Patriotic Sensory Bin

This patriotic sensory bin is a perfect toddler activity to celebrate the Fourth of July! I had planned to do this Fourth of July sensory bin for my son on, you guessed it, Fourth of July. However, we wound up spending a week at the hospital because our little one had bronchiolitis. You can read all about that here. We finally brought out the Fourth of July sensory bin a few weeks later and our son had the best time with it!

In an effort to prepare our almost two-year-old for the Fourth of July festivities early on, we started talking about the holiday weeks in advance. We weren’t sure if he would be scared of all the fireworks or not, so we tried to explain them to him ahead of time. We even watched videos of fireworks so he would have a better feeling of what to expect. To my surprise, our little boy was actually excited and couldn’t wait for the fireworks! Every day he would say “fah-wurk” followed by “kaboom”! He simply couldn’t wait to see them! Finally, the big day came and we wound up in the hospital. My poor baby had to wait this one out so he could recover.

Two weeks after we came home, I decided to go ahead and do the patriotic sensory bin even though the holiday had long passed. Better late than never right? This was such a great idea! I think my son enjoyed it even more than he would have the actual fireworks! Ok, maybe not, but it’s a definite second runner up! 😉

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What you’ll need for this patriotic sensory bin:

Plastic Bin
4^th of July Confetti from Dollar Tree, Foam Stars or Foam Letters
American Flags
Red, White & Blue Star Necklaces
Patriotic Snack Cup
Pinwheel
DIY Colored Rice

We also used these sensory tools:

An extra bowl or container for sorting
Measuring cups
Funnel
Play Kitchen Utensils

I got most of the materials from the Dollar Tree but also provided online links for you above in case you can’t get to a dollar store. We dyed the rice a few days prior to putting the sensory bin together and then it sat another week drying, while we were in the hospital. Typically you would only need to dry the rice overnight after dying it yourself.

Once you have all of your ingredients you can assemble your bin. This is a fun time to get creative. I love seeing my son’s reaction to things after I’ve created them for him. His eyes just light up in wonder. Everything is new and exciting to him at this age. It truly is rewarding enough just to watch him play.

We moved our son’s table & chairs outside so if he decided to make a mess it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I didn’t want to have to pick up rice from the floor for all of eternity. We also wanted him to get some fresh air and a little sunshine. If you decide to do this inside just throw an old sheet down for easy clean-up. When we first put the bin down in front of our son, he just examined everything before finally reaching in.

He had so much fun with the different textures and shapes.

He scooped some rice, used the funnel, removed all the confetti, then played with the windmill for a little while before attacking the rice.

Once he realized he could mix the colors of the rice, he was unstoppable.

The more and more he played with the rice the happier he got until he was throwing it up in the air repeatedly. Daddy decided to help with this part & sprinkled the rice into our son’s hands over and over. You can see how happy that made him. Patriotic rice showers all around!

Our munchkin got so carried away throwing rice everywhere that he wound up having a bunch of it in his hair!

My husband and I just sat there watching our son for two hours while he played with the patriotic sensory bin. Still in a bit of shock over the ordeal we just went through and feeling lucky that we were finally home from the hospital. Occasionally our little one would want us to play with him or assist in the rice tossing but for the most part, we just watched as he enjoyed himself. He was in a little toddler trance. This was such an easy activity to put together and our son enjoyed it more than I ever imagined he would. We actually had to force him to come inside because it started to rain. He wanted to weather the storm and continue playing.