sensory bin idea: this fun rainbow sensory bin is perfect for St-Patrick’s Day. Rainbow colored pasta is the perfect sensory bin filler to get students engaged and learning.
Changing out sensory bins and coming up with new ideas for fillers is one my favourite things to do. For St-Patrick’s Day this year, I wanted to make a rainbow sensory bin that my students could have fun with.
My students helped me with this one, and they were involved with mixing the colours, shaking the bag and laying it out to dry. It was so much more meaningful to them since they were able to participate.
dye the pasta
The pasta was super simple to dye:
- place some dried pasta in a large zip lock bag (I used penne, but you could use whatever kind you want),
- add a few squirts of hand sanitizer and a few drops of food colouring to the bag,
- close the bag and shake it up,
- lay it out to dry completely before putting it in your bin.
By mixing some of the food colouring, I was able to get all 7 colours I needed to complete the rainbow. My students had a blast helping make the pasta, and loved seeing the colours laid out in the bin.
add the learning
Add some materials to the bin to work on a literacy or math skill. These ten frame pot of gold cards and recording sheet are included in my Sensory Bin Sets pack.
My students loved digging through the rainbow to find all the cards they needed.
You can find that set of cards and more here:
more sensory bin ideas
You could also reinforce sight word recognition and spelling with your sensory bin. These gold coins and recording sheet are so fun, and perfect for St-Patrick’s Day. You can find them in my Pot of Gold Sight Words Pack.
I died these Lima beans the same way I did the pasta, and these are also a great sensory bin filler.
I store the fillers after I am done with them in a zip lock bag so that I can reuse them- I have a cupboard full of items that I can choose from now. If you want to see more about how I use my sensory bin, you can check out How to Use Sensory Bins in Kindergarten.
I also wrote out My Ultimate Guide to Kindergarten Centers if you want to know more about my classroom, and how I run centers.
We will be doing lots of fun rainbow activities coming up in the next few weeks, and getting our class ready for St-Patrick’s Day!
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