This green and gold St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin is a great way to introduce a fun holiday to toddlers and preschoolers. This sensory play idea gives young children their own special journey into colors, textures, and imaginative play.
- Table Of Contents
How To Create A St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin
Step 1)
Fill your sensory bin with green shredded paper. You can usually purchase it from a craft store or dollar store around St. Patrick’s Day.
Step 2)
Add green and yellow pom poms or other small green and yellow items you have in your craft closet.
Step 3)
Add plastic gold coins or chocolate gold coins and dyed yellow chickpeas for different textures.
Step 4)
Add sensory tools to your sensory tray and two separate bowls for yellow and green items. I made two boxes out of magnetic tiles to help reinforce the color-sorting idea.
Play!
Materials Needed
- Green shredded paper
- Green and yellow pom poms
- Fake gold coins
- Yellow dyed chickpeas
- 2 cups of dried chickpeas, 1 tsp vinegar and yellow food coloring
- Spoons
- Bowls
- Sensory tub, plastic bin, tray or sensory table
- Optional Fine Motor Skill Tools:
- Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set
- (or child-safe tongs and tweezers)
Tips and Guided Play Suggestions
Color sorting
The way this activity is set up makes it a fun way to encourage color sorting. If you make colored boxes out of green and yellow magnetic tiles, or colored cups, it will encourage children to sort the sensory bin items into those colors.
Guided Questions
You can ask your child questions to help engage with the sensory bin and work on language development with lots of conversations. Here are some good starting points:
- What colors do you see?
- Does that feel soft? smooth?
- How many green pom poms are there? Can you count them for me?
- Can you make a pattern using the colors?
Variation Ideas
Scented Sensory Bin:
Infuse scents into the sensory bin by adding a few drops of mint or lime essential oil to the shredded paper. This adds an extra sensory dimension.
Texture Exploration:
Introduce additional textured items like green and yellow fabric scraps or ribbons. Discuss how each texture feels compared to the other items in the bin. You could add green rice as well as yellow chickpeas, or other green things from your local dollar store to enhance this fun sensory bin. Foam shapes, green glass beads, coiled pipe cleaners or mini erasers are all great options to add into this easy activity for hours of fun and texture exploration.
Shamrock Shapes:
Cut out shamrock shapes or four leaf clovers from green felt or foam and scatter them throughout the sensory bin. Encourage children to find and count the shamrocks.
Leprechaun Gold
You could use black pots with this sensory bin and pretend it’s a leprechaun’s pot of gold. Young children have a lot of fun with pretend play. As well as yellow plastic coins, you can sometimes find green coins around St. Patrick’s day to include in this activity.
Benefits of this St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin
Cognitive Growth:
As kids dive into the sensory wonderland filled with green shredded paper, they explore colors. Sorting vibrant green and yellow pom poms, along with other bin items, hones their cognitive skills as they identify, categorize, and count the number of coins they find.
Fine Motor Skills:
Equipped with sensory tools like tongs and tweezers, children engage their fine motor skills with precision in different ways. The tactile experience of grasping pom poms, gold coins, and other textured items fosters hand-eye coordination and dexterity while young children have a lot of fun.
Sensory Exploration:
Get ready for a load of sensory fun! Engaging multiple senses, this sensory bin is a symphony of touch, sight, and even smell if scented oils are introduced. The experience enhances sensory awareness, making learning immersive.
Language Development:
Engaging children with open-ended questions during playtime encourages them to share their thoughts and observations. This not only enriches their vocabulary and oral language but also fosters the development of communication skills and the ability to articulate their experiences.
Final Thoughts
This sensory activity for St. Patrick’s Day is a great idea for fine motor practice and amusement. It’s sure to be a huge hit! Using this kind of fun activity is the perfect way to entertain young ones while they learn at the same time!
Stick around Crafty Kids Play for more sensory activities, crafts and printables for kids of all ages.
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