Ocean Sensory Bin

An Ocean Sensory Bin was the perfect thing for the kids to play with today. It’s been super-hot here this week, so I’ve been setting up lots of creative water play activities for the hooligans.

I love to make sensory bins, and I’ve had  an Ocean sensory bin in mind for a long time now.

In fact, it was last July when I went to the beach and collected a bunch of goodies that would be perfect for an under-the-sea theme or a beach or ocean activity.  

I filled a container with tiny pebbles from the shallow shore-line and gathered up a bunch of small, round stones, brought them home, washed them, dried them and packed them away until now.

Here’s how I made our Ocean Bin:

DIY Water table

Check out our DIY water table. 🙂

A plastic storage container on a stool makes the perfect work-station for something like this.  You could also use a more box-shaped storage container instead if you don’t have a stool.  If you find your container slips around on the base, pop a rubber place-mat or a couple of anti-slip pads in between the two.

This was cute: as I was walking back and forth in the yard, setting things up, I glanced back and saw the littlest Hooligan investigating things.

Apparently she thought we were doing the baby bath station again. heehee

I set out a simple variety of materials for the Hooligans to add to their ocean: the pebbles and stones that had been in hibernation-mode for almost a year, a few plastic water-dwelling animals, a basket of corks and coloured glass beads, and several large leaves from the garden to serve as lily pads.

I filled the bin with some water and a few drops of blue food colouring, set the tray of materials beside it, and called the Hooligans over.

My work was done.  I stepped back and gave them complete control over what, how and how much they added to the bin.

Playing with the rocks (moving them from one container to the other) was an activity in itself for this little one.

This was a super activity.  The Hooligans loved it!  They spent most of the morning playing with their ocean, and came back to it in the afternoon after nap-time.

Cutest line of the day

At the end of the afternoon, one of the Moms came into the yard to pick up her little guy, she came back to where he was playing at the bin to see what he was up to.  She got right down to check out all the materials and observe how her son was playing with them.  She pointed to the corks and said “Wow!  Look at all the boats you have!”  He (not quite 3 y.o.) said “They’re not boats!”, and she said “Oh!  What are they?”.   He looked at her and exclaimed “They’re CORKS!”.

Silly grown-ups!

We’ll be playing in the ocean again next week if the temps are high, but to keep it interesting,  we’ll be changing things up a bit:

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.