Hi there teacher friends! ✨ Here's a quick and engaging sensory bin idea for our 🚀 little explorers. Black beans are one of my all time favorite sensory bin fillers! I love their smooth texture, but I love how mess-free they are even more!🙌 My preschoolers know that if they spill, they clean it up. The black beans are the perfect size for their little fingers.
Here’s what you’ll need:
✅ Black beans: I use these as a base to emulate dirt. They look fantastic and provide a great texture for little hands to explore.
✅ Letter builder manipulatives: The letter builder manipulatives pictured below work great for building flower structures. It's a fun, hands-on way to boost spatial awareness and creative thinking. 🛠️🌼
✅ Fake flowers: These add a beautiful splash of color and serve as inspiration. 🌺💡
✅ Plastic flower pots: These cute pots let the kids "plant" their flower creations, you could even set up a flower shop to go along with it! 🪴
✅ Scoops: These develop coordination and motor skills through scooping and pouring.
My preschoolers love scooping up the beans and arranging flowers to gift their friends. It's so cute watching them pretend to be budding florists! They not only share lovely floral arrangements with each other, but they often create special flowers just for me—I know, I’m super lucky! 😁🤣 Their floral arrangements are truly impressive, y'all! 👌
Using black beans as a base to emulate dirt has turned into one of my favorite fillers for sensory bins. The smooth texture is perfect for sensory play, and the lack of mess makes it a regular in my sensory bin rotation! ... If you're looking for another great black bean sensory idea, grab a bunch of play dump trucks and cars, so fun!
Don't forget to pin this for your spring and planting units in April and May. It's a quick and easy sensory bin idea, perfect for any preschool, PreK, or Kindergarten classroom. Let's get those little hands busy and minds engaged! 🌟
Looking for more fun spring ideas for your little ones? Check out these awesome 🌷 Spring Name Crafts! They'll save you so much prep time! 🙌