Do you have a pet-themed week in your classroom? It is one of my favorite themes to put together and the kids love it too! When planning for a new week and theme, I always try to incorporate sensory bins.

Sensory bins are a fun and hands-on way to work on multiple skills and when they tie into a fun weekly theme, students are even more engaged! These three low-mess sensory bins are perfect for your pet-themed week and best of all, they are simple to set up. You can find the printables for these bins in my Pet Theme Weekly Curriculum. 

Dog Collar Design (Patterns)

Are you teaching patterns in your classroom? In this activity, little learners can practice those skills by designing dog collars using pipe cleaners and beads. The first step is filling your sensory bin with lots of colored beads, then students choose a card with a pattern to recreate.

There are cards with AB, ABC, ABB, AAB, AABB, and ABCD patterns on them. To modify this activity, you can focus on fewer or more combinations. I have also included blank options so that you can create your patterns based on your student's needs. 

Pet Food Mix Station (Counting)

This next simple sensory bin only requires rainbow-colored manipulatives (I used pom poms) and something to scoop with. Kids get to combine their love of animals and cooking to prepare their pet's food! 

If you set up the Pet Shop Dramatic Play in your classroom, there are recipes for all of the animals your little learners adopted. They just have to follow the card to find out how many scoops they need for each color.

I have also included blank recipes that can be adjusted as needed. This is great for practicing math skills as they are having to recognize numbers and count. If you are wanting to extend this activity, you can have students add up the numbers. 

Hamster Letter Match (Letter Recognition) 

Is there anything more entertaining than watching a hamster run around in its little hamster ball? I am not sure if there is, but I attempted to recreate the fun with this mess-free sensory bin. I filled my tub with fake paper grass, purchased an inexpensive hamster ball, and put plastic letters inside (or you can use the printable letters provided). 

Students will roll the ball, identify one of the letters and color it in on their letter sheet. They can keep going until they have found all the letters or the time is up. Learners will be practicing fine and gross motor skills (pencil grip and rolling) and letter recognition.