Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

Since it’s been too cold to venture outside much for the past couple of weeks, we’ve had to resort to good old fashioned rainy day activities to keep the little guy busy. One of our favorite activities are sensory bins. The kiddo can play with one for hours pouring, shaking, sifting, driving his trucks through the materials and feeding them to his toys. Loads of fun! Since Valentine’s Day is only a month away, I decided to go with a Valentine sensory bin.

It’s super cute, and we’ll be using it for lots of different play activities. The only thing that I did to the rice this time was add peppermint extract to it. I could have gone for cherry, but we still had plenty of peppermint, and it makes the house smell amazing. So…peppermint it is.

I love the red and pink glittery hearts, so I think I’ll use the rest of them for a craft in a few days. And, yes, I was being “punny” with the train and the boat. Love train…love boat. Get it? People all over the world…join hands…let’s start a love train…

Okay, I’ll stop singing now. Promise. And to those who are dying a little inside because the “LOVE” letters aren’t in the same colors, I’m sorry. I really am. It kills me, too.

You may or may not be able to see the red sugar sprinkled into the rice, but it’s there. And there’s also some in the cupcake liners in the upper right corner. Those are sixlets in the lower left corner. You’re welcome.

After he’s finished exploring the rice and candy and sugar (and after he’s come down from his sugar high), here are some of the activities we plan to do with the sensory bin:

• Recap the letters L, O, V, and E.
• Talk about love and what it means.
• Sing the “Love Train” song. Yes, I’m serious.
• Sort the pink hearts and red hearts.
• Count the hearts by color and then all together.

My son is 3, so depending on your child’s age, you may want to incorporate more challenging activities with the materials, such as:

• Adding and subtracting the hearts
• Spelling out “Valentine” in your box
• Rearranging the letters into different words

For more fun kid activities delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter.