You may have read my recent blog about spring sensory bins! When putting together sensory bins, it is always important to think about safety [in addition to fun!]. We wanted to post a blog with some safety considerations when utilizing sensory bins. While this is not all inclusive, hopefully it will get your wheels turning when thinking about how to make an ideal sensory bin for your students!
Some Things to Think About
Many of us are working with students who mouth things. There is a high likelihood that students may put the filler of our bins in their mouth. Therefore, we need to consider a few things when putting fillers in our bins:
- the size of the filler items [considering a choking hazard]
- potential toxicity of the filler [Reminder: NO kidney beans or water beads!]
- allergies [collaborating with families on this!]
- general health/safety with spreading of germs
- CAUTION: We no longer support using water beads for sensory bins and play. Water beads, if ingested, they can be fatal. Please do not use them.
We want to make sure that if students do mouth items in the sensory bin, that they are not at risk of choking or poisoning. I typically avoid kidney beans [see Taylor’s sensory bin blog for more detail!] and water beads for this reason. Remember that the name brand Play Doh contains gluten, so do not use this with students who have a gluten allergy. Some of my parents prefer that we don’t use anything container gluten [ex: not gluten free oats] even if they aren’t meant to be consumed. Always check with parents! Additionally, hand washing before and after sensory bin use is a great idea [especially if it is a shared bin]. This is helpful in containing the spreading of germs in general.
Download this list for free here!
My Favorite Safe Fillers:
- Cooked or dry spaghetti or other noodles
- Have the students help to dye/color them with alcohol and food coloring!
- Rice [as pictured above]
- Easy to dye [as part of the activity] and/or scent with essential oils
- Dry cereal, beans, seeds, oatmeal
- Avoid kidney beans
- Holiday sprinkles or cake decorations [see Valentine’s bin below]
- Shaving cream or alternatives [Cool Whip, whipped cream]
- Water
- Water tables make great sensory bins!
- Ice cubes or Snow or Frozen Foods
- Make your own snow! Use the Sensory Visual Recipes
- Try different-shaped molds or freeze something in the ice cub for a fine motor challenge!
- Easter grass or tissue paper
- Have students shred, snip, crumple or hole-punch paper to make their own bin
- Homemade play dough
- Check out this blog on peppermint sensory bins here!
- Use the Sensory Visual Recipes
- Cotton balls and/or pom poms
- Gift wrap bows [see my Holiday Sensory Bins]
What’s not safe:
You might be enticed to buy red kidney beans as a filler because they are cheap, larger (aka easier to clean up if they are dumped on the floor), and a bright color that you don’t have to dye, but they are toxic! Let it be known that I have not taken a chemistry class since high school, but red kidney beans contain high levels of phytohemagglutinin. The high levels make them the most toxic bean! Isn’t that crazy?!
Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) is found in plants and most common in certain legumes. It is a type of lectin, which is a carbohydrate-binding protein. Foods that contain lectin need to be cooked/fermented at a certain temperature for extended periods of time.
According to the FDA, poisoning can be induced from as few as five raw beans and symptoms can occur within three hours. If you consume raw kidney beans do not plan to leave your house or bathroom; symptoms include extreme vomiting and diarrhea. I would also avoid raw white kidney beans.
Water Beads are NOT safe:
Water beads used to be a widely acceptable sensory bin filler … but we know better now. The following quote is taken from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“CPSC has heard heartbreaking stories from parents whose children ingested water beads and suffered severe consequences, including grave internal injuries, lifelong health impacts and death. CPSC has also issued product safety warnings related to new evidence pointing to acrylamide toxicity in some water bead products.
The product warnings highlight that water bead hazards can go beyond ingestion, expansion and obstruction inside a child. Acrylamide is a known carcinogen. The large water beads in CPSC’s warnings contain levels of acrylamide in violation of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.
CPSC data show that nearly 7,000 water bead-related ingestion injuries were treated in emergency departments in the U.S. from 2018 through 2022. CPSC is also aware of the death of a 10-month-old girl in 2023.”
CAUTION: We do not support using water beads for sensory bins and any type of play. Water beads, if ingested, they can be fatal. Please do not use them with children .
Pairing Academics [and/or OT!] with Sensory Bins
The possibilities are endless! Find budget-friendly ideas on this blog! I recently did a seasonal Easter bin with students in my high school multiple disabilities support (MDS) classroom. The students picked their own color preference and dyed their own rice with rubbing alcohol and food dye. We combined the rice to make a rainbow! Each student decided [and communicated on AAC] how many “bunny tails” they were going to add. To target pre-vocational skills, we had students use a jig to count out the number of cotton balls, and put them in the bin. The students had been learning vocabulary related to Easter, so we hid pictures of those words in the bin, and had them match the pictures they found to corresponding words on an anchor sheet. It was a great OT/Speech co-treat!
Adding a sensory bin to more academic tasks like this adds a multi-sensory component that enhances learning!
Want to learn what bin fillers we love and what fillers NOT to use? Download our fillers list for free here!
Happy Sensory Bin-ing! We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Please share with use on Facebook on our Simply Special Ed Community group!
