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You are here: Home / Themes / Gardening / Gardening Sensory Bins

Gardening Sensory Bins

By Shaunna Evans 21 Comments · This content may contain affiliate links.

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Create a garden sensory bin for kids to explore throughout spring and summer.  Toddlers and preschoolers can have fun planting and replanting their own gardens over and over again in their very own gardening sensory bins. Read on to find out how our gardening sensory bin came about and find tons of inspiration for creating your own.

Garden Theme Sensory Play and Gardening Sensory Bin Ideas #preschool #sensory #kids #kidsactivities #gardentheme #spring

FIND EVEN MORE GARDEN ACTIVITY IDEAS IN OUR PRINTABLE GARDEN THEME LESSON PLANS.

How Our Gardening Sensory Bin Came to Be

We planted seeds recently. I knew the girls would enjoy watching the seeds grow, and I’m hoping together we can keep them alive long enough to actually see a plant bloom or produce something edible. You see, I don’t have much of  a green thumb!

Although my success at gardening is minimal, I do love it. Cathy James from NurtureStore published The Garden Classroom, a phenomenal book full of ideas for gardening, crafts and activities to do with kids, and there are so many that I am excited to do with my girls. Click here to view more details about the book or purchase your own copy.

That first day we planted seeds I expected the girls to have fun, but I didn’t really anticipate how much the girls would enjoy digging in the potting soil. Honestly I could have just given them a big pot full of soil and left them to play for the afternoon. They would have loved it. In fact, they did play for a while on their own that first day before we planted the seeds.

Then I read some tips in The Garden Classroom about creating a Pretend Play Potting Shed, and that got me thinking about creating a garden sensory bin to keep outside throughout spring.  That way the girls can have fun planting and replanting their own gardens over and over again. This has also turned out to be a great way to keep Tinker (2 years old) from digging up the sprouts we see in our newly planted garden.

Our Garden Sensory Bin

Garden Pretend PlayMaterials

  • Container of choice
  • Potting soil
  • Watering cans
  • Spray bottle
  • Toy worms (We found ours in the fishing department on sale.)
  • Seed packets with an assortment of seeds
  • Small gardening tools
  • Small pots
  • Toy vegetables (Our carrots are from the Dollar Tree.)
  • Fake (or real) plants and flowers

Container

I wanted our bin to be raised so the girls could stand, and I also wanted a way to have a separate space for the pots and gardening tools so they could be kept separate from the soil. While scanning for something I saw our wagon, and I thought it had potential. I ended up putting the potting soil in a plastic container. Then I placed the plastic container inside of the wagon. This left just enough room for other gardening and potting accessories. It is also raised off the ground so the girls can stand as they are gardening.

Another benefit of using the wagon is that we can move it around the yard. In the evening we can pull it into a sheltered area away from the sprinklers. We can also move it to shady areas when it is too hot and sunny areas when it is too cold. And it’s become a traveling flower and vegetable stand a time or two.

Assembled Bin

I wasn’t sure how the girls would feel about the worms being added to the bin, even if they weren’t real. They typically scatter quickly when any sort of bug or underground creature surfaces. However, before I even opened the packages they were both begging to touch the worms. So as we were getting breakfast together they played with their worms. They counted them, put them in rows, made letters with them, and acted out stories with them. Maybe there’s a W is for Worms theme in our future! But for now the worms found a happy home in the gardening sensory bin.

Playing with worms

This was how our bin looked before the girls started to play.

Garden Sensory Bin

As soon as I said the garden was open for discovery, they were both excited to get started.  Lovey (age 4) started planting seeds and putting flowers in pots. Tinker filled the carrot containers with seeds and experimented with the sounds they made. Soon they were watering their plants and deep in pretend play. I’m sure this is a bin we’ll enjoy having for play throughout the spring.

Garden Bin for Kids

MORE GARDEN THEME FUN WITH PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

Extend your garden sensory play into a full week of garden theme learning. Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

GET YOUR LESSON PLANS

Preschool Garden  Theme Lesson Plans

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers

More Inspiration for Your Gardening Sensory Bins

When I’m putting together a new sensory bin, I always love to look around and gather ideas. Here are some unique gardening sensory bins to help you gather a bit more inspiration before you create your own.

Gardening Sensory Bins for Preschoolers-Spring Sensory Play and Science

Planting Seeds Math Sensory Exploration (Fantastic Fun and Learning)

Garden Sensory Tub  (Homeschool Creations)

Flower Garden Sensory Tub (Nurturing Naters)

Gardening Sensory Bin with Live Worms  (The Picky Apple)

Vegetable Garden Sensory Bin (The Inpsiration Edit)

Gardening Sensory Bins for Toddlers and Preschool Summer Outdoor Play

Gardening Sensory Bin (Mama Papa Bubba)

Rock Garden Sensory Bin (The Picky Apple)

Tutorial for Creating Vegetable Tops (Modern Parents Messy Kids)

Planting Trees Sensory Bin (Fun Learning for Kids)

Garden Theme Sensory Bins for Preschool

Book-Inspired Garden Sensory Bin (Powerful Mothering)

Water Bead Garden Sensory Play (The Mommy Evolution)

Garden Sensory Exploration (Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes)

Too Many Carrots Sensory Bin (Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds)

 

If you are on Pinterest, you might enjoy finding more inspiration on my Spring Activities for Kids and Garden Theme  Pinterest Boards

MORE GARDEN THEME FUN WITH PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

GET YOUR LESSON PLANS

Preschool Garden  Theme Lesson Plans

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers

This post was originally published on March 10, 2013 and has since been updated.

