Antarctic Sensory Bin for Sensory Play
We have done several penguin sensory bin, but this Antarctic sensory bin is a great way to explore all the animals you will find there.
You have penguins, seals, and whales to explore in a simple and easy-to-put-together sensory bin.
You can explore the land with the rice and the water with the blue acrylic rocks. Plus 10 different animals.
The Antarctic Sensory Bin is a great addition to the polar animals and sensory bins on the site.
What is a sensory bin?
A sensory bin is typically a plastic tub or container filled with carefully selected materials and objects to stimulate the senses of children in preschool.
Sensory bins might have rice, water beads, corn, beans, or other types filled with small items.
Antarctic Sensory Bin
It is a simple Antarctic sensory bin with animals, rice, and blue rocks for the ocean. It takes just a minute to put the sensory bin together.
It has the following Antarctic animals: emperor penguin, chinstrap penguin, rockhopper penguin, blue whale, humpback whale, sperm whale, an orca, a crabeater seal, an Antarctic fur seal, and a wandering albatross.
We have included links to some of the products and resources we have used with this activity. If you purchase via the links we may earn a small commission.
Antarctic Books for Kids
Here are a few book suggestions to use with the sensory bin.
Antarctica: A Continent of Wonder is a great book about different animals you can find in Antarctica. You will learn about penguins, whales and seals that live there.
Ten Animals in Antarctica: A Counting Book is a counting book with the animals that live there. It has fun unique animals in the book.
Dreamy Antarctica: Embark on an Exciting Adventure has a great fantasy view of Antarctic that kids can use to learn more about exploring and the animals that live there.
What we used to make the Antarctic Sensory Bin
Ways to Use the Antarctic Sensory Bin
You will see a few suggestions on how to use the sensory bin, but remember this are suggestion and you don’t have to use them. But remember sensory bins are really fun for kids.
Play in the sensory Bin
As always just playing in a sensory bin is fun. You can see the animals and the rice and blue rocks. You can mix it all up and just have fun.
Sort Similar Animals
You can have fun give kids the animals in the sensory bin and have them group animals that are similar.
You can group penguins, seals and whales. It is a great start to comparing animals with kids.
Compare similar and Different for Animals
You can talk about what is similar and different for each animal. You have two different seals and you can talk about the flippers, the body, eyes, and more. You can do the same with the penguins and whales.
Explore Who Live in the Water and Who Lives on Land
You can explore who lives in the water and who lives on land with the Antarctic animals. You have almost all the get food from the ocean but not all live full time in the ocean.
You can compare the differences between the two. And you might talk about food that each one eats. You might find that each have different types of foods they prefer.
Make Letters with the Blue Rocks
A fun activity you can do is take the blue rocks and make letters in the rice. You could also do numbers as well.
A great fine motor mat to build the letters by placing the rocks and then building a different letter right afterward.
And Just Playin the Sensory Bin
If your sensory bin ends up with all the blue rocks mixed in with the rice and the animals and every where. This is okay. Sensory bins are meant for sensory play.
And if that is all kids do with this is just play you have had a wonderful sensory bin activity.
More Polar Animal Activities for Kids
Penguin Shape Sorting Printable has four shape for kids to sort. It has circle, square, rectangle and triangle. This is a great preschool, prek and kindergarten printable for kids.
Penguin Rice Sensory Bin is a fun sensory play activity for kids. you can explore the different penguins in a easy to use up sensory bin with rice and acrylic rocks.
Penguin Weekly No-Prep Packs has 6 grade level options with PreK, Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and Fourth Grade. You have 5 days of printables with 4 pages for each day.
Zoo Pack has a section in it for polar animals that you can also use. It has a mix of hands-on and no-prep printables with preschool and kindergarten age activities.
Arctic Animals Easy Reader Book has 9 arctic animals for kids learn names in simple sentences. This is a great kindergarten and prek easy reader book.
Penguin Place Value Matching has two levels of learning and loads of matching fun. You have tens and ones and hundreds tends and ones. This is a great kindergarten and first grade printable.
Check out all the fun Polar Animal activities on 3 Dinosaurs.
Check out all the fun Sensory Bin Activities on 3 Dinosaurs.
Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com