This rabbit sensory bin is perfect around spring, or even during a woodland, farm, or pet theme. And you’ll absolutely want to add it to your list of Easter activities for toddlers and preschoolers!
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Related: Easter Sensory Activities
Sensory bins are pretty forgiving. You can take an overall concept, like this rabbit sensory play, and adjust the materials to include what you’ve got on hand.
And even if you make quite a few changes, the kids will still have an absolute blast. Plus, they’ll be learning as they play and engage many of their senses. You could even pair the bin with your favorite children’s book about rabbits!
Rabbit Sensory Bin
The idea for this sensory activity actually came from some fond childhood memories of mine. I had a rabbit when I was a kid, and my father made a hutch for it to live in. Lots of happy memories of feeding it and taking care of it through the years.
So I thought it would be fun to put together an amalgamation of sensory and small world play focused in on rabbits. Just because.
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Related: 10 Easter Sensory Bottles
Materials for Rabbit Small World
You’ll find that you don’t need a ton of materials to make a small world activity a success. Sometimes, the simpler, the better! And other times, it can be great to add intricate details and small items to make the small world activity just that much more realistic.
For this activity, in particular, I wanted to create both a habitat for the rabbits and a carrot patch so the rabbits could forage for their food! So, I used a few more materials than I typically do in a sensory bin. I also used two bins separating the two scenes: the rabbit habitat and the carrot patch. In fact, I used one of my favorite sensory tables that comes equipped with two bins!
Here are the materials I used for our rabbit sensory bin:
- Dry chickpeas
- Dry split peas
- Small rabbit toys
- Hutch play set
- Squeezy tweezers
- Carrot mini erasers
- Bunny pop bubble sensory toy
- Carrot pop sensory toy
And of course, as I stated previously, you can add or alter the materials list as much as you want based on your preferences or what you have on-hand!
How to Set up the Bunny Sensory Play
Once I gathered all of the materials, setting the bunny sensory bin activity up was pretty straight-forward. When you’re sure that your two bins are clean, dry, and ready to go, it’s time to start on the rabbit habitat.
To begin, fill the bottom of the first bin with a good amount of dry chickpeas. Avoid overfilling the bin so the kids have room for pretend play. You want just enough depth to it so the kids can dig around and play!
Next, place the toys from the rabbit and hutch play set in the bin. I decided to open the gate and use it as a boundary to the rabbits’ home. But you can set them up however you see fit!
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Related: Forest Animal Play Dough Small World
Then, create the carrot patch bin by filling the bottom of the second bin with dry split peas. Make sure to use enough of the split peas so the carrots will have a place to grow.
Now it’s time to plant the carrots. Decide if you want to put the carrots in the rabbit sensory bin yourself. Or have the kids do it. This is a good opportunity to talk to the kids about how carrots are root vegetables that grow underground! You can also mention how farmers plant their vegetables in rows so that they are easy to harvest.
Finally, it’s time to place out all of your extra materials. I decided to add a few sets of child-friendly tongs along with both a bunny-shaped and a carrot-shaped bubble sensory toy. You can place them in the bins or somewhere within reach. That’s up to you!
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And that’s it! I hope your students get a kick out of the rabbit small world play!
Playing and Learning with a Rabbit Sensory Bin
The kids often have WAY better play ideas than us, right?! So, I suggest setting up the activity and letting the children have at it.
This activity is probably best for either a small group or just an individual child. When the kids get their turn with the rabbit sensory bin, you’ll likely see all sorts of unique play skills at work.
Some children may be focused on one bin over the other. Some kids might interact with the bunnies, creating story lines for each bunny and having them hop around in their habitat. You can even have the children outline or fill in the shapes on the printable bunny shape mats using some of the materials.
And other children might be focused on the carrot patch, pulling up carrots, counting them, and replanting them. The carrot patch bin is perfect for introducing a garden theme. Or check out another option for a carrot garden sensory bin!
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You may see some kids combining aspects from both parts of the rabbit sensory bin. Maybe their bunnies are sneaking into the garden to forage for carrots. I hope the farmer doesn’t catch them!
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Other children might be more interested in the sensory aspect of the bins. They might use the tongs to scoop and drop the chickpeas and split peas. Or they might forgo the tongs and get their hands “dirty,” digging up the chickpeas and split peas.
Still others might be seen playing with the pop-it sensory toys. They can use them as typical bubble poppers. Or they might choose to fill the bubbles up with the sensory materials from the bins.
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Regardless of how the children choose to play, they will certainly be learning throughout the process!
How do you think your students will interact with the rabbit sensory bin?
Done-For-You Preschool Resources
The bunny rabbit sensory bin activity is such a great activity for a variety of lesson plans and themes. Here at Preschool Teacher 101, we know just how hard it can be to create fun and engaging lesson plans week after week. That’s why we’ve come together to create meaningful preschool resources to share with you all.
Click on the images below to learn more about some of the themed lesson plans that would be a perfect match for the rabbit small world play activity.
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Be sure to sign up for the waiting list for The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today!
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