Garden Sensory Bins for Spring and Summer Sensory Play #summer #spring #gardentheme #preschool #kinder

Gardening Sensory Bins for Toddlers and Preschoolers #preschool #sensorybin #toddlers

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Filed Under: Gardening, Kindergarten, Letter G, Outdoor Play, Preschool, Sensory, Spring, Toddler Tagged With: Sensory Bins

Previous Post: « St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin and Activities
Next Post: Quick Rainbow Window Display »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dayna@ Lemon Lime Adventures

    March 4, 2014 at 12:14 am

    Thank you so much for this post! It is perfect. I am featuring it on my Sensory Benefits for Gardening with Kids post. Thank you for just a great resource.

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      March 23, 2014 at 10:11 pm

      Thank you so much for including our post, Dayna!

      Reply
  2. JDaniel4's Mom

    May 10, 2013 at 1:59 pm

    This looks like so much fun! I bet is being used over and over again. I pinned this post.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      May 11, 2013 at 7:23 am

      Thanks! It really was perfect for the kids to play in.

      Reply
  3. Adele- playfullearners

    May 6, 2013 at 2:42 am

    I love miniature gardens, it’s something I used to do a lot as a child. Thank you for sharing on Gardening adventures I can not wait to do this with my two.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      May 6, 2013 at 1:44 pm

      Thank you! I think we’ll definitely set up a few variations of this over the years. It’s been a terrific addition to our gardening projects this spring.

      Reply
  4. Beth

    March 22, 2013 at 6:46 am

    Your garden pretend play looks like so much fun!

    Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Hope to see you linked up again later today! Have a great weekend,
    Beth =-)

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 22, 2013 at 12:34 pm

      They have really been enjoying it…especially the surprise sprouts that surfaced this week. They’ve been digging and playing in it often, so even I was surprised that some of the seeds have sprouted up.

      Reply
  5. Tulip

    March 19, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Nevermind! Got it to work so I am featuring you tonight at Mom’s Library! 🙂

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 19, 2013 at 8:20 pm

      I’m sorry the picture was tricky to work with. I recently disabled right click and copy, so if that is messing things up let me know. I hate to make more work for you, but I appreciate the feature!

      Reply
  6. Tulip

    March 19, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    Hi Shaunna, I would love to feature you on Mom’s Library, but I can’t seen to grab that first picture in the post. Would you like me to feature you? If so, please email me that picture at tulip@trueaimeducation.com Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Ashley

    March 17, 2013 at 10:21 am

    Cute bin! Mine would have loved some real worms too! Lol Thanks forsharingat Mom’s Library!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 17, 2013 at 1:11 pm

      Thanks! I am really debating doing a W is for Worms theme with the kids when we get there, but I just don’t know if I can get myself to do it. Yuck!

      Reply
  8. Miss Courtney

    March 11, 2013 at 6:25 pm

    Great idea using a wagon! Every time I have a sensory bin set up on a table, the kids as for it to be on the floor. A wagon seems like a happy medium.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 11, 2013 at 9:22 pm

      My kids always seem to like the sensory bins on the floor, too. But this one has been well received. Even the baby stands and joins in the gardening.

      Reply
  9. NoorJananHomeschool

    March 11, 2013 at 9:35 am

    I love your Spring Sensory Bin, how fun!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 11, 2013 at 12:57 pm

      Thanks! The kids are really enjoying it!

      Reply
  10. Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest

    March 10, 2013 at 7:47 pm

    You are so smart to set that up in a wagon so that it can be moved depending on the weather!! I will have to remember that when summer comes to our neck of the woods.
    Love the bin! My son spent many hours digging in potting soil last year so this year I’ll have to add some seeds.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 10, 2013 at 8:57 pm

      Thanks! It turned out to be really convenient in the wagon, so I’m loving it. I was worried about the kids wanting to go on wagon rides, but everything can be pulled out in a second so that hasn’t been a problem. I’m sure Peanut will have tons of fun digging and gardening when summer comes this year…amazing how they grow and change from one summer to the next.

      Reply
  11. Katie @ Gift of Curiosity

    March 10, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    Love your sensory bin! Pinned for future reference!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      March 10, 2013 at 8:54 pm

      Thanks for pinning! I hope you get the chance to use some of the ideas.

      Reply

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