How to Make a Fall Sensory Bin (2024)

Sensory bins provide give kids a chance to explore and learn through a hands-on approach that uses all their senses. It's important for early development and it's also a fun activity!

In this post, you'll learn how to make an easy Fall Sensory Bin for Kids. Using simple and inexpensive materials, you can make a simple sensory bin your kids will love.

These themed sensory bin ideas are not only a great idea for little hands, but they are so much fun too.

The Fall months (September, October, and November) have some incredible items in nature and are the perfect time of the year for Fall sensory activities.

A nature walk can lead to some incredibly fun Fall season sensory items and natural elements including the colors of Fall and the different textures (think crunchy fall leaves). The fall bin is a fun way to incorporate natural items from the local parks or from your backyard.

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Sensory Play Ideas

Sensory bins are a great way for kids young children to use all their senses while learning. By seeing, touching, smelling, and even hearing the different sensory inputs there are many important learned skills.

Some of the benefits of a sensory bin or sensory box include an increase in fine motor skills, creativity, imagination, critical thinking, and others.

Simply collecting fun fall items provides different ways for little learners to have sensory experiences.

Don't miss our Halloween Sensory Bin too!

What You Need to Make an Easy Fall Sensory Bin

The first step in making your own kids' sensory bin for any theme is gathering materials. Since this is a Fall theme here are some materials I recommend:

Mini pumpkins or a small pumpkin
Corn kernels
Rice
Beans
Mini pine cones
Leaves (real leaves or silk leaves)
Seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)
Red, orange and yellow poms
acorns
Mini apples
Hay
Cinnamon sticks

One of my favorite places to shop for my own sensory bins and the different materials is my local dollar store. It's inexpensive and they have so many amazing items! I was able to find everything I needed for this Fall Sensory Bin at my local Dollar Tree including the bin.

You can always find sensory bin filler at craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby. They can be a bit more expensive, but have lots of fun ideas.

The only exception was the corn kernels because they didn't have any but I could've used dry rice, beans, or Indian corn to substitute. I did find the corn kernels at the grocery store for under $5.

How Do You Make a Fall Sensory Bin?

This whole activity took me less than 5 minutes to set up. I already had the clear plastic bin on hand (also from Dollar Tree) so all I did was fill it with the materials.

First I added the corn kernels to fill the bin about ⅓ of the way. Then I threw in mini foam pumpkins, fake leaves, and little plastic pumpkins.

Finally, I threw in a scented pinecone bag and mixed it all up. The scented pinecones really amped this up! It was such a great find at Dollar Tree.

The final touch was including scooping and mixing tools. I found the aqua spoon and tongs at Dollar Tree as well and love how they paired with all the Fall colors.

I also added a small scoop we had from another sensory bin. The tools encourage kids to scoop, stir, mix, and really explore the contents of the bin.

Some of our favorite items include

I hope this inspires you to create your own Fall Sensory Bin for your kids. It's really so easy and kids can play with it all season long! Check out my Instagram Reel to see me make this in real-time.

If you recreate this, tag me on social media so I can see it. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

We highlighted thisFall Craftalong with some other fun kid's crafts in ourSeptember Crafts, October Crafts, and November Craftsalong with our101+ Easy Craft Ideas for kids.