Need a new sensory play idea? This Easy DIY Unicorn Sensory Bin for kids is a fun way to spark imaginative play.
This fun hands-on activity is great for your little unicorn lover! It would make a fun gift idea for any child who enjoys pretend play and unicorns.
There are so many benefits of sensory play, including building fine motor skill development, language development, and emotional regulation.
My favorite reason for including sensory play in our day is that it engages my children in independent play for long stretches of time. Love that!
This Unicorn themed Sensory bin is a great way to encourage young children to use their fine motor skills and imaginations.
Ok! Let’s talk about how to create your own DIY Unicorn Sensory Bin.
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Materials needed for Unicorn Sensory Bin
You will need the following items:
- Sensory Bin or Container, storage bin, or sensory table
- Pink colored rice (We used this Tutorial for Colored Rice and we reused this same rice for this Watermelon Sensory Bin).
- Rocks
- Fake flowers – we used some mini daisies.
- Unicorn Toys (We used these adorable unicorn figurines by Schleich)
- Wood Slices
- Mini Wooden Trees from Just Add Imagination on Etsy.
- Mini wooden mushrooms (We reused these from our woodland sensory bin)
- Fake leaves (I cut some leaves off of fake flowers)
- Plastic Butterflies
- Pretend gemstones or other sea treasures
- Glass pebbles to represent water
- Pom Poms – we used various sizes of blue and green pom poms (you can use different colors if you like)
- Kid tongs (Or you could use tweezers made for kids)
- Measuring scoops or wooden scoop
- Plastic Table cloth (for keeping the mess contained)
If you follow my sensory bin ideas – you’ll notice that a lot of these items are from previous sensory bins that I’ve created. I didn’t have to buy anything new for this bin. Once you get a good stock of sensory play items, it’s easy to interchange between bins and themes to create something new!
Safety Warning – Keep in mind that sensory bins contain small toys and loose parts that could be a choking hazard.
Make sure your sensory toys are age appropriate for your child. Also, adult supervision is advised for this hands-on play idea.
How to make a Unicorn Sensory Bin
First, fill your sensory table or bin with your sensory bin filler of choice. We used pink colored rice, but green split peas would also be an excellent choice.
(Not sure how to dye rice? Check out our tutorial on how to dye rice with food coloring here).
You might like to place the bin or table over a plastic tablecloth for easy clean up.
Next, place your rocks, pom poms, fake leaves, flowers, gemstones, etc. in the bin.
I like to add natural elements whenever possible like rocks, wood slices, etc.
It’s fun to have a mix of different textures and elements to engage a child in pretend play. You might like to create a pond with some blue glass pebbles to spark imaginations.
Last, you’ll add your butterflies, unicorns and scoops. And that’s it! Your magical unicorn sensory bin is ready.
And…now your unicorn loving child is ready for some pretend play!
My unicorn loving little girl absolutely adored this sensory play idea! She came up with all kinds of storylines with the unicorns and played for a good long time with it.
As I stated above, I love how this sensory bin uses a lot of materials I already had on hand.
I’ve found that the more we do sensory play, the easier it is to interchange pieces within the bins. We use and reuse the same items over and over for different themes and sensory play ideas.
Some other fun additions you might like to add to freshen up your bin after a few days: rainbow colored pipe cleaners, a wooden rainbow toy, woodland creatures, etc. You could also swap the sensory filler with play sand, add cookie cutters, a magic wand, or other unicorn themed toys.
More Unicorn Activities for Kids
Looking for more fun Unicorn activities for kids?
There’s a fun free printable Unicorn Puppet here. Kids will enjoy coloring and creating their own unicorn to put on a puppet show.
There’s tons of cute Unicorn Crafts for Kids here. So many fun ideas including paper plate crafts, printables and more!
You can find some free Unicorn Color By Number Pages here. These are great for number recognition and building fine motor skills.
Print some free Unicorn Coloring Pages here. Perfect for a rainy day or teaching the letter U.
Lastly, you can find this super fun Unicorn Scavenger Hunt over in my Etsy shop. There’s a list of unicorns to find and picture cards to hide. Perfect for birthday parties or just an afternoon of fun.
More Sensory Play Ideas
I absolutely love sensory play! Sensory bins can help with vocabulary skills, cognitive growth, and fine motor development.
And of course, sensory bins have provided hours of imaginative play for my kids!
Need more sensory activities?
My kids loved this Fairy Sensory Bin. This beautiful bin has a green split pea sensory filler and plenty of fairy themed materials. Such a fun idea for children who love fairies and creative play.
If your child loves Mermaids, don’t miss this Mermaid Sensory Bin. It’s sure to engage your child in plenty of pretend play!
There’s a list of cute Premade Sensory Kit Ideas here. So much inspiration – you’re sure to find the perfect sensory idea. Or, you can buy an all-in-one sensory bin so your child can get started playing right away.
Need an idea for small children? This Car Wash Sensory Bin is so much fun! Kids will enjoy plenty of dramatic play and endless creativity with this fun sensory idea.
Want to save this Unicorn Sensory Bin for later? Pin the image below to your Sensory Bin board on Pinterest.
