Today’s sensory bin couldn’t have been easier to set up. I simply poured a bag of porridge oats into our green sensory bin and brought through a few resources from the kitchen. Within a couple of seconds, our O is for Oats Sensory Bin was complete.
For some time, my little one just wanted to bury his hands in the oats. He kept rolling his hands over and over, exploring the texture of the oats. I am convinced that if the sensory bin had of been big enough he would have got inside and buried himself.
How to Set up oats sensory bin?
Materials we used:
- sensory bin (find it here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom)
- plastic cups
- plastic spoons
- bag of oats
- water or milk (optional)
You can simply pour a bag of oats inside a sensory bin and add other tools on the side, like we did on the picture.
This sensory bin is perfect for younger toddlers who tend to put everything in their mouth because it is perfectly taste safe. You can let them play on their own with a peace of mind while you attend to other tasks.
How to play with oats sensory bin?
Oats naturally lend themselves to be poured. My little one spent ages simply transferring the oats from one container to another.
The sensory bin contained the majority of the mess and any stray oats. You could always place a shower curtain underneath the sensory bin to minimize any further mess.
I encouraged my son to pick up any individual oats. This proved to be a wonderful fine motor activity that required concentration and perseverance.
What else can you do with oats sensory bin?
After some time of exploring the dry oats we couldn’t resist experimenting what would happen if we added water. I gave my son a small amount of water so he could explore pouring it in himself.
He poured a tiny amount in at a time and stirred the oats in between. My son didn’t find the texture as appealing as the dry oats but he discovered that he could use the small bowls to create little hills.
The potato masher proved to be a huge hit. My little one discovered that the round mounds of wet oats could be splattered through the potato masher. What a wonderful gooey mess.
Our Oats Sensory Bin was a huge hit. It couldn’t have been easier to set up, provided plenty of dry and wet sensory experiences and the oats could be recycled. I am considering using them in an oats play dough recipe. A win-win sensory play activity!
Expand the Play with a book
This book contains 100 attractive and well researched photos and a soft padded cover making it the ideal book for toddlers and babies to learn simple words. This book will help your child to build vocabulary and observational skills related to food. Find My First 100 Food We Eat here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
This mouth-watering book answers all kinds of questions about food. With over 60 flaps to lift children can discover which foods grow in rainforests, who discovered potatoes, why cheese smells and lots more where, how, why, what, which and yes or no questions. Packed with amazing facts and useful information this is a great way to learn about food. Find Questions and Answers About Food here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
What else can you do?
- download our free sensory play guide for beginners to learn everything about sensory play
- choose few more sensory activities for your child from our selection of taste-safe activities.
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