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Home / Early Learning / Math / Earth Day Math Sensory Bin That’s Quick and Easy to Set Up

Earth Day Math Sensory Bin That’s Quick and Easy to Set Up

Shared by Mary Catherine 16 Comments

An engaging and easy Earth Day math sensory bin for kids. They can explore sensory play while working on their number skills.

Earth Day is a great time to talk with children about a variety of topics. For preschoolers, I tend to focus on using materials again in new ways, taking care of our homes and neighborhoods, and other concrete concepts they’re able to grasp.

It’s also a great time to plan for a space theme, especially if the kiddos are enamored with outer space and the planets. This simple Earth math sensory bin would work well around Earth Day, during a planned space theme, or just because.

Are you following Fun-A-Day’s SPACE THEME Pinterest board?

Earth Day math sensory bin for preschool and kindergarten

Table of Contents

  • Preschool Math for an Earth Theme
    • Prepping the Earth Day math sensory bin
    • Setting Everything Up
  • How to Use the Earth Day Math Sensory Bin
    • What are the Kids Learning with this Math Sensory Bin?
  • Preschool Earth Day Lesson Plans
  • ABCs and 123s eBook

Preschool Math for an Earth Theme

Materials
Rice
Liquid watercolors (or food coloring)
Leftover plastic Easter eggs (green and blue)
Marbles (green and blue)
Plastic condiment cups

A colorful base for an Earth Day math sensory bin that works on preschool math concepts

Prepping the Earth Day math sensory bin

I already had blue rice from previous sensory play, like this weather bin. I didn’t have green, though, and I wanted the base of the sensory bin to be Earth colors. So I put some rice in a bag, added a few squirts of green liquid watercolor, shook it all up, and voila . . . green rice! I set it in a pan to dry for a little while before using it.

While the green rice was drying, I grabbed some leftover plastic Easter eggs. I tend to have a stash of these both at school and in my craft closet at home. Using a black permanent marker, I wrote the numbers 1 through 10 on individual eggs, both on the top half and the bottom half.

I used the same marker to write numbers 1 through 20 on some condiment cups that I have. I love how this Earth-themed bin includes some recyables!

Counting the Earths - what a silly and fun preschool Earth Day math and sensory bin idea

Setting Everything Up

I placed the blue and green rice as a base in a sensory basket. I have to admit that I attempted to make it look like water and land at first. But then I knocked into the basket and messed it up! 🙂 No biggie!

Next, the Easter eggs were added to the basket. I broke the pieces apart and placed them randomly in the bins.

I added marbles to the bin. In my mind, the marbles were indicative of little Earths since they’re spherical and blue/green!

The condiment cups were placed to the side of the bin.

Counting and ordering numbers on an Earth themed preschool math sensory bin

How to Use the Earth Day Math Sensory Bin

Once everything’s set up, invite the kiddos over to explore the sensory bin and delve into some preschool math!

The children can use the eggs and condiment cups for scooping and pouring, along with their hands. The cups are great for filling and stacking, too!

The numbers on the eggs can be matched up and assembled. Take that a step further and have the children add the correct number of marbles inside each assembled egg. Illustrate addition by placing marbles into each side of the egg and combining them. Once all of the eggs are assembled, the kiddos can order them from 1 to 10.

Use the condiment cups to extend the counting and one-to-one correspondence up to 20 (or beyond)! Remove the odd number cups and just focus on the even numbers. Then have the children work on skip-counting by 2s up to 20.

A simple Earth Day preschool math sensory bin led to so much playful learning!

What are the Kids Learning with this Math Sensory Bin?

Here are some early math concepts touched on with this Earth Day math bin:

  • Counting (and skip counting)
  • Number identification
  • One-to-one correspondence
  • Measuring
  • Addition

What would your kiddos think of this math sensory play?

Preschool Earth Day Lesson Plans

Save time and get right to the teaching with done-for-you Earth Day lesson plans for preschool. It comes with printable lesson plans, hands-on preschool activities (for whole group, small group, and center time), book suggestions, and related printables.

Earth Day lesson plans and activities

Grab your Earth Day lesson plans

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers

ABCs and 123s eBook

I absolutely adore this eBook. Yes, I’m a little biased since I worked together with other parents and teachers to create it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing in its own right, of course! ABCs and 123s is full of 40+ kids’ hands-on activities for learning the alphabet and numbers. Each activity is kid-approved and geared towards children ages 2 to 8. Read more about the eBook now.

ABCs and 123s - an awesome eBook to keep with your preschool supplies

Buy Now
More Earth-themed activities from the #PLAYfulpreschool crew

Alphabet Activities: Compost Sensory Bin by Growing Book by Book
Wormery Journaling by Rainy Day Mum
Earth Sensory Table Small World by Mom Inspired Life
Learning about Earth Through Puzzle Play by The Educators’ Spin On It
On Planet Earth There are Five Oceans – Children’s Song by Capri +3
Layers of the Earth Felt Puzzle by Powerful Mothering
No Mess Painting Earth in a Bag by Still Playing School
Building Language Skills for Preschoolers: Earth Theme by Live Over C’sPlay Dough Layers of the Earth by Learning 2 Walk
Originally published April 8, 2015
Earth Day math sensory bin - great for teaching kindergarten and preschool math skills in a hands-on way

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: #playfulpreschool, #TeachECE, Earth Day, Space

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  1. Lee says

    April 8, 2015 at 7:14 am

    This looks so fun — and I love that you were able to reuse so many materials! Very fitting!
    ~Lee

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:55 am

      Thanks so much, Lee! I keep a stash of items that I can reuse (both in the classroom and at home). It’s a mix of random items, but they sure do come in handy a lot!

      Reply
  2. Devany says

    April 8, 2015 at 8:18 am

    The rice is SO pretty! I love that the simple addition of writing numbers on the recycled containers added so much learning!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:54 am

      I know I’m biased, but I think the rice is pretty too! 😉 Thanks, Devany!!!

      Reply
  3. Danielle says

    April 8, 2015 at 10:13 am

    You always make such pretty sensory bins! I love all the learning you can do with this one too!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:53 am

      You are too sweet, Danielle, thank you! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Theresa says

    April 8, 2015 at 10:50 am

    What a beautiful sensory bin! I love the number matching activity. I know our kids would want to fill the eggs with the rice as they were matching them up. They would automatically add music to the activity by making them into number shakers.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:53 am

      I’m actually surprised that we didn’t get some egg shakers made this time around! Thanks, Theresa!

      Reply
  5. Cerys says

    April 8, 2015 at 11:39 am

    This is fantastic use of reusable – I love the matching egg numbers.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:52 am

      Thanks, Cerys! I like reusing items like the plastic eggs – the kiddos always seem to find it amusing the different things we we can use them for.

      Reply
  6. Kim says

    April 8, 2015 at 1:53 pm

    I love your “earth”!!!! So cute! I wonder how long my kids would leave it like that?!?!?!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:51 am

      Thanks, Kim! I bet it would stay like that for about 2.7 seconds! I ended up messing it up even before the kids could get their hands into it!

      Reply
  7. Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says

    April 9, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    I love the idea of using blue and green rice. So many great learning opportunities with this bin.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:51 am

      Thanks, Jodie! We’ve already used the rice for a few other sensory bins during Spring Break. 🙂

      Reply
  8. Nicolette Roux (Powerful Mothering) says

    April 10, 2015 at 9:48 pm

    oh how we LOVE rice play! this is a great idea.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:58 pm

      Thanks so much, Nicolette! 🙂

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!
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