Valentine Pasta Sensory Bin

I’m so excited to be taking part in the 31 Days of Sensory Play with Adventures of Adam! There have been so many great ideas and I’m looking forward to seeing the other activities as they are shared. Today we are talking about pasta! This lowly, inexpensive, filler of a food can be transformed into something fantastic. Maybe not tasty, but definitely fun! This Valentine Pasta Sensory Bin was fun to make and the kids thought it was great fun to play in!

Materials needed for Valentine Pasta Sensory Bin:

Pasta (I used 2 lbs.)

Paint (I used pink, red, and purple glitter paints)

3 zip top bags

Foam hearts

Red silicone cupcake liners

L.O.V.E. 3-D stickers (optional)

Separate the pasta into the 3 zip top bags. Pour several tablespoons of paint into each bag. (Confession: I actually attempted to dye this pasta using hand sanitizer and gel food coloring, but the color wasn’t sticking the way that I wanted it to, so I poured the paint in on top of that. So if your paint isn’t attaching to the pasta the way you want, you may want to add some hand sanitizer. I think it made it dry faster.)

You can either let it dry in the bag or spread it out on a foil lined cookie sheet. I used a cookie sheet and then set it in front of a space heater to dry quickly because I was very impatient.

Once the pasta is dry, layer it in the sensory bin. Add the embellishments such as foam hearts.

I attached the L.O.V.E. stickers to some of the foam hearts to add a little bit of reading fun to the sensory bin.

Of course, no matter how fancy and pretty I make a sensory bin, my kids seem to believe that it is a new home for their Polly Pocket dolls.

The cupcake liners became pools and there was some snow boarding going on as well. I love how sensory bins can become an extension of play for kids. Many times our sensory bins have turned into bakeries and doll houses. In fact a couple weeks ago we did a snow bin that turned into a huge ‘bubble bath’ for the Polly Pockets.

Pasta is just one sensory in fillers that you can use. You can get some other great ideas by checking out the 31 Days of Sensory Play!