Black Bat Sensory Bin

Preschool Black Bat Sensory Bin

Learn to dye rice to create an engaging bat sensory bin that supports preschool development and learning! Sensory bins are not only fun, but they are also an important aspect of every early learning classroom. Sensory bins offer a tactile experience while encouraging fine motor, language and math skills. They can also be adapted and changed for each theme in your classroom.

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This bat sensory bin can be made with a few simple supplies that you probably have on hand, and it's an easy one to include preschoolers in the process of prepping it. Sensory bins don't need to be complex, nor do they need a specific outcome, they are meant to be open-ended in order to foster creativity and for preschoolers to use their imaginations naturally! You will just need to gather a few ingredients to get started.

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Supplies:

This fun activity is one of 200 hands on preschool activities featured in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Purchase our eBook to have all of these activity pages at your fingertips.

You will need:

• White rice (amount depends on the size of your sensory bin)
• Brown paper bag 
• Food coloring, we chose purple.
• Pom poms
• Glitter styrofoam balls
• Bowtie pasta
• Black markers or black paint 
• Sensory utensils i.e scoopers, tweezers, cups.

*These are the supplies we used. You can include plastic spider rings, mini cauldrons, googly eyes etc. 

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Let's Get Started

Start by grabbing your brown paper bag and crinkling it down on all sides to resemble a cave. Once you have this step completed, set to the side. If you would like each student to have their own then do this step for each bag.

Next fill a ziplock bag with the desired amount of rice. If you are using more rice, we suggest using a gallon sized bag. Add your desired food coloring into the bag, the more drops the brighter the color so use to your liking. 

Invite preschoolers to use those powerful arm muscles needed for writing to shake and shake the bag to make sure all the rice is fully coated then set to the side.

Next, you will want to color the pasta to resemble bats. For this step you can either complete a similar step as you did with the rice to color the pasta black or color the bats with a black marker. We suggest using black paint over black food coloring if you would like to dye the pasta.

Next, pour your rice into the bag to begin prepping the bat cave.

Add in your pompom and styrofoam balls or any other accessories that you choose.

Once your pasta is dried, add them in as the bats! Then, let your preschoolers explore using a variety of tools or their hands. We love this for an individual sensory experience but you can also use this idea inside of a sensory bin. This Bat sensory bin makes the perfect addition to your Nocturnal Animals theme or a Halloween celebration!
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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​Buy the eBook!

Save time planning your hands on preschool activities! Find detailed directions for this activity + 199 more in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Print each activity page, or access them digitally!

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