A Valentine’s Day sensory bin is a quick and easy toddler activity to celebrate this February holiday.
I used dyed rice, fun scooping and pouring tools, and a few Valentine-themed items to put this sensory bin together.
This was the perfect follow-up activity to our valentine-making crafts.
Sensory Bins for Everyone!
A sensory bin is a box full of stuff that engages the five senses.
Typically, sensory bins include a filler, objects of contrasting textures, and tools for scooping and pouring.
Playing with sensory bins has helped my daughter improve her fine motor skills, language skills, ability to focus, and (on bad days) her mood!
She also loves the excitement of getting to play with something that’s normally off-limits.
A little warning though, sensory bins are messy! NEVER walk away from a toddler with a sensory bin.
Things will be dumped, things will be licked, and things will surely get eaten.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
Keeping It Tidy
I have a few tips on how to keep the mess from becoming totally unmanageable. I do hope you have a vacuum…
- Lay a bedsheet under the sensory bin area to catch as much of the little pieces as possible.
- Put the smaller sensory bin inside a larger bin, like an under-bed storage tub.
- Use smaller scoops and cups.
- Bundle up and go outside!
- Set a few rules for playing with sensory bins.
This last tip is the most important. If you truly want to keep the mess to a minimum, you HAVE to set rules for playing with sensory bins and actually enforce them.
Our sensory bin rules are:
- Don’t eat anything.
- Don’t lick anything.
- Don’t dump anything out.
If one of the rules gets broken, then I take the bin away. Then, I explain, “You ate/licked/dumped something from the sensory bin. This is not how we play with sensory bins.
Once my toddler understands that if she breaks a rule the sensory bin goes away, I bring the bin back.
How to Dye Uncooked Rice
Confession time: This is reused Christmas rice.
*gasp*
I made a Peppermint Jingle Bells Sensory Bin for Elena back in December and saved the dyed rice.
To revive the rice filler for Valentine’s Day, I just picked out the bells and tinsel and aired it out to dissipate the peppermint scent.
(Not the juiciest of confessions, I know, but we don’t have a lot of intrigue going on here!)
Anyway, on to dying rice.
(That’s dye-ing rice, not previously-living-and-now-dying rice.)
Five pounds of rice went into a bowl.
I sprinkled about 100 drops of red food coloring on it.
Then I poured a tablespoon of white vinegar on top, covered the bowl, and shook it.
Finally, I spread the rice out to dry on a baking sheet.
Once it was dry, I put it in the sensory bin alongside white rice.
How We Did It: A Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin
Disclosure: We use sponsored, or affiliate, links, which means that we could earn a small commission that helps fund our blog (at no extra cost to you!). All opinions are our own and we only recommend products we love. Thank you for your support and happy shopping!
I dumped the rice in our sensory bin container (just a clear plastic tub) and added adorable heart measuring spoons, red pom poms, red silicone cupcake liners, and some Valentine’s Day gems.
This bin gets placed inside a wider bin to help contain some of the mess.
In the wider bin, we had an ice cube tray, clean plastic bottle, and a funnel.
There were three different kinds of Valentine’s Day gems: diamonds, red hearts, and lips.
So naturally, Elena sorted them.
She loved playing with the funnel.
Though she never actually used it to fill the plastic bottle.
I wish I could’ve heard her thought process.
I imagine it was something like this:
Do I use my hands to fill the bottle with rice?
This is taking forever!
Does a measuring spoon work?
Ugh! The rice is spilling everywhere! Mommy’s gonna be so mad!
Lemme try… umm… a ladle?
Aww, yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Now I’ll just dump it all out into this muffin cup. I’m sure it’ll fit perfectly without spilling.
Oopsie daisy. I spilled a little.
Hey, how’d those get in there?
I gotta get them all out!
Hmm… this pom pom’s stuck. Eh, I don’t even want to try getting it out.
I know what I’ll do!
…
“MOOOOOMMY! I need help getting this pom pom out!”
Scoreboard:
Fancy funnel: 0
Plastic bottle: 1
Your Turn: Make a Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin
Don’t feel like you have to do EXACTLY what we did. You don’t have to dye rice or even use rice if that’s not a good option for your family. I’ve included some other options for you for each step.
1. Pick a sensory bin filler.
- uncooked rice
- dried beans
- unpopped popcorn
- sand
- oatmeal
- dry pasta shapes
- shredded paper
- cornmeal
- dry cereal
2. Add some Valentine’s Day-themed items.
Basically anything pink, red, or heart-shaped will work.
- pom poms
- vase fillers
- gems
- candy hearts
- little toys
3. Have items for scooping, pouring, and sorting available.
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons (these are like our heart-shaped ones!)
- funnels
- plastic bottles and cups
- plastic food storage containers
- salad tongs
- shovels
- muffin cups
- ice trays
- ladles
To keep the mess manageable, use scoops, cups, etc. that are on the small side. Imagine if the scoop is full of rice. Then imagine it getting dumped on the floor. Wouldn’t you rather have the small quarter cup scoop of rice on the floor instead of the one cup scoop?
I hope these tips encourage you to build a fantastic Valentine’s Day sensory bin for your little one!
Keep it messy and keep it fun!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
More Valentine’s Day Activities
3 Valentine Crafts for Toddlers
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!