Peas and Carrots Simple Sensory Bin

Each morning I like to have one or two open-ended play activities for the kids to choose from. They are usually quick to set up and involve just a few materials. Sometimes they are related to our current preschool theme, and other times they are just fun  activities I think the kids will enjoy.

This peas and carrots sensory bin is one of those play activities. I set it up while we were learning about gardening. It’s also been incorporated into our bunny theme, and it would have been a great addition to our V is for Vegetable activities last year.

To create the sensory bin I poured a base of split peas into a large green bowl. Then I added some cute carrot toys from the Dollar Tree. That’s it! I told you it was simple. 😉

But don’t be misled. Simple doesn’t mean, it wasn’t popular or educational. With this bin kids have the opportunity to practice many skills:

• scooping
• pouring
• demonstrating and using the vocabulary words full and empty
• fine motor practice
• pretend play

Little Buddy was the first to play with this sensory bin. He loved scooping and pouring the peas. Yes, many of them ended up on the floor, but no worries. I set this up on a big cloth so we could easily shake the peas back into the bin.

If you still have little ones who put things into their mouths, do supervise closely though.

This bin is fun all by itself, but if you’d like to extend the activity a bit you might also try:

• Reading some books about peas and carrots. There are some terrific options in our list of books about vegetables.
• Planting some pea and carrot seeds
• Making a recipe with peas and carrots
• Making some carrot play dough like this from The Imagination Tree

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