I love creating sensory bins for different holidays and Easter is no exception. I recently pulled out all of our Easter stuff and found small bunny erasers that gave me an idea for a new bin – Hide the Bunny! Today, I’m bringing you all the details on how you can recreate this bin in your own home or classroom.
Hide the Bunny Sensory Bin
Recommended Age
toddlers and preschoolers (2+)
Use your own judgement with age and the base of this bin. Split peas are a choking hazard and can be replaced with other bases as needed.
Focus Skills
- sensory
- problem solving
- communication
Supplies Needed
- bin
- split peas (or other base)
- bunny erasers (or another small animal)
- Easter eggs
- pom poms
Discover
Normally, I set up bins in advance and surprise the boys with them. Today, I decided to take a different approach. I set up the base of the bin and then I had the boys join me in setting up the rest. It was a perfect opportunity to practice colors, counting, and vocabulary. “Place 5 bunnies in your bin.” I set this bin up to be a “play beside each other” bin. This was done on purpose because we’ve had some trouble sharing lately. Each boy had a smaller bin that they started with. A few minutes into playing, they asked if they could combine their bins into the big bin. This worked perfectly because they had time to explore the materials separately before playing together. This resulted in less arguments and more engaged play because they were able to make the choice to play together.
Play
With sensory bins, I like to allow for open-ended play. This particular bin is called “Hide the Bunny” and I did tell the kids the name. However, I didn’t direct them in any direction because I wanted to see what they did with the materials. They hid the bunny in many different ways including under the peas and in the eggs. They also played with the bunnies and made them hop and talk. Some of the time was spent scooping peas and pouring them back in. The play was all over the place and that’s okay.
Learn
Sensory bins are a great opportunity for learning! I used their playtime today as an opportunity to work while supervising but you could easily sit down with your kids and open a conversation about the materials. (I did do this prior to play.) This particular bin also opens the door for pretend play since the bunnies can easily become characters for the kids. You can take things a step further by including counting and color identification tasks as well. I chose to keep this one focused on play (which is a child’s way of learning) but there are always new learning opportunities available. In fact, we will probably play with this bin several times and I’ll join in on a few – split peas are quite relaxing to play with.
