Taste Safe Sensory Table Ideas for Your Child

I finally got my hands on an ikea sensory table and knew I wanted to start creating sensory bins for Mackenzie to play with. You don’t need a sensory table to do sensory bins, you just need a bin or a bowl!

Mackenzie is someone who likes to put things in her mouth, so I knew I wanted to create taste safe sensory bins so she could enjoy & safely play with different textures & things.

I decided to try out 5 taste safe sensory bins with Mackenzie over the past two weeks. They’re super simple to put together:

1. Cheerio Sand: It’s super easy to make this cheerio sand! All you have to do is out cheerios into a food processor and get it to the consistency you want! Pour it into a bin and let your child play. You can leave it just as is and let your child explore the sand on its own or you can put cups or spoons for scooping.

2. Oats: This sensory bin really couldn’t be any simpler! Pour a container of oats in a bin or a bowl and thats all you need! You can add things for scooping or pouring or hide animals under the oats for your little one to find! Can be messy, but super easy to vacuum up!

3. Chia Seed: To create the chia seed slime, I had to prep it the day before and had Mackenzie help me. She poured the water into the container and helped me mix. I added the food coloring and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This can get REALLY messy and isn’t super easy to clean up, but it can be super fun for your child to play with and it’s safe if they eat it! To create the chia seed slime, you’ll need 1 cup of chia seeds & 2 cups of water. Add food coloring if you want & let it sit overnight.

4. Colored Spaghetti: I cooked spaghetti with the directions that are on the box and then split the spaghetti into different ziploc bags. I added a different color into each bag and created all different colored pasta. The next step is SO IMPORTANT. You must rinse all the colored pasta so it doesn’t dye your hands. Once it’s rinsed & cooled it’s ready to be played with. i just put it in a bin and let Mackenzie play with it. She did eat a few pieces, but that’s why we’ve been playing with taste safe sensory bins!

5. Ice Animal Rescue: This one is another one that needs to be prepped a few hours or the day before. I took some glass containers and placed some animals in a small amount of water and then placed the containers in the freezer. Once the animals were stuck in the ice I took the ice blocks out of the glass containers and placed them in one side of the sensory table. The other side had lukewarm water and a cup to scoop and pour the water over the ice blocks.

Hope you and your little one find these sensory bins as fun as we did!

Let me know your favorite sensory bins to do with your child!