Shark Water Bead Sensory Bin

Shark week comes in July or August and is super fun for kids

And the shark sensory bin is a great shark week activity you can do. You get sensory play and can learn about different sharks.

Plus, this is a great shark sensory bin for the summer or all year for kids who love sharks.

The Shark Water Bead Sensory Bin is a great addition to the shark activities 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.

Shark Water Bead Sensory Bin

The shark water bead sensory bin has water beads for the base and use small sharks in the sensory bin for the sensory play.

What Size of Sensory Bin is Best For the Shark Sensory Bin?

The clear plastic storage bins are great for water bead sensory bins. These are nice because of the deep walls and lid to cover the bin when you are done using it.

What you need for the Shark Sensory Bin

• water beads
• clear plastic storage bins
• Safari Ltd Sharks TOOB or Wild Republic Shark in Nature Tube
• Safari Ltd Hammerhead Shark
• Safari Ltd Great White Shark
• Safari Ltd Basking Shark
• Safari Ltd Bull Shark
• Safari Ltd Shark Ray
• Safari Ltd Leopard Shark

Books to Read with the Shark Sensory Bin

We also read the book Sharks (Wonderful World of…). We also did some hands on activity with the shark figures and the book. Learning is always fun with you add hands on.

The Ultimate Book of Sharks is another great shark book you could read. You can find out where they live, what they eat and more

Setting up the Shark Sensory Bin

The first thing I did was leave the sensory bin out for a while for the water beads to grow. I left extra water in and put the sharks in. The sharks sank into the water just a little bit. The girls loved looking through the side and seeing the sharks in different parts of the water.

If you need help with water bead sensory bins check out this post on using water beads sensory bins.

Ways to Use the Shark Sensory Bin

You will see a few ways we used the sharks and the shark sensory bin for sensory fun for shark week.

Let them Play with the Sharks and Just Have Fun

They were so excited to dig right into the sharks! We knew most of the names of the sharks and those they did not know they read the bottom of the sharks to make sure they knew them. or they had me read the name.

It was fun to explore the sizes and different types of the sharks in the sensory bin.

Matching Sharks in the Sensory Bin

We found the matching sharks and compared their sizes. It was fun to see how each shark looked and what was different and same about the sharks. We compared a lot of the bigger sharks to the sharks in the shark toobs.

Matching Sharks to Sharks in the Shark Books

One part that we did was pull all the sharks out of the sensory bin and dried them off and started looking through the Sharks (Wonderful World of…). This was really fun and we have done this before.

You read a shark and then find the shark figure and match it up! There are many different types of sharks and every page had a new shark to learn about or try to find. You could also find the same shark again. We would put them on the page and match them up. At the end after we learned some of the names we did the world map with the sharks.

I recently learned this book is not out any more. But you could do it with other shark books as well.

And Remember This Can Just Be About Sensory Play

Kids love to play in sensory bins and I know we really enjoy playing in them. So you can just spend time playing in the sensory bins!

More Shark Activities for Kids

Shark Weekly Packs has five days of printables with 4 pages for each day. You have Prek, Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and Fourth Grade. The Summer No-Prep packs are great for summer review or fun shark week printables.

Shark Cookie Cutter Painting is a simple shark cookie cutter painting that works great for tot and preschool age kids. But can be a fun shark week painting for kids of all ages as well.

Shark Themed ABC and Number Wall Cards are great to display during the summer. They are great to see letter formation and number formation as well.

Prehistoric Sea Life Water Bead Sensory Bin which has a few sharks from the past that are fun to play in.

Shark Fin Painting with Cookie Cutters for Kids is a simple painting activity with shark fins. This is a great mix of watercolor and paints for kids to do.

Check out all the fun Shark Printables & Activities on 3 Dinosaurs.

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com