Yesterday I set up a really simple Halloween sensory bin which my toddler loved. She had lots of fun playing with it and we left it out for my 5 year old after school too. This is a really simple Halloween activity for toddlers, it takes no time to set up at all. Even better, there is a good chance you have all these items already. It’s also one of many great autumn activities for preschool.
I find that toddlers love rice sensory play as it is perfect for filling and pouring between different containers. In this activity, we used different sized plastic pumpkins but you could add any bowls, scoops and measuring spoons that you have to hand.
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Halloween sensory bin
You will need:
Rice
Halloween sweet buckets (I had some standard and mini ones)
Halloween plastic bats and bugs
Tuff spot (optional but it did contain the rice a little)
I considered colouring the rice black, orange and purple but in the end, I kept it simple and used the rice straight from the packet. If you do want to colour the rice then you might find my post on coloured rice sensory play helpful.
My toddler had lots of fun finding and burying the Halloween creatures. She loves Incy Wincy Spider so she sang it for a little while too. She also spent a lot of time pouring the rice from one pumpkin bucket to another as I thought she might.
You could easily make this into a Halloween activity for preschool children by adding some children’s giant tweezers which could be used to pick up the insects and is great for encouraging fine motor skills.
You could make it into a Halloween math activity by counting specific bugs etc. My 5 year old though was just as happy as my toddler to play with the bugs and pour the rice between containers.
Ready for more? You might enjoy this spider web slime.
You might also like this Halloween playdough during the spooky season. Great fun for little ones.
Try this bat activity with your preschooler this Halloween.
At the end, I simply put the lid back on the box and stored it in the garage ready for us to get out and again and again over the next few weeks. I stood my sensory bin on top of our tuff spot which did help contain some of the mess but I’m not going to lie, there was some rice on my kitchen floor afterwards but it was easy to sweep up.
My toddler enjoyed this activity and so did my 5-year-old when she joined in after school. I’ve no doubt we’ll be doing this again over the next few weeks. What about you, do you have any simple Halloween activities you’d like to share in the comments?
Where to next?
How about None scary Halloween books for toddlers
Find more Halloween activities for children here.
Find 15 fantastic sensory toys for toddlers here.
Find 20+ Autumn art projects for toddlers here
Find more seasonal activities for kids here.
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Great simple idea- easy to set up!
It’s so simple to set up. Takes longer to clean up the rice off the floor but the tray helps!
Thanks for the link to the tuff tray! All the ones I e been looking at are much,much more expensive so that’s a great find! Great activity too, we love rice place! The Vacuum doesn’t…! 🙂
Really? I got mine from Amazon a couple of years ago for less than £20. I find a dust panda and brush better than our vaccum
I love the idea of Halloween objects in the rice. It made me think of the summer time when I used to hide objects in my son’s sandbox when he was little. It used to get a kick when he found different things in the sand every day.
Such a lovely idea. I’m not surprised he loved it.