Messy play is always so much fun with preschoolers! I find that when our sensory play is a little out of the box and intriguing, more of my preschoolers who may normally shy away from getting messy, join in. Our pigs in the mud sensory bin was super messy, but so easy to set up! It also allowed my preschoolers to help, which they loved. We put together the pigs in the mud sensory bin during our farm theme. Our focus seemed to center around pigs. We read silly pig stories, painted pigs with curly tails, and even pretended to roll around in the mud. The sensory bin was my favorite learning activity!
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Pigs in the Mud Sensory Bin
This sensory bin could not be easier to put together!
- potting soil (or real dirt!)
- water
- plastic pigs
- plastic container with lid
Over the summer, I found bags of organic potty soil on clearance at Target. I grabbed 2 and have stored them in my garage since! Our sensory bin was the perfect reason to use one of the bags of potting soil!
I poured the potting soil into our large plastic bin that we use in my classroom for some of our sensory play. We talked about how dirt becomes mud and I asked my preschoolers what we should do to our dirt.
The answer was WATER!
I let my preschoolers take turns pouring water from a pitcher and stirring up the water into the dirt.
When we thought there was enough water added to make the perfect mud for our pigs, I added all the plastic pigs I could find into our mud. We also threw in some fences from our farm toys. You can see that they were pushed to the side after the play started. The pigs were the main focus of fun!
Some of my preschoolers put their hands right into the mud and ignored the pigs altogether.
Some preschoolers used the pigs at first to work up the courage to play in the mud too.
Some used the pigs and got as dirty as possible!
There was not one 3 year-old in either of my classes who stayed away though! No matter how my preschoolers started playing, they all ended up dirty and muddy almost up to their elbows.
I set up the sensory bin inside the classroom with a container of soapy water next to the mud. When the kid were finished playing in the mud, they rinsed their hands off in the soapy water and dried them with a towel – all by themselves. Sensory play, responsibility, and independence all in one!
You don’t want to miss out on any of our other sensory play ideas – find them all here!
Totally totally love this – I've got a bag of pond compost which has been loitering in the shed unused and which would be perfect for it. Just need a sunny day to try out 🙂
Perfect!