Get musical with this Jingle Bells Sensory Bin. The sound of jingle bells add a lovely audible component to this Christmas sensory activity that the kids just loved. It doesn’t matter if you’re at home with a couple of kids, or in the classroom with a whole horde. This fun activity is easy to prepare, play with and clean up, perfect for any holiday theme.
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More Christmas Themed Sensory Activities
A simple sensory bin is always a fun way to spend time together with young children. Their little hands just love exploring all of the sensory materials that are all around them. If you want to make this holiday season both fun and educational, then try some of these other fun ideas.
- Fake Snow Sensory Bin
- Rainbow Rice Christmas Sensory Bin
- Christmas Decorations Sensory Bin
- Candy Cane Sensory Bin
- Christmas Trees Sensory Bag
For more ideas, take a look at these 30 Christmas Sensory Activities.
Materials Needed
- A large tub or container
- Green yarn
- Jingle bells
- Red pom poms
- A couple of bottles
How to Make a Jingle Bells Sensory Bin
1. Cut up a ball of green yarn into smaller pieces. I just went straight down the middle because I thought that it would be easiest.
If I could, I would replace the green yarn with pine needles or something similar. I would have loved this sensory bin to have a filler that came from nature, but I don’t have any pine or fir trees where I live, so I came up with a compromise.
2. Place the yarn, pom poms and jingle bells in the container. Don’t forget to include a couple of bottles, spoons and bowls.
I included the bottles so that the kids could practice placing the jingle bells into the bottles and make their own sensory bottles. The kids loved shaking the bottles and making a bit of noise.
3. Enjoy playing.
If you don’t have pom poms on hand, don’t worry. They aren’t essential, but I did find that my kids played with the pom poms more than anything else in this sensory bin. Including the jingle bells (which I thought they would be more excited about).
What You’re Learning
Sensory
Tactile play – wool (or pine needles), pom pom and jingle bells all have different textures. If you really want to increase the variety of textures in this jingle bell sensory bin, you can also include other small objects. Such as pine cones, tinsel or pipe cleaners.
Auditory – Small jingle bells make a wonderful sound when they are shaken. Use this to make your own musical instruments, either by placing the bells in a bottle that can be shaken, or stringing them into a jingle bell necklace to wear as they dance around.
Visual – Not only are there a variety of colors in this sensory bin, but the small items also have a different sheen. That is they reflect light differently. The jingle bells have a high sheen and will reflect light as you move the object around in your hand, this makes it look shiny. Play around with this concept and see if you can use the bells to direct light onto a particular surface (like a table or wall).
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. Developing these skills are important in being able to write when the kids go to school, as well as being able to complete tasks independently. (For example, life skills include dressing and feeding themselves).
Picking up the jingle bells, and posting them into the bottles are all going to help young kids develop:
- Tripod grip,
- Hand-eye coordination
- Dexterity.
Math
You can encourage your toddlers and preschoolers to explore a few different math skills in this sensory play idea.
- Sorting – sort the jingle bells and pom poms into their respective groups
- Counting – count how many jingle bells you have.
- One-to-one correspondence – count each jingle bell only once, as you place them into the bottle.
- Patterns – use the pom poms and jingle bells to make an AB or ABB pattern for your kids to complete.
Are you going to try this Jingle Bells Sensory Bin with your kids?
Don’t forget to Pin the idea for later.
Over 100 Pages of Christmas themed play based learning activities and craft templates. Perfect for preschool and kindergarteners.
