Simple Play: Popcorn Sensory Bin

It seems that there is so much pressure on people to make things perfect or magical. It invades every part of our lives, “luxury items” are pushed everywhere. In an effort to bring things back to “normal” we are participating in a Simple Play series geared at making play simple again. No need for fancy toys or even fancy craft supplies. These easy-prep ideas will have you loving play time too. Today, I’m sharing a fun activity for playing in the kitchen with a super easy popcorn sensory bin.

Materials needed for a Popcorn Sensory Bin:

Popped popcorn

A bin

Everything else is optional

To make this pin, I popped three bowls of popcorn. I had gotten some super cheap popcorn kernels at a discount store, so even making three batches maybe cost $0.20. And I could have gotten away with two bowls had I realized that it was my microwave being slow and not crummy kernels that weren’t popping.

We almost never use bagged popcorn, but if you do make sure to select a kind that is plain, otherwise you will end up with a salty greasy mess instead of a fun sensory bin.

First to play with the bin was my 4-year-old. I just threw in a few measuring cups and let her play.

She liked watching the popcorn fall as she held the measuring cups high in the air over the bin.

We kept the bin in the kitchen and didn’t have any messes, but if you do have some mess, it’s easy to sweep up with the broom.

My 11-year-old got in on the action, since I left the bin in the kitchen all day. She decided to see if the measuring cups we accurate and we had a good lesson about making sure that the cups were ‘level’ and not under-filled or over-filled.

In fact, the bin has been in my kitchen for two days now and we’re still having fun with it. After we’re done with it, we’ll do some crafts with the popcorn or feed it to the birds.

And, while you have the popcorn sensory bin made, it’s also a great time to use these super cute popcorn counting cards.