Corn Sensory Bin for Fall Farm Fun

I love sensory bins. If you're not familiar, it's a container (plastic under bed boxes work great!) filled with fun material for your little one to scoop, dig in, and explore.

I was inspired by some of the activities at our local pumpkin patch this fall, and by my sons' fascination with all things farm related, to try out this sensory experience. My toddlers loved this, and I only spent about $3 for the corn. Everything else we had around the house. So worth it and so fun!


I actually use our old baby bathtub for our sensory bin (unless we are outside, then I use the water table). A word of advice though - put a piece of duct tape over the drain hole. Trust me.

I filled the tub with 10 pounds of shelled corn (also called feed corn) that I bought at our local farm supply store for under $3. I added in some of our Little People farm animals and figures, trucks, and various scoops, bowls, and containers that I had around the kitchen.

That's really the whole set up. I spread a huge sheet on the floor of our playroom, put the bin down, and let the boys explore. They immediately began scooping and playing, even adding a giraffe and rhino to the "farm."

Small containers like ice trays and this baby food container tray are perfect for them to try to scoop and dump the corn.

It's even fun to sort the corn by hand!

And of course, they had to test out actually getting into the tub! 

We enjoyed this activity so much! It entertained my boys for over an hour, which is an eternity in toddler time. Clean up was pretty easy - it was mostly contained to the sheet so I just bundled it up and dumped all the corn into a plastic trash bag. I stored the bag in a large plastic bin with a lid so we can play again another day! Perfect for the cold weather ahead.

For more farm fun, try our read & play activity with Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm.