I love coming up with new ideas for holiday crafts and activities for the Hooligans.    I made another Christmas sensory bin yesterday.  This one is a Nativity sensory bin.  

I picked these nativity sets up years ago, at a dollar store.  They’re always a big hit with the little ones when I bring them out of storage at this time of the year. 

I usually just set the characters and the stables on a table or on the floor for play, but this year I decided to use them to create a sensory experience.   

Nothing fancy – I just filled a foil roasting pan with various lentils, tucked the Nativity sets in and added a “christmas tree”.  The “tree” is a candle that I’ve had for years, and these lentils get bagged when we’re finished with them, and used over and over again for sensory play.

The Hooligans had a great time playing with the nativity sets this way.  The lentils add a whole new element of play.  They were busy pouring, scooping, and filling the stables with with beans.

It’s interesting how boys and girls tend to have different perspectives on things.  Yesterday, when I set out the bin for the first time, Miss Mess quickly announced, “I’m going to decorate my house”,  and the boys proceeded to make construction noises, and use their stables as a bulldozer.

I love this too:  This morning I set the bin out for a two year old who hadn’t yet seen it.   I got called away to answer the door, and got talking with a parent who was dropping off their child.  When I returned to the play area a few minutes later, I had to chuckle at what the 2 year old was busy doing:

I love seeing how creative even the youngest children can be when given open-ended, undefined materials to play with!