We've done our fair share of fall sensory bins over the years using a variety of materials such as water and popcorn kernels. This one, however, uses soap foam as the base.
Now, if you haven't made a sensory bin with soap foam before, you're seriously missing out. It's easily one of our favorite sensory bin fillers. The texture is silky smooth and incredibly calming to play with.
Soap foam is also very versatile. You can simply toss in some scent, a little bit of color, a dash of glitter, and/or small materials or decorations to customize soap foam to fit any theme or season you can think of. Much like we did here with this fall leaves sensory bin.
So if you're looking for a simple yet fun autumn sensory play idea, then look no further than this activity.
A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.
What You Need for this Autumn Sensory Play Activity
For this fall leaf sensory bin, we used:
- Liquid soap - To make our soap foam (instructions below)
- Acrylic leaves table scatter - You can find these at Michael's, but many dollar stores now carry them as well. You could use foam leaves if you'd prefer or if that's what you have on hand.
- Small bucket of water (optional)
- Towel (optional)
First, we need to make some soap foam. How much you will need will depend on the size of your sensory bin container so feel free to start with a small amount and make more as needed.
To make the soap foam, mix a generous amount of liquid soap (you can use dish soap or something like castile soap) with a splash or two of water. Use a blender, stand mixer, hand mixer, or whisk to mix the soap and water together until it's a thick, frothy bubble foam.
Once your soap foam is made, you can add other things such as food coloring or liquid watercolors, essential oils, or even glitter to make it more interesting. This step is optional. We kept our soap foam plain. However, we used almond scented castile soap so our soap foam was already lightly scented.
Then simply add the acrylic fall leaves to the soap foam and it's ready for play. It should look something like this:
Whenever we do soap foam bins, I like to include a small bucket and towel off to the side for quick and easy clean up. However, this step is optional.
Time to Play with Soap Foam in this Fall Leaves Sensory Bin!
My two boys started off by swirling their hands around in the soap foam, trying to bury all the leaves as quickly as they could. And it wasn't long before all the leaves disappeared into the bubbly foam...
So the boys started digging around in the foam to try and find the leaves that they buried. It was like a fall treasure hunt!
Once they found some leaves, they would pull them out and drop them into the bucket of clean water. Then they would proceed to dry them off with a towel. Talk about sneaking in some practical life skills!
The boys continued to scoop out the leaves to wash and dry them until they were sure no other leaves were remaining in the bin. It certainly kept them busy for quite some time. Especially since some of the leaves can end up quite hidden!
Well, what do you think? Will you be giving this fall leaves sensory bin with soap foam a try?
