SLIMY WORMS & EYEBALLS - Halloween Sensory Bin for Less than $10!
Halloween is by far my FAVORITE holiday so I tend to go all out, and that includes creating multiple creepy, crawly, taste-friendly sensory bins to celebrate. This simple Halloween sensory bin cost less than $10 to make and is great for toddlers or preschool-aged kids. Read on to hear how easy it is to make this SLIMY WORMS & EYEBALLS sensory bin and celebrate the upcoming Spooky Season!
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This sensory bin is easy to create and somewhat easy to clean up! You need just a few items, some that you probably have laying around the house, and less than $10! This sensory bins is made of a base of chickpea noodles so it is safe for your little ones when things inevitably end up in their mouths. As always, you’ll want to keep a close eye on them to be safe. Below, we will recap what you need to make this slimy and gross sensory bin and then let you know what you can do with them to keep your kids entertained.
Slimy Worms & Eyeballs Sensory Bin
The first step for creating this slimy sensory bin is cooking and dying your noodles. If you haven’t used food coloring to dye noodles before, that’s OK because it is beyond easy. To cook your noodles, place 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add your noodles and cook for 7-9 minutes. Then, drain your noodles and allow them to cool.
While your noodles are cooking, you can create your colors! In a small bowl, combine 3 drops of red food dye + 2 drops of blue food dye with 1 tablespoon of water. In a separate bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water to 5 drops of orange food dye. Then in a 3rd bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water to 5 drops of green food dye.
Take your cooled noodles and separate them into three ziploc bags. Pour your colors into each of the ziploc bags (1 purple, 1 orange, and 1 green) then shake until all the noodles are dyed the desired color. This is a fun step for your child to help with! Make sure they are zipped up TIGHT and then give them the bag to shake, shake, shake!
Mom tip: Once your noodles are the desired color rinse your noodles under cold water to wash away any excess food coloring that may stain your little one’s hands or your sensory bin container.
Once your noodles are rinsed its time to put your slimy worm and eyeball bin together! In whatever bin you are using, mix your “worms” into a big slimy pile.
With the base of your sensory bin created, you can now set it up for your activity! Add in your creepy plastic eyeballs, or any other spooky Halloween accessories you have laying around the house. Using the tweezers, I had E hunt for the eyeballs and scoop them out.
While this sensory bin offers great fine motor skill practice using the tweezers my son quickly became bored and started digging through the worms with his hands and hiding the eyeballs over and over again. He loved the squishy, slimy feeling of the noodles between his fingers and kept yelling “worms mama”
Keep reading for more ideas on how to use this bin!
Here are other ways your children can learn and play with this sensory bin:
Match the colors:
Have your little one sort the noodles into piles based on their colors.
Practice counting:
Have your child count the eyeballs as they remove them from the bins.
Practice Fine Motor Skills:
Encourage your child to use the tweezers. These are great tools to improve fine motor skills and will help build their hand strength for future skills like coloring, writing, and using scissors.
Make a mess:
This is the most fun part! Remember that sensory play is all about getting wet/sticky/messy/dirty and allowing their little bodies to experience these new sensations.
