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We’ve been spending a lot of time making ants fun instead of scary for my 2¾-year-old granddaughter, Zoey. We continued our ant work with an ant sensory bin that combined fine-motor work, a scavenger hunt with counting, and ant life cycle activities.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Ant Sensory Bin with Scavenger Hunt and Life Cycle Activities – YouTube Video
I already had all the ingredients for the sensory bin from previous sensory bins and our other ant activities. So this was super easy to put together. You can see how much fun Zoey has with it, too!
Ant Sensory Bin (and DIY Sensory Table)
I already had my DIY sensory table, so it was easy to make an ant sensory bin … especially since I already had the needed materials.
Ant Sensory Table
Materials Used for Ant Sensory Bin
Ant Sensory Bin
- DIY sensory table (I’ve had this for almost a year now, and it’s amazing! It’s been very durable and the perfect container for our sensory bins. Of course, you can use a bin on the floor.)
- Safari Ltd. Life Cycle of an Ant
- 10 ants (from my ant printables and activities post)
- tweezers for fine-motor work
- black beans (clean “dirt”)
- paper shred Easter grass from the Dollar Tree. I used a thin coating of the grass I had for our butterfly sensory bin to make the scavenger hunt a bit easier. (You can also get shredded paper Easter grass from Amazon, search for inexpensive Easter grass after Easter, or shred green paper with a paper shredder.)
- Free Printable: Animal Life Cycles from The Pinay Homeschooler
- ant number card from my butterfly sensory bin
Feel free to adapt your sensory bin for your family. These are just the materials I used.
Ant Life Cycle Activities
Naming Stages in the Life Cycle of an Ant
I like to add at least one special hands-on learning activity using a printable to each sensory bin I prepare. I used the free Animal Life Cycles from The Pinay Homeschooler. It was the same one I used for the life cycle activity in my earlier ant post. I just changed up the activity.
As you can see in the video, Zoey LOVED the life cycle work with the Safari Ltd. Life Cycle of an Ant materials. She repeated the activity even more times than was shown in the video. I love seeing sensitive periods in action!
Fine-Motor Activity – Using Tweezers to Pick up Ants
Using Tweezers to Transfer Ants
Zoey has been working on activities to develop her pincer grasp, so she was able to use tweezers to pick up the miniature ants. I could also have used sugar tongs or toast tongs for the fine-motor work.
Ant Scavenger Hunt and Counting Work
Searching for Ants in the Scavenger Hunt
I used my subscriber freebie ant counting cards for the scavenger hunt and counting work. Zoey varies in how she used this. Sometimes she just searches for the ants and other times she’s focused on counting them as well. I let Zoey choose her sensory bin activities each day.
Having Fun Finding Ants in the Ant Sensory Bin
Zoey always works with her sensory bins for long periods of time. It looks like her ant sensory bin will be another popular one!
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That’s a neat little sensory bin! 🙂
That ant sensory bins looks wonderful! My daughter will love it!!!