Sensory bins are a huge hit in our house so I wanted to make one with a Halloween twist. This one is so simple to set up (I’m talking 5 minutes) and I was able to find most of the items I used at the grocery store and the Target Dollar Spot (I love the dollar spot!). I love that I didn’t even need to use food coloring to dye anything, making set up a breeze!
Video of the Halloween Sensory Bin
Before reading how to make your own, check out the below video of the sensory bin set up and the boys playing with it to see just how easy and fun it was to create.
And don’t forget to check out our NEW book – 100 Easy STEAM Activities is full of fun games and creative projects to learn early concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math with materials you already have around the house!
Materials Needed To Make Our Halloween Sensory Bin (affiliate links)
- Large bin (ours is from Ikea)
- 1 lb. (16 oz) bag of large lima beans (white)
- 1 lb. (16 oz) bag of red lentil beans (orange)
- 1 lb. (16 oz) bag of black beans (black)
- Halloween mini-erasers, pom poms, skulls and any little toys you can find
- Kids tongs
- Mini-cauldrons
How to make a Halloween Sensory Bin
- Empty the three bags of dried beans (large Lima beans, red lentils and black beans) into the large bin. I love using these beans because they are naturally white, orange and black so there is no coloring or dying involved! Yay!
- Now add in the small Halloween toys and bury them in the beans.
- Add tongs and mini-cauldrons and the bin is ready to be played with.
- Challenge your child to find objects hidden in the beans, pick them up and love them to the mini-cauldron.
- Once their cauldron is full or all the toys have been found, have the child empty them back into the bin, bury them and find them again!
So fun and excellent for fine motor skills as well as sensory play! Toss in some letter and numbers if you have them and make it even more educational!
More Halloween Sensory Bin Ideas
Here are some of our favorite Halloween sensory bins we’ve found:
- Spider Halloween Sensory Bin – This bin from Busy Toddler uses rice dyed orange and creepy spiders!
- Spagetti Halloween Sensory Bin – This spooky bin from Fun With Mama has spagetti dyed orange and lots of creepy crawlies! So fun!
More Sensory Activities Using the Same Materials
Halloween Sensory Writing Tray
Separate the red lentils and place them in a shallow tray. Then take some witches fingers (a paintbrush or plain finger would work too), and trace letters in the red lentils. This activity works best when the witches fingers are placed upsized down on the finger so that the nail bed is tracing the letters.
Halloween Eye Spy Bottle
Use a funnel, some scoopers and an empty water bottle and scoop the beans and some small toys into the water bottle. Once the bottle is about 80% full, screw on the lids and roll the bottle around to find the hidden toys.
Halloween Bean Monsters
Place some of each of the beans on a tray and use them to create bean monsters! Check out our full post on this activity for all the details here.
Halloween Sensory Activities Video
Check our the below video to see all 4 Halloween sensory activities in action:
More Halloween Ideas
Looking for more Halloween ideas? Check out all our Fall/Halloween activities here. Or some of our favorites below:
- Halloween Bean Monsters (This fun sensory activity uses the same beans as this sensory bin! Check it out here.
- Zombie Oobleck
- Monster Slime
