Beach-Themed Sensory Bin

Make a fun beach-themed sensory bin for hours of sensory play! A wonderful activity for toddlers and preschoolers to learn about the beach, sea life, and ocean creatures.

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Beach-Themed Sensory Bin Materials

We filled our sensory bins with items that mimic things you would find at the beach. I try to place items of different textures, colors and sizes for the most engaging sensory experience.

The items used for our beach-themed sensory bin included…

Dry Rice (to mimic sand)
Small Water Beads
Jumbo Water Beads
Ocean Figures
Water
Blue Food Coloring
Small Sand Scoop

I love using our FLISAT Children’s table from Ikea for sensory activities. If you do not have a sensory table, you can still easily create a sensory work station using large bins.

As children play with the sensory bin, they will engage in interest-led learning. You can also direct the child and work on specific learning activities.

Counting, sorting, and naming each sea creature appropriately will provide hands-on learning opportunities.

Some children will enjoy using the items in the bin to create a story. This provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen language development in young children as they play.

I use the sensory bin as another opportunity for my children to practice tidying up their space after each use. This is an important habit for young children to develop.

I left our beach-themed sensory bin out and allowed my children to play as they pleased.

Along with working with the beach-themed sensory bin, we read many ocean-themed books. We also visited the beach and played with these Ocean Animal Memory Cards.