Easter Sensory Play Ideas & Fine Motor Play for Preschools

Sensory play is necessary for children all year long. We know that children learn through hands-on play that involves their senses. Sensory play usually includes fine motor skill development, which is another reason sensory play is so important.

Easter Sensory Play Ideas

It’s fun to switch up sensory bins and play centers for the seasons and holidays so I’m sharing some of our Easter sensory play ideas. Thankfully the dollar store offers some inexpensive materials for sensory play so it’s possible to switch things up more often.

Easter Eggs & Pom Pom Sensory and Fine Motor Play Bin

This clean and quiet sensory bin features crystal plastic eggs, silicone muffin cups, and various sizes and colors of pom poms. Children can sort colors and sizes of pom poms, fill eggs or create “cakes” with the pom poms and silicone muffin cups. I find that the clean and quiet bins don’t always get as much action as the messy sensory play bins, but the soft Easter colors and the draw of fillable Easter eggs encourage children to play in this center.

Some of our sensory play centers are in smaller bins like this one but usually, I use the sensory table.

Colored Rice & Carrot Easter Eggs

Children love playing in colored rice! It’s fun and inexpensive to make and it lasts quite a while. I do save mine to use at a future day but use discretion. If there’s been illness or if you feel it isn’t sanitary any longer, it can be thrown out and recreated for next time. Learn how to use liquid watercolors to dye rice for sensory play here: Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

For this bin I made purple, yellow and orange dyed rice and simply added Fillable Carrot Easter Eggs. The egg containers serve as scoops but you could also add long-handled spoons or scoops as well.

Children are drawn to the colors and sound of rice pouring into the Fillable Carrot Easter Eggs. They are such fun carrot shaped containers!

I find that it’s best to use smaller containers and scoops in the sensory bin. The larger the container that can be filled, the more that’s likely to be dumped on the floor!

Pastels on the Light Table

Don’t forget the light table! I’m always looking for fun materials to use on the light table but it seems they are a little harder to come by. I found these small pastel shot glasses at the Dollar Tree as well as the pastel acrylic flower beads/table scatter. I don’t believe the flowers are available anymore, but if you see them, grab what you can! They’re awesome for the light table.

Use care with all ages – these beads are small and children will put things in their mouths. Other items can be used with the colored cups as well so be creative!