kids. Learning opportunities:

early reading
matching
jungle animals
emotions
sensory play

How to Make a Jungle Sensory Bin

Materials Needed:

Large bin or dish
Split peas or other green filler (see suggestions below)
Toy jungle animals
Printable jungle animal feelings cards (you can download those here)
Scissors
Laminator (optional)

Instructions:

Fill the bin with your filler material.
Add the jungle animal toys.
Print out the jungle animal feelings cards and cut them out. Laminate for durability, if desired.
Place the cards inside the bin with the toys.

How Do You Play with this Feelings in the Jungle Sensory Bin?

After you put your jungle themed bin together with the filler, toys, and printable cards, it’s time for your kids to have some fun! Let your child explore the items in the bin independently first. Then, you can encourage them to identify the different feelings they see on the animal cards.

These simple prompts are a great way to get your kids thinking about the jungle themed animals inside their sensory bin:

Point at the sad lion.
Show me the angry zebra.
Find the happy giraffe.
Which animal is angry?
How is the zebra feeling?
Can you find the sad giraffe?
Why do you think the lion is crying?
Is the zebra excited?

Since this printable activity features a variety of feelings and emotions on each set of cards, your kid can have tons of fun playing with their favorite jungle animals and learning about feelings at the same time. The cards feature three different popular jungle animals: giraffes, lions, and zebras. And each animal displays 10 different emotions:

Happy
Sad
Angry
Disgusted
Shy
Confused
Scared
Shocked
Crying
Excited

Jungle Sensory Bin Variations

Use different filler materials, like Easter grass, Spanish moss, small rocks, sand, water beads, or colored rice
Add other jungle themed toys, like small trees, sticks, flowers, or leaves
Provide fine motor toys, like tweezers or scoops, to add to the jungle fun
Use the cards outside of the box by helping your child match the different animal’s emotions

Activities to Expand Your Jungle Sensory Bin Lesson

Read books about jungle animals or emotions
Identify your own emotions as they occur throughout the day
Discuss how different situations make you or your child feel as they’re happening
Draw or paint pictures of different jungle animals or emotions

You may also be interested in:

Pudding Playdough

By Sharla Kostelyk

Having taste safe sensory play recipes creates a wonderful opportunity for toddlers and preschoolers to create. With just 3 ingredients, this pudding playdough is easy to make and it’s completely edible.Kids can mould and shape to their heart’s content. It’s such a fun activity.

We love creating taste safe sensory play recipes like our Edible Shark Fluffy Slime, Condensed Milk Edible Paint, or Edible Freezie Painting.

Pudding Playdough Recipe:

Supplies needed:

¼ cup vanilla flavored instant pudding mix (note: if you purchase the 3.4 oz. box, you will have some left over to make a second batch)
1 cup cornstarch
⅓ cup warm water
mixing bowl
mixing spoon
candy sprinkles (optional)
cookie cutters (optional)

Instructions:

Add the pudding mix to the mixing bowl.
Add half of the corn starch to the bowl.
Pour in the water.
Stir to mix the dough.
Add in the other half of the corn starch.
Mix well.
Finish by kneading the dough with your hands until you get the desired consistency. The dough should feel soft to the touch when you start mixing and should not be sticky.
If you find that your dough is sticky, add more corn starch.

If you want, you can add the candy sprinkles to the dough.

Your child can play with the playdough on the table or on a plastic play mat for easy cleanup.

You can set out cookie cutters to add a fine motor element to the playdough station.

When done playing, store any leftover dough in an airtight container in the fridge.

Sensory Benefits:

The dough naturally smells of vanilla because of the vanilla pudding mix, so there are many sensory elements to this playdough. It gives tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), proprioceptive from the squeezing and squishing of the dough, and gustatory (taste) sensory input.

Why use taste safe playdough?

The high salt content in regular playdough can be dangerous when eaten. For young children who are at that age and stage of putting everything in their mouths or for older kids who have a hard time understanding not to eat the dough, taste safe dough provides a wonderful alternative.The ingredients are ones that you may already have in your pantry which is another benefit to choosing to make this edible pudding play dough.