The rainbow sensory bin covers two of my absolute favorite things: books for kids and preschool sensory activities! The rainbow sensory bin for kids combines those two things with a colorful book-inspired tactile activity.
Kiddos can learn and practice so much as they participate in sensory play, and they LOVE getting into a good sensory bin! Here’s a simple sensory activity based on Karma Wilson’s book Bear Sees Colors. What a great addition to your spring activities for preschoolers!
colorful sensory activity for preschoolers to explore
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Materials
Ditalini pasta
Liquid watercolors (or food coloring)
Pipe cleaners
Plastic toy bear (optional) – ours was from a zoo toob
Handy scooper (optional)
Related: Rainbow Color Collage Art Project for Kids
Prep
Making the colorful pasta was incredibly easy. I split two boxes of pasta up into eight bags. Then I added a few squirts of liquid water color to the bag and shook everything up. From there, I spread the colored pasta onto some wax paper and let it dry for a bit.
Once the pasta was dry, I dumped everything into a small woven basket. Then we were ready to go for some sensory fun!
Related: Individual Sensory Bins
How to use this sensory bin
One of the best things about most sensory bins is that they’re practically limitless. Kids can run their hands through the materials, scoop, pour, measure, transfer, etc.
For this Bear Sees Colors bin, let the children explore the sensory materials as they see fit! We also have fun using our handy scoopers at home, so those came out to play here. Poor Bear was overrun with colors at one point!
We added pipe cleaners to the bin, one for each color of the rainbow. This was a great threading activity and let the kiddos practice their fine motor skills. They also had fun moving the pipe cleaners around, then challenging each other to place them in rainbow order.
Children could sort the colorful pasta prior to threading the pipe cleaners, or even just as a sorting activity. Place cards with color words on them for an added bit of literacy. Kids could use the pasta to count, too, and numeral cards could be added to the bin for math. Really, the possibilities are endless!
For additional rainbow sensory materials, why not try corn kernels, navy beans, or chickpeas?
Do you have any go-to colorful sensory activities for preschoolers? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
More ideas for Bear Sees Colors:
Ice Cream Scoop Color Hunt Snack | Sugar Aunts
Bear Sees Colors Busy Bag | Craftulate
Color Hunt | House of Burke
Bear Sees Colors Animal Coloring | Still Playing School
A Full Week of Playful Rainbow Theme Ideas
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
Get yours here > > > Preschool Classroom | Home Preschool
You included so many fun things and ways to play in this bin! At first, I thought the pasta was perler beads so that might make an easy alternative!
I absolutely LOVE this activity! My kids would play for hours.
Just loving those colors!!
what age groups is this for?
That’s really going to depend on your own discretion (you know your kids/students best). I’ve done this mostly with children ages 4 to 6, as well as with some 3-year olds. I prefer using this sensory bin with children who are no longer putting things in their mouths. I hope that helps a little bit, Regan!