A sensory bin is typically a plastic tub or a large container of some sort filled with materials and objects carefully selected to stimulate the senses. A sensory bin can be filled with a large variety of different materials such as shredded paper, water beads, water, sand, and more.

A sensory bin can provide opportunities for children to stimulate some or all of the following senses: visual (sight), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smell), gustation (taste). As part of our Green Eggs and Ham unit, we learned about the different parts of an egg using this wonderful medium.

The base of our bin was created using green rice. The parts of an egg were represented by green plastic eggs as the shell, and white pom poms as the yoke. Students were also given spatulas and flip their eggs and manipulate the rice. Lastly, they enjoyed combining their materials with their friends’.