Digging for Worms Sensory Bin

By Guest Author

Spring is in full swing with sunshine, blooming flowers, and lots of critters. As soon as all traces of winter are gone, my kids begin one of their favorite springtime activities, digging for worms. While the two boys were at school recently, I set up this worm sensory bin and gave my daughter tools to dig and find worms.

While she would rather be digging for real worms, she had a good time with this worm filled sensory bin. Added bonus is the workout she was giving her fine motor skills using the tweezers to grab the worms. She was also working on transferring skills, transferring the worms from the dirt to the bug keeper.

This sensory bin was super easy and inexpensive to set up. We used our under the bed storage container that we use for all our sensory bins and filled it with items bought from the Dollar Tree.

Worm Sensory Bin

Supplies:

• Brown crinkle paper shred
• Plastic worms
• Under bed storage container (or something similar to act as the base for your sensory bin)
• Tools for finding the worms (see options below)
• Bucket or bug keeper for the found worms

This worm sensory bin is really easy to set up. We dumped 4 bags of brown paper shred into a storage container (1-2 more bags would have been good for the size container we used). We then dumped the worms into the container and buried them under the dirt (brown paper shred). Next, we placed a bug container in the corner. Finally I gave her tools for digging and finding worms.

One of the tools she used as a rake, was a plastic pretend play potato masher. We pick this up at the Dollar Tree in a set of our pretend play utensils.

To grab the worms she used Easy Grab Tweezers. Before we purchased these fine motor tools, we used inexpensive tongs from the Dollar Tree.

Extend the Activity:

• Count the worms in the sensory bin.
• Sort the worms by color.
• Read books about worms

Written by About a Mom contributor, Kim. Kim, the mama behind The Resourceful Mama, is a medical social worker turned stay at home mom to three. She enjoys sharing simple crafts and activities, parenting and homemaking tips, and a lot of holiday fun.