10 Easy Pom Pom Sensory Bin Activities for Toddlers

Learn how to create your own pom pom sensory bin for toddlers! Sensory play is so important for toddlers and these colorful pom poms are so much fun and provides one of the best indoor activities for kids!

Sensory bins are a great way to provide toddlers with opportunities for sensory play and exploration. Filled with various items that stimulate the senses, sensory bins allow toddlers to touch, see, hear, smell, and sometimes even taste different objects.

One popular sensory bin for toddlers is a pom pom sensory bin. It is one of my kids’ favorite sensory activities! I always make sure to have tons of pom poms to play with in my house.

Pom poms are soft, fuzzy, colorful bundles of fabric that are fun for little hands to touch and grab. Toddlers love sinking their hands into a bin full of pom poms and moving them around.

Here you can learn about the benefits of pom pom sensory play, along with exactly how to set up your own pom pom sensory bin for toddlers and preschoolers!

Benefits of a Pom Pom Sensory Bin

A pom pom sensory bin offers many benefits for a toddler’s development and play. Here are a few benefits you will see:

Develops Fine Motor Skills

Playing with pom poms helps strengthen a toddler’s fine motor skills. They practice grasping and releasing the pom poms, holding them in their palms, picking them up between thumb and forefinger, and moving them from hand to hand.

The resistance provided by the fluffy pom poms builds up finger muscles and dexterity. Scooping and stirring the pom poms also promotes hand-eye coordination.

This is why it is one of the best pom pom activities for toddlers!

Supports Tactile Exploration

Pom poms provide a variety of interesting textures for toddlers to explore through touch. They can feel the soft, fuzzy fur of the pom poms between their fingers.

Running their hands through the bin allows them to experience the lightness and mobility of the pom poms as they move out of the way.

Toddlers learn concepts like soft, fluffy, and squishy through tactile interaction with the colorful pom poms balls.

Encourages Visual Tracking

Watching the pom poms move around as they dig their hands in and out of the bin helps toddlers with visual tracking skills.

The bright colors and contrasts of the pom poms also provide visual stimulation. Toddlers focus their eyes on grasping pom poms of different colors and locating pom poms when they are moved around in the bin.

This boosts color recognition, hand-eye coordination, and object permanence.

A pom pom sensory bottle also does this too. You really can’t go wrong with the colorful pom balls!

Sparks Imaginative Play

Whether used as part of a pretend bakery, pet store, or raincloud, pom poms inspire creativity and imaginative play in toddlers.

They may pretend to sprinkle pom pom doughnuts with pom pom sprinkles or create silly pom pom creatures.

Pom poms become whatever a toddler’s imagination dreams up. Sensory bins provide loose parts that promote open-ended play.

Another reason why it is one of my favorite sensory play fillers.

Provides Soothing Sensory Input

For some toddlers, the soft, squishy feeling of pom poms can have a calming, soothing effect. The repetitive motions of digging hands in the bin and moving the pom poms around can also be regulating.

A pom pom sensory bin gives toddlers a positive sensory experience when they are feeling overwhelmed. With supervision, they can submerge their arms fully into the fluffy pom poms for deep sensory input.

It is one of the best sensory calming activities for toddlers!

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How to Create a Pom Pom Sensory Bin

Here is everything you’ll want to have to create your own DIY pom pom sensory bin:

Materials Needed

• Mixed colors pom poms
• Straws cut up
• Googly eyes
• Butterfly pieces
• Multi colored beads
• Scoops
• Sensory tools

Instructions

First, add in the pom poms. Then add everything else you want to add into the sensory bin.

Finally, add the scoops and let your kids enjoy!

It is so easy to create your own pom pom sensory bin, and you can easily customize it to fit your child’s needs and budget.

Ways to Play with a Pom Pom Sensory Bin

Fill a plastic bin or container with pom poms then set your toddler loose to explore and play. Here are some other fun ways to use a pom pom sensory bin:

• Add plastic letters or numbers and have them find specific ones or match the colors with the letter the color starts with.
• Hide small toys or objects in the bin and let them dig around to find them like the beads and butterflies mentioned above.
• Provide scoops and cups for pouring and transferring pom poms.
• Add tongs to pick up and sort pom poms by color.
• Add pom pom clouds to the bin and use spray bottles for rain showers for a weather sensory bin.
• Include bigger pom poms for variety of textures and sizes.
• Set out pom pom sorting bowls or egg cartons to sort by color for a pom pom color sorting activity.
• Add pom pom counting mats to match pom poms to numerals.
• Create trails or paths in the pom poms and drive cars and trucks through them.
• Create a frozen pom pom sensory bin for a hot summer day!

These are just some of the best pom pom activities for 1 year olds, but with a child’s imagination, there are so many other great ways to use a pom pom sensory bin!

Pom Pom Sensory Bin Wrap-Up

Pom pom sensory bins are simple to set up but provide endless opportunities for toddlers to learn through hands-on, open-ended play.

Decorating the bins according to theme or your child’s interests makes them even more engaging.

We love our pom pom sensory bins and play with them at least once a week, but sometimes more. Hopefully you toddlers enjoy their too.

Check out these other sensory bin ideas: