It has been a long time since we have played with our colored rice.  This week my daughter pulled out all the colors we had. When she realized we almost had a complete rainbow of colors, she asked if we could put them all together, and our rainbow treasure hunt sensory bin was formed!

To make our bin, I pulled out the large under the bed storage container I keep for sensory play.

My daughter helped to carefully pour each color into the bin.  (We had a lot of the red, white, and pink mix from our candy cane rice!)

Once all the colored rice was in the bin, she hunted out some LEGO Friends, along with a small treasure chest and pieces of “gold.”

We scattered some of the treasure on top, and I hid some under the rice for her to hunt for.

For an extra touch of magic, I sprinkled a bit of glitter across the rice before she went on her treasure hunt.

She had lots of fun discovering all the hidden treasure, and I had lots of fun creating a sensory bin with my daughter’s help.

If you liked this, check out our other sensory play ideas!

The post Rainbow Treasure Hunt first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

This week we had fun searching the Halloween trinkets at the dollar store.  Some of the items will be used for goodie bags for a kids Halloween party.   The rest were perfect for a quick and easy Halloween sensory bin.

Whether you have toddlers or kindergartners, a sensory bin is a fun way for them to explore and even calm themselves after a long day.

Halloween Sensory Bin

To make our sensory bin I reused our orange rice from our earlier super easy fall sensory bin.  You could easily use plain white rice or another filler like dry beans.  Then I added wiggly eyes, some “witch broom sticks,” bat rings, Halloween mini erasers, toy spiders, and some colored plastic fall table scatter.

Both my kindergartner and preschooler loved the bin.  The preschooler lined up the bat rings on a stick and was delighted that they all hung upside down like real bats.

While he told a story about a happy bat family, his sister made a stew.  She found a plastic bowl and spoon and proceeded to dish up delicious bowls of witch’s stew.  Want a bowl?

That’s when I remembered the battery tea lights I had meant to put in the bin.

They loved this new addition and spent quite a while checking out what each item looked like in the light and pretending to cook the witch’s stew over candle light.

Once they were finished playing, I decided to try something new.  Instead of putting it all away, I poured some of the rainbow rice into a pencil pouch.  Then I added in a few of the skull erasers, googly eyes, table scatter, etc. to make our own Seek and Find pouch.

I just put a piece of clear packing tape across the zipper of the pouch, but for a younger child I would sew the zipper pull so you can’t just dump it.

The kids have been enjoying the Halloween Seek and Find pouch and the Halloween Sensory Bin all week.

You may also like:

• Apple-Scented Bubble Dough — You won’t believe how silky this easy to make playdough is.
• 3 Preschool Halloween Crafts — Skip the scary and try these cute crafts with your kids.
• 30+ Kids Halloween Party Ideas — From DIY decorations to cute snacks and games, everything you need to host a party they’ll remember.

The post Halloween Sensory Bin first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.