Fine Motor
Learning
Sensory
St Patrick's DayPreschoolersToddlersColors
Rainbow Activities
Sorting
Toys1 Comment
This sensory bin idea is rainbow inspired, encourages color sorting, but is all about the touch and feel experience!
Explore textures, weights, sizes, shapes, and more with craft bits, small parts, and toys from around the house!
You can sort them, name them, or simply just play with it all.
Get the sensory experience without using food or a messy filler.
This one is great for taking to grandma’s house!
What You Need to Make Your Own Rainbow No Mess Sensory Bin
- Card stock or thick construction paper in the colors of the rainbow
- Stapler
- Yarn or cord
- Large, shallow bin
- Variety of small toys and household items in every color
- LEGO blocks, bouncy balls, figures, cars, game pieces, magnets, peg puzzle pieces, jewelry and hair accessories, straws, paper clips, silicone muffin cups, etc.
- Variety of colorful craft items
- pom poms, crayons, coiled pipe cleaners, feathers, pencil toppers, erasers, craft sticks, ribbon, buttons, beads, googly eyes, recyclable bits like twisty caps, etc.
Prepping Your Mess Free Rainbow Sensory Bin Activity
Gather Rainbow Color Items
First thing I did was grab a small box and took a tour around the toy areas, bedroom, kitchen and craft supplies.
I gathered up everything small that I could find that had a solid color.
I tried to find things with various weight, texture, density and interest.
Heavy items like bouncy balls, and super light feathers.
Hard cars, soft pom poms, and rubbery pencil toppers.
You don’t need to have a lot as long as there is a variety to explore.
I did this the night before so I wouldn’t have to make my toddler wait around too long.
I gave myself a 15 minute time limit. But, I only spent about 10.
TIP: Don’t gather more than you want to put away!
Create a Paper Tube Rainbow for the Sensory Bin
Next I made paper tubes with construction paper and attached them to look rainbow inspired.
TIP:Don’t overthink or over complicate this!
It’s just an added inspiration for the bin. Not the focus.
I rolled the papers each into a tube and stapled them near the top and bottom.
I just eyeballed it.
Then I lined them up in an arch in the empty bin in the order of a rainbow.
Then I stapled them to each other at the top only keeping it curved a bit for stability.
I turned it over so the stapled part was on the bottom.
I wove a small twine around the paper tubes just crisscross style and tied it off.
That was it and I was done.
However, as time went on playing with this activity I realized it would be beneficial to have a quick bottom on the tubes.
My toddler managed to bump the rainbow now and then when sorting with her sensory bin and was not impressed when items fell out the bottom.
So, I recommend adding a quick base to the rainbow.
I grabbed a piece of printer paper, folded it up, cut a circle freehand that was a bit smaller than the tubes.
I use a couple pieces of tape to attach quickly and flipped it back over into the bin.
Nothing fancy.
Put it All Together
Lastly, I made sure the rainbow was in place and dumped in all the small parts I had collected.
The key to this rainbow sensory bin being mess free is to make sure you don’t use food or anything tiny or grainy as a filler.
Just use the bits and pieces.
No-Mess Rainbow Sensory Bin and Color Sort
Now for the fun part!
Invite your toddler over to explore all the textures!
DOWNLOAD Your FREE Colorful Week of Rainbow Fun!
Engage as Many Senses As You Can
My toddler was in awe when she saw all the colors and items I had gathered for her.
Her sight senses were engaged immediately!
For Maisie, I chose to sit with her for a bit and engage together.
Get the wheels turning, if I may.
I asked her what kinds of things she could find.
She began to explore now with her sense of touch.
Next, she discovered the feathers and immediately started to tickle her face!
She discovered the coiled pipe cleaners and loved stretching them back out.
In typical toddler style, she then wanted them coiled back up like springs.
I was glad I had chosen to add straws to the sensory bin as it made coiling the pipe cleaners super quick.
We had fun with that!
We explored the sounds the items made as we dropped them into the rainbow also!
Her sense of sound was engaged then as we listened to the difference of the toy cars vs the feathers and pom poms!
My toddler has a love of sorting!
So sorting some of these items into the rainbow was a fun part of this sensory exploration bin!
However, we really didn’t focus on that part so much other than for using it to compare sounds.
The color sorting was also great for giving my toddler a purpose when she was playing independently with the rainbow sensory bin.
We also tried smelling some of the items to see if they smelled different from each other.
The crayons, erasers, and craft sticks all had very different smells.
I wish I had thought to add a few scented items, like car air fresheners, strawberry shortcake mini figures, and a few scented tea lights.
But I will be sure to grab some of those next time we do this type of activity.
We didn’t explore the sense of taste with this activity.
I wanted a no mess sensory bin this time so didn’t want any good in there.
However, I’m sure I could have added a few rainbow goldfish or something without getting too messy.
Leave The Rainbow Sensory Bin to Free Play
Maisie discovered some rubbery gummy bear pencil toppers.
Those became her new favorite item in the bin.
She would put them into the rainbow tubes and then drop other things on as gifts for them.
“Here is a present for you little red bear!”
“Oh, you will love this feather, green bear! It’s so soft!”
“Do you want a bouncy ball, yellow bear?”
And on it went.
Then she would reach in and take everything back out.
My toddler played with this for more than half an hour as I enjoyed a chat with my mom on the couch.
It is always wonderful to have an activity to take along to Nana’s house!
And this sensory play with no food or mess was definitely a win!
I did my best to focus our time with this on the sensory experience with the small bits.
Making sure never to add any pressure to sort it all out.
With the amount of items I chose to offer it was important that my toddler not feel overwhelmed.
I felt if I was to mention sorting too many times she may feel the need to sort the entire bin.
And to be honest, that would have been a much too large task for my little 2 year old.
What items can you think of to add to your no mess rainbow sensory bin? Do you something in mind?
Tell us your ideas in the comments!
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