Farm Sensory Bin Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Whether you’re currently exploring a farm theme with your little one’s or just looking for some easy farm sensory activities to do for fun, these fun Farm Sensory Bin Ideas are for you! I’ve made a farm sensory bin for animal washing, one to feed the farm animals, and a number of other quick set-up options.

As a busy mom and former childminder, I know how hard it is to find time to create these beautiful sensory play set-ups so that is why all my sensory bins can be created in less than 10 minutes!

They’re all budget-friendly and low-prep, mostly using items you already have lying around your home or classroom.

Pin text reads, Farm Sensory Bin Ideas 5 minute farm preschool activities for busy moms and teachers! Image of 3 farm sensory bins, dyed rice, homemade mud, feed animals.

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I created these different farm animal sensory bin ideas to give you some different options when teaching your little ones about farms. They are all easy and quick to set up, ranging from 10 minute prep, to just 2 minutes! Get your little one’s feeding their farm animals, washing them, and setting up the fields into pens for them. And, all the while, they are having fun experiencing their sense of touch, smell, sound, sight, and, for some, taste.

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Farm Sensory Play on the Tuff Tray

Edible Sensory Play Activities

Edible Ocean Sensory Bin

Pin text reads, low prep farm sensory bin, 5 minutes set up! Image is of a farm animal washing sensory bin with homemade mud, a basin of soapy water, some cereal and farm animals and truck.

Washing Muddy Farm Animals

This 5 minute sensory bin is great for little one’s who love washing and cleaning things.

I made some homemade mud with flour, cocoa powder, and water mixed together until it formed the consistency I wanted. Some would call this a taste-safe mud as it uses food ingredients, however health authorities advise against eating anything with raw flour in it. You can cook and then cool the flour prior to this activity to kill off any bacteria (or just make sure your little one doesn’t eat it).

I tipped the mud into one side of the sensory bin and then added some crunchy cereal that could be mixed in for texture.

Then I popped in a bowl of soapy water and a cloth and towel for cleaning and drying the animals.

This was another popular activity both for my own kids and the little one’s I childmind.

Pin text reads, super easy famr sensory bin and has images above and below the writing of the farm sensory bin that has 3 cardboard boxes with the tops and one side cut off to make stables for the farm animal figures and some shredded paper used as straw for bedding, and a little trough made of cardboard box with some oats in it.

Feed the Farm Animals in the Barn

Ready in 5 minutes, this is another favourite farm sensory bin of mine!

I found 3 old carboard boxes and cut their tops and one side of them off to make stables. Then I added in some yellow and brown shredded paper for the animals straw bedding.

To make the little food trough, I just cut a small cardboard box that I got a bottle of medicine in. I then added some oats for the animals food.

Lastly, I added in the little farm animals, farmers, and a wheelbarrow to transport the food about (or use for clearing out the barn!)

Pin text reads, Feed farm animals sensory bin, feed farm animals free printable. Image shows 4 bottles with animal faces stuck on with holes cut out for mouth in a sensory bin with rice crispies and spoons.

Feed the Farm Animals Sensory Bin

If it’s an edible farm sensory bin you’re looking for to help your little one with their fine motor skills, then this Feed the Farm Animals sensory bin is for you!

Simply click the pink download button to grab my free printable animal faces (6 animals included). Then cut them out and cut out their mouths (black oval). Now stick these faces over the top of a plastic bottle, or a kitchen roll tube, and pop them into your sensory bin. Pour in some rice crispies, or other cereal of choice, and add a few different sized spoons or scoops.

This makes a great independent activity for toddlers and preschoolers to get on with (as long as you are in the room supervising). It’s self-explanatory so you can leave them to figure out what to do with it. Great for encouraging their imagination.

I love that this fun fine-motor skills activity is also taste-safe. So great for peace of mind if you have a toddler who likes to explore their sense of taste in all play activities.

Pin text reads, low prep farm sensory bin, prep in under 10 minutes and image shows a farm set up with dyed rice for pond, field and mud for pigs.

Build Your Own Farmyard

This fun farmyard sensory play only took me about 10 minutes to make in total. However, you do need to leave an hour or two for the rice to dry, so this is a good one to prep the night before!

Great for teaching a farm theme at preschool, this sensory bin is just animal figures, fences, and dyed rice! Nice and simple, yet effective!

To make the rice, I just mixed some rice with food coloring in a mixing jug until I got the color I wanted. Then I spread it out on some baking parchment on top of a baking tray and left it to dry overnight. It takes a couple of hours to dry so I just left it overnight to be sure it was completely dry, and to avoid little fingers touching it during the day while it was still wet.

Once the rice is dry, you can start setting up. I used blue for the duck pond, green for the cows and sheep field, and brown for the pig’s mud!

Pin text reads, low-prep farm sensory bin, prep in 2 minutes! Image of farm animals and truck with cereal, there is weetabix for fences and cheerios on the floor of the bin.

Last-Minute Farm Sensory Bin

Looking for last-minute farm sensory bin ideas you can set up in 2 minutes? This one’s for you!

Just grab your farm animals and trucks, some Weetabix for fences and some cheerio’s or oats for a ground covering and you’re good to go!

Sometimes the simplest ideas work out the best and this is one of those! It kept my toddlers busy for half an hour at a time and I brought it out on numerous occasions.

I also love that it’s taste-safe so I don’t have to be hovering over them making sure none goes in their mouth! (Still, I did keep watch from the same room though, because let’s face it, toddlers need a close eye!)

Pin text reads, Low-Prep Harvest Farm Sensory Bin and shows image of farming tuff tray idea

Harvest Farming Sensory Bin

Celebrating harvest time and looking for a fun sensory play activity to match the theme? This one’s for you!

I used cocoa pops for the soil and carrot tops for the vegetables to be collected in the tractor. Porridge oats worked well for a field of wheat or barley, and some brown rice for the pigs mud! Weetabix cereal made great play straw for the animals when crumbled up, and the bricks made good hay bales for fencing.

The wooden farm animals and farmers came from an adorable little wooden farm set, similar to this one from Amazon.

I really hope these easy farm animal sensory bin activities have filled you with inspiration and confidence to create your own for your kids!