September Sensory Bin Ideas for Preschoolers
Sensory play gives preschoolers the opportunity to explore, create, and learn through hands-on experiences. Scooping, pouring, sorting, measuring, and pretending may look like simple play, but these activities can help children develop fine motor skills, language, early math concepts, problem-solving skills, and creativity.
Looking for a little inspiration this September? These two sensory bin ideas bring familiar seasonal themes to life and are easy for families to recreate at home.
Why Sensory Play Matters for Preschoolers
Young children learn by doing. Sensory experiences allow preschoolers to touch, move, experiment, make choices, and discover what happens as they interact with different materials.
These experiences can support several areas of early childhood development at the same time, including fine motor development, language and communication, early math skills, problem-solving, creativity, and social-emotional development.
One of the best parts of sensory play is that there is no single “right” way to play. Giving children the freedom to explore allows their curiosity and imagination to guide the experience.
Hands-On Learning at Children’s Lighthouse
At Children’s Lighthouse, we understand that meaningful learning happens through exploration, discovery, and play. Our proprietary curriculum provides children with developmentally appropriate opportunities to build important skills through engaging classroom experiences.
Activities that encourage children to scoop, sort, count, create, pretend, and problem-solve help make learning meaningful while allowing children to develop confidence and independence.
Families can continue that learning at home with simple activities like these September sensory bins. Whether your preschooler is baking a pretend apple pie or creating a busy day down on the farm, a little hands-on play can create plenty of opportunities to learn.
Give Your Child More Opportunities to Learn and Grow
Don’t let your child miss out on these important early learning experiences. At Children’s Lighthouse, hands-on activities, purposeful play, and our proprietary curriculum help children build the skills they need for school and beyond.
Ready to learn more? Find a Children’s Lighthouse school near you and schedule a tour today:
Homemade Apple Pie Sensory Bin
Apples are a fun way to welcome the beginning of fall! This Homemade Apple Pie Sensory Bin lets preschoolers create their own pretend apple pies while exploring different textures and practicing scooping, measuring, mixing, and rolling.
What You’ll Need- Large sensory bin
- Dry oats
- 10 aluminum pie plates
- Felt pie crust
- Toy apples
- Cinnamon sticks
- Empty spice containers
- Apple erasers
- Measuring cups
- Wooden spoons
- Toy pastry roller
How to Create It
Fill the sensory bin with dry oats to create the base for your pretend apple pie bakery. Add the pie plates, felt pie crust, toy apples, cinnamon sticks, empty spice containers, and apple erasers. Finish with measuring cups, wooden spoons, and a toy pastry roller.
Then, let your preschooler take the lead! Children can scoop oats into their pie plates, add apples, pretend to sprinkle spices, roll their crust, and create their own apple pie recipes.
What Children Are Learning
Scooping, pouring, stirring, and rolling help strengthen the small muscles in the hands and fingers that children will use for future skills like writing, cutting, and buttoning.
Pretend baking can also introduce early math concepts through measuring, counting, comparing amounts, and sequencing. Encourage even more learning by asking questions such as, “How many apples are in your pie?” or “What should we add next?”
Down on the Farm Sensory Bin
From animals and crops to tractors and barns, farms give preschoolers plenty to talk about and explore. Our Down on the Farm Sensory Bin creates a miniature farm environment where children can dig, sort, move, and use their imaginations.
What You’ll Need- Sensory bin
- Corn kernels
- Farm fence
- Plastic trees
- Plastic farm animals
- Mini planting container
- Plastic rake
- Sensory tweezers
How to Create It
Fill the sensory bin with corn kernels and arrange the farm fence, trees, animals, and planting container throughout the bin. Add a small rake and sensory tweezers to give children different ways to interact with the materials.
Children can build animal pens, rake the corn, move animals around the farm, fill and empty the planting container, or use the tweezers to pick up and sort different items.
What Children Are Learning
Using tweezers, raking, picking up small objects, and transferring materials helps develop fine motor control and hand-eye coordination.
Farm play also creates opportunities to build vocabulary and early thinking skills. Children can identify different animals, practice animal sounds, sort animals into groups, count how many are inside the fence, and create their own stories about what is happening on the farm.
Try asking questions like, “Which animal should go in this pen?” “How many animals can you find?” or “What do you think the farmer needs to do today?”