New Year’s Sensory Bin
We’ve done our share of sensory bins in the past, but this New Year’s Sensory Bin was one of the simplest and most engaging ones for N.
I simply just put a whole bunch of items from our New Year‘s party in a box, and N spent such a long time exploring everything, carrying items around, and just having a blast.
(N was 1 year and 5 months old.)
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
Materials for New Year’s Sensory Bin
- Sensory bin. Really, anything will work that has enough room for all of your items. I had a lot of streamers and balloons but didn’t have any of our normal sensory bins on hand, so I used a large cardboard box that we use to carry groceries from the car.
- New Year’s-related items like balloons, streamers, noisemakers, party hats, headbands, etc.
The first thing N got interested in were the ribbons that were attached to some of the balloons. He spent quite some time feeling and trying to figure out the knots.
The pretty shimmery party hats caught his attention next, and besides trying to put them on (and finally succeeding with a little help), he enjoyed babbling into them and giggling at the funny way his voice sounded 🙂
And then there were the streamers!
So many fun ways to hold them, carry them, drag them around – N explored them all 🙂
The noisemaker was another favorite. He blew into it and chewed on it until it was beyond recognition.
To finish off the activity, N decided that the box was easily big enough for him to sit in – and decorated himself with more streamers 🙂
In the end, he’d managed to remove everything from the box and take the box apart, but even though he had played with a large number of items, it really wasn’t terribly messy, and everything was easy to pick up and put back into the box once I’d put it back together.
What do you do for New Year’s Eve with your kids? Would they enjoy a simple sensory bin like this one? Leave a comment below!
Do your kids love learning activities?
I've co-authored the ebook ABCs & 123s that includes 40+ learning activities for a huge range of learning objectives for kids from age 2 to 8 that I think you'll love!
Click here to find out more and to buy it right now for immediate download. You could be doing the activities within minutes!
Here are some more simple sensory activities for toddlers you could try:
Tissue Paper and Pinecones Sensory Bin
Toddler Boredom Buster with Cups and Cotton Balls
Popcorn Sensory Bin by Life Over Cs
Painting with Water by Powerful Mothering
Click here to subscribe to my newsletter and receive an email twice a week with news from our house and links to all new posts! If you prefer daily updates, you have the option of subscribing to my RSS feed or my printables RSS feed on the same page.
Join me in my Facebook group where we discuss simple play ideas for young kids every day!