Happy December! It’s officially time to get working in our Christmas sensory bins, and we’re so excited! There’s something about Christmas bins that make them extra fun! I hope these Christmas sensory bin activities make a great addition to your December school time!
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Christmas Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Christmas Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our Christmas sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the dry black beans we use in ours. Something about the beans really makes all the Christmas colors in our Christmas sensory bin activities POP and gives children a very unique texture to experience. Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra Christmas themed items like jingle bells, mini erasers, faux gifts, colorful pompoms, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool Christmas pack! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Christmas Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Free Counting Cards
Of course we had to bust out our FREE counting cards with the gems and jingle bells! LG loves getting to practice each month with a different manipulative. And I love that I can make a reused resource new and fun each time we use it!
Christmas Tree Life Cycle Sensory Bin
Sensory bins and science? YES, please! Believe it or not, one of our favorite things to include with our sensory bin activities is a science lesson! For Christmastime, we love studying the life cycle of a Christmas tree. These matching mats are a perfect addition to your Christmas sensory bin!
Christmas Gifts Color Sort
Got some extra Christmas gift boxes? Fill ‘er up with your sensory bin filler and turn one into a sensory bin gift! For this activity, I tossed in some shredded Christmas filler and these cute little Christmas gifts I found at Hobby Lobby. They made the perfect manipulatives for a color sorting activity!
Christmas Sticker Sort
We LOVE getting these puffy stickers at Hobby Lobby whenever they go on sale! The packs are perfect for so many activities, like this sort!
Putting together this activity is super simple! Fold a sheet of paper into 4 parts. Place one of each sticker in the corners so your little one know which stickers to put in the sections. Then, watch them go! We LOVE using puffy stickers for fine motor skills practice because it takes a good amount of work to get the backs off of the stickers!
Preschool Sensory Bins
If your little ones are ready to take their Christmas sensory bin to the next level, try adding in academic activities like these sensory bin matching mats! LG loves to use these activities during our homeschool time. And I love being able to combine fine motor skills practice with our academic practice!
Jingle Bell Patterns
Have you seen these adorable jingle bells at Hobby Lobby?! Holy moly! We’re LOVING them! They’re another great manipulative option for counting, color sorting, and building letters, numbers and shapes! For this activity, we used them to practice building patterns!
Christmas Toddler Bins
These toddler bins are some of our favorites to pull out every year for our Christmas sensory bin! My little ones have always loved seeing all the different Christmas items they can identify with the matching mats, and the puzzles add a fun (but low-pressure) challenge to their fine motors work!
Preschool Binder
One of my favorite way to use our sensory bins is with our Preschool Math and Literacy binder! There are so many ways to make this evergreen resource work all year long, and one of the best ways is by combining it with your seasonal sensory bins! When added to our gem bin, there are ENDLESS ways to practice.
Nativity Themed Pre-Writing Strips
If your little ones could use some extra pre-writing practice, don’t forget to grab these FREE Nativity printables! When laminated, these strips can be use with dry erase markers for handwriting practice. Or use PlayDoh and small manipulatives to practice building the lines!
Let’s hang out!
I hope you and your kiddos enjoy these Christmas sensory bin activities with your littles! I’d love to hear which ones you use! In the meantime, I’d love to chat and get to know you better! Come hang out with us in some of our favorite places!
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