Sensory play is a crucial part of early childhood development, but it can be overwhelming to know where to start. When I create my sensory bins for my preschool classroom, I like to start with a theme and go from there. And you've probably already guessed it, this week out theme is all about apples!
Today, I am sharing my favorite apple themed sensory bin ideas for fall. These sensory activities are easy to prep, hands-on learning centers that your students will love.
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Sensory Bin #1: Apple Washing
Our first sensory bin of fall is always an apple washing station! Since September is still a HOT month where I live, this is great because we still can do water play to help cool us down!
Materials you need:
- Hot chocolate mix or cocoa powder
- Water
- Soap
- Sponges
- Apples
Start by mixing your hot chocolate mix with water to create "mud". If you want to make it extra muddy, you can mix in some cornstarch to thicken it up! Throw in as many apples as you want into the muddy mixture.
To the other side add water, soap and sponges.
Now it's time to play! The kids loved scrubbing the apples, but if we are being honest their favorite part was making them dirty again in the "mud."
My favorite part of simple sensory bins like this one is seeing what each student is drawn to! Some littles wanted to squeeze the water out of the sponges, some wanted to play in the mud, and others loved the apples! But in the end it kept everyone engaged!
Sensory Bin #2: Apple Painting
This sensory bin is very similar to the one above, with a few easy changes!
Materials you need:
- Paint trays
- Paint brushes
- Washable Paint
- Apples
- Water
On one side of the sensory bin, I set out all our paint supplies. I grabbed everything at my local dollar tree, so be sure to stock up on craft supplies the next time you are there!
I filled the other side with water so that the kids could wash off the paint and start over.
Again it was so fun to see what the kids wanted to with this sensory bin. Some kids loved painting the apples, while others just wanted to play in the water!
Sensory Bin #3: Apple Seed Counting
Don't worry not all my sensory bins are messy! This apple themed sensory bin is one that you can actually bring inside.
Materials you need:
- Dry oats
- Black beans (Or pom poms)
- Child tweezers
- Apple printables
You will want to start by prepping the apple themed printables (which you can find here in my apple themed curriculum). I always recommend laminating everything so that you can reuse this activity as many times as you want.
On one side of the sensory bin I added dried oats and black beans. But I covered the other side of the sensory bin with the lid to create a table.
If you are looking for a good sensory table, I would highly recommend this sensory table on Amazon. It is the perfect size for my preschool learners and I love that I have the option to convert it to an actual table by using the lids.
The students would pick a counting card, and use the child tweezer to add "apple seeds" aka the black beans to the apple mat. If I were to do this activity again, I might switch the black beans out for pom poms since they beans were a bit difficult to pick up with the child tweezers.
Not only does this sensory bin work on counting, but it is also a great fine motor activity! I love when I get to combine several developmental skills into one activity, it makes learning that much easier.
Sensory Bin #4: Applesauce Sensory Bin
This was the first time I have ever tried using applesauce as a sensory bin, but it definitely won't be the last! But warning this one will get messy!
Materials you need:
- Applesauce (the more the better!)
- Cups, scoops, etc (use what you have)
- Cup up apples
- Water
I added two small bins of applesauce to my sensory table, if I could go back and do it again I wish I would have bought more applesauce, but we live and we learn. I also threw in diced up apples to give the sensory bin some more texture.
I added cups, scoops, muffin tins, etc for my students to use. My goal was to allow them to work on pouring and measuring skills, so you can throw in whatever you have on hand that would accomplish that goal.
The kids loved the texture of the applesauce and it was a new sensory experience for them. Since I didn't have a ton of applesauce I decided to fill the other side of the table with water to extend the activity.
They absolutely loved making all their applesauce concoctions! Pouring apple cider for a friend or pretending to bake muffins, they had a blast with this sensory table!
Sensory Bin #5: Applesauce Sensory Bin
When I plan my sensory bins for the month, I try to reuse my sensory filler as much as possible to help cut down on prep work for me. For this sensory bin, we are reusing the oats for idea #3. I took out the black beans, and replaced them with sorting cards! Here is how I did it...
Materials you need:
- Dry oats
- Child tweezers
- Apple printables
You will want to start by prepping the apple themed printables (which you can find in my apple themed curriculum.)
If you are looking for a good sensory table, I would highly recommend this sensory table on Amazon. It is the perfect size for my preschool learners and I love that I have the option to convert it to an actual table by using the lids.
I threw in a bunch of apple sorting cards into the oats and laminated sorting mats for the kids to choose from. Each student got to sort apples by color and size. It was so easy to set up and the kids have been loving filling up the apple trees with all the apples in the bin!
Now It's Your Turn!
I hope you try at least one of these sensory bin ideas with your students, and if you do here is my one little bit advice to take with you! Be patient and expect a big mess! Sensory bins are not meant to be clean and tidy. Let you little ones have fun making their mess, but also be sure you do it on a day when you are mentally prepared to clean it up.
If you are wanting to learn more about what our apple theme activities look like in my classroom, you can find more fun ideas in this blog post:
Fun-Filled Activities for Apple Themed Week
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