Looking for a cute and easy sensory play idea for pumpkin season? This Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin for Preschool is perfect!
Kids will enjoy rolling, scooping, stirring, and making mini pies with this awesome fall sensory play idea.
Fall is the perfect time to teach little ones about pumpkins.
Whether you take your children to a pumpkin patch, grow your own pumpkins, or buy some pumpkins at your local store – there’s tons of fun learning opportunities at this time of year!
We’ve been busy with lots of fun pumpkin activities so we decided to add to the pumpkin season fun with a pumpkin pie sensory bin!
This pumpkin pie sensory play idea is a great way for kids to work on their fine motor skills.
Let’s go ahead and dive into the awesome list of reasons we love sensory play.
Amazing Benefits of Sensory Play
Some of the incredible benefits of sensory play are:
- It promotes language development.
- Sensory play builds problem solving skills.
- Kids can work on fine motor skill development and hand-eye coordination.
- It builds brain connections.
- And, it helps kids regulate and destress.
There’s so many great reasons to do sensory activities.
And of course, sensory play is a LOT of fun too. It keeps my kids very busy, which is quite possibly the best reason to dive into it!
My children have spent hours and hours playing creatively with sensory bins. That’s a huge win!
Supplies for Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin
For this easy pumpkin sensory bin you will need the following items:
– Sensory Bin Container (I use a large under the bed storage container)
– Mini Pie Dishes – You can use disposable ones or grab these durable mini pie pans. (We bought ours with real pie in them at a local store. My kids ate the pie and we washed the pie tin out!)
– Red Lentils – which are actually orange in color!
– Wooden spoon – We already had one, but you can find some on Amazon
– Small tongs or other sensory tools
– Real Mini Pumpkins – You can use fake ones if you wish.
– Measuring cups – You can find these online or at a local store.
– Pom Poms – I used orange for pumpkin and slightly larger white ones for whipped topping.
– Tan Brown Felt – for the crust!
– A Pen
– Pinking Shears and Cloth scissors
– Small Mixing Bowl
Once you have gathered your sensory bin supplies, you are ready to start creating my favorite fall sensory bin!
How to make Felt Pie Crusts
First, using your mini pie pan as as template, trace the bottom of the pan with a pen onto the brown felt. Then cut out the circle. Cut out bottom crusts for each of your mini pie pans.
Once you have the bottom crusts of each pie, it’s time to make the top crusts.
First, I made a full top crust with little slits in it. I flipped one of my pie pans over to trace the large circle. Then I folded the circle inwards and snipped some openings to make it look like a pie crust.
Next, I made a lattice crust. I used pinking shears to make zigzag crust strips from brown felt. I made several strips for each pie.
The crust strip length will depend on the size of your pan. Use your pan to measure.
Now that you have the hard part done, it’s time to have fun building the sensory bin!
How to Make a Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin
First, I poured the red lentils into the sensory bin container. You will want enough to cover the base of your sensory container. If you don’t have red lentils, you could use rice dyed orange, dry oats, or other sensory bin fillers.
Next, add your felt pie crusts and pie pans. You can also add a small wooden spoon, a little mixing bowl, a wooden scoop, mini tongs, mini rolling pin, and measuring cups for scooping.
Kids love to have items to stir, pour, and scoop with. The mini rolling pin allows them to pretend like they are rolling out the crust.
Next, add your orange pom poms to look like pumpkin. I also added some real mini pumpkins to add to the pretend play!
And finally add some larger white pom poms to be whipped cream.
This pumpkin pie themed sensory bin was a big hit with all of my kids. They spent days in imaginative play creating their own pumpkin pies.
They had so much fun serving up delicious pumpkin desserts and creating their own recipes.
If you want to extend the independent play, you can also make recipe cards to show how many pom poms to add or how many scoops of pumpkin, etc.
Just a safety reminder: If you have small children who still put things in their mouths, you will want to stay away from choking hazards like pom poms, small felt pieces, etc.
You know your child best, so never give your child anything that is small enough to present a choke hazard.
Watch the Video
Want to watch me create this Pumpkin Pie Sensory bin, plus show you other sensory bin ideas? Check out this video!
More Pumpkin Preschool Activities
Looking for more fun fall activities for young children? There’s lots of fall fun ideas here on my blog.
This Marble Paint Pumpkin Craft is perfect for your fall theme. Kids use marbles to paint on the free pumpkin template. Cute and easy!
Need more sensory bin ideas for the fall season? There’s an Easy Pumpkin Washing Station Idea here. Such an easy way to add a sensory experience to your pumpkin theme.
There’s an adorable Pumpkin Pie Paper Plate Craft here. Plus you’ll also see tutorials for making other types of pies as well!
You can find an easy Pumpkin Paper Plate Craft here. Kids will love painting with pumpkins!
There’s also some fun 5 Little Pumpkins Activities here. These free printables are a fun way to introduce little ones to this classic Halloween poem.
Love this simple pumpkin sensory bin? Pin the image below to your Fall Pumpkin activity board on Pinterest.
