Sweet Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin with Practical Life and Math Activities

Valentine’s Day is such a fun holiday that I just had to create a sweet Valentine’s Day sensory bin for my 2-year-old granddaughter, Zoey. I already had my DIY sensory table and was able to easily put together a few activities within the table.

 

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Sweet Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin with Practical Life and Math Activities – YouTube Video

Now this is TOO SWEET!!!

Sweet Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin with Practical Life and Math Activities

Materials Used for Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

• • metal mailbox I got at the Target dollar spot a couple of years ago
  • white rice from the Dollar Tree
  • red food coloring or liquid watercolor
  • DIY sensory table (I totally love this. It’s been very durable and the perfect container for our sensory bins. Of course, you can use a bin on the floor.)
  • heart-shaped glass jar
  • 10 mini heart-shaped containers
  • small heart-shaped bowl from the grocery store
  • measuring cups and spoons
  • free printable valentine numbers from Confessions of a Homeschooler (The valentine numbers shown in the video are no longer available, but these are great, too.)
  • foam hearts in pink, white, and red

Feel free to adapt your sensory bin for your family. These are just the materials I used. If your toddler mouths objects, be sure to use large enough objects or only have the sensory bin available when you are closely supervising your toddler.

How I Dyed the Rice

I mixed my ingredients in a jumbo-sized Ziplock bag. I used approximately 2 tablespoons of water to wet each 2 lb. bag of rice and then added red food coloring until it reached the color I wanted. Some parents and teachers use rubbing alcohol instead of water, but I recommend using water if you have a toddler who might want to taste the rice. Liquid watercolor can be used instead of food coloring, but again I recommend food coloring of some sort if your toddler might taste the rice.

Practical Life Activities of Opening/Closing, Scooping/Spooning, and Pouring

In case you’re wondering, Zoey’s Hoot Hoot, I’m Cute outfit is from Gymboree.

Valentine Scavenger Hunt and Number Identification Activity

I like to add a special hands-on activity using a free printable to the sensory bins I prepare. For this sensory bin, I used free valentine numbers from Creekside Learning. They’re available in numbers 1-100, although I just used 1-10. I printed them out at 75% so they would fit in my mini heart-shaped containers in case Zoey wants to put them into the containers. I simply hid them in the rice where Zoey would find them.

Heart Sorting and Matching Activity

I also hid 2 of each color of white, pink, and red foam hearts. This even has a bit of sensorial activity with the color matching. Again, I just let Zoey decide what to do with the hearts she finds.

Zoey loves her Valentine’s Day sensory bin! She’s spent a long time with it already, and I’m sure she’ll spend a lot more time with it before Valentine’s Day.

I’d love to hear about any sensory bins you have right now. 🙂

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