The Easiest Halloween Themed Sensory Bin: No Prep Required

Briesha Bell
Oct 17, 2021
5 min read

Updated: Sep 28, 2025

Halloween Bin for kids. Contents include black and orange beans, candy erasers, bats, spider rings, an eyeball, squishy toys, and mini trick or treat buckets. All toys are Halloween colors.

Some people think of Halloween as just another commercial holiday! Okay, maybe that's partially true. But, Halloween is also one of the best holidays to incorporate sensory-based activities with kids.

While wandering the grocery store, I discovered an alternative to dyeing rice this Halloween. The best part? There's absolutely no prep required, which means you won't have to spend nap time prepping a toddler activity!

Plus, all the supplies are super affordable! This has hands down become my favorite sensory bin activity for toddlers and is one the top favorites amongst the kids I babysit. Keep reading to find out how you can recreate this easy Halloween sensory bin for your little one in no time!

📋 Supply List

Transparent Sensory Bin
Black Beans
Red Lentil Beans
Halloween Themed Math Counters
Mini Candy Buckets or Cauldrons
Squishy Accessories
Miscellaneous Halloween Accessories
Measuring Cups (optional)
Scooper (optional)

⚠️ Note: I've tried this activity with kids ranging from ages 2-6. While it goes without saying, I'm saying it anyway, adult supervision is required.

🎃 Step 1: Dump Halloween Themed Math Counters into Sensory Bin

First, designate an accessory that has lots of pieces as your "counters." Then, dump the counters into the sensory bin. While any type of sensory bin will work, I do recommend going with a transparent container.

For many years, Target was notorious for selling seasonally themed tiny erasers in the dollar section. They actually make for terrible erasers, but they're awesome as sensory play accessories.

Unfortunately, for the past couple years, I haven't found any retailers selling these type of erasers. The good news is, you can use any array of small pieces as counters. Michael's sells small containers of Halloween Decorative Filler for about $5 (pretend flies, bones, and skulls).

But, chances are you have a set of counters around the house already. Here are some ideas to help identify your counters or for making your own:

Rainbow Bears
Transparent Round Counters (think: Bingo pieces)
Small LEGO Pieces
LEGO Mini Figs
K'Nex Pieces
Pouch Caps
Board Game Pieces
Barbie Accessories
Toddler Hair Ties
Loose Parts (Acorns)
Beads
Cut tiny pieces of pipe cleaners into "counters"

👻 Step 2: Add in Squishy Halloween Toys

Kids seem to truly engage with squishy and stretchy toys. Some kiddos refer to the purple and blue figures as worms and some call them caterpillars. With that said, I have no clue why they have bear faces, but they are a hit!

Toddlers love a variety of tactile toys mixed in sensory bins- after all, it's kinda what sensory bins are all about! Thankfully, these are quite easy to find at stores like Walgreens, Target, and Michael's.

Although these additions might seem pretty lame, having a mix of squishy, stretchy, and other sensory accessories support cognitive flexibility. Jeez louise, that was a lot of "s" words!

🦇 Step 3: Add Additional Spooky Accessory Toys

Toddler hands playing with many different spooky Halloween themed toys and accessories in a sensory bin.

Next, you're going to want to add in a bunch of random Halloween tinker toys. I bought the pom-poms from Dollar General during a post-Halloween clearance sale.

Small spiders, bats, and finger puppets were in a pack that I found at Wegmans. If you can find a pack with little finger puppets, they are nice to have. I've watched kids place them on their fingers and narrate story lines with them (read: they keep kids occupied even longer).

🫘 Step 4: Pour Black Beans & Red Lentil Beans Over the Tinker Toys

🤯 Who knew that red lentils appear orange uncooked?

I was mind-blown to discover this and stoked because it meant I landed on the perfect ingredient to create a no-prep Halloween sensory bin!

All you need is one pack of red lentils and one pack of black beans to fill one personal sensory bin.

Now you're ready to rip open those black and "red" lentils and dramatically pour in the beans, covering all the toys. By dramatically, I just mean slowly, kids get a kick out of this part!

🪣 Step 5: Add Mini Trick-or-Treat Buckets

Halloween themed sensory bin for toddlers full of Halloween color themed toys and beans.

Mini buckets are optional, but it's handy for kids to have a temporary place where they can drop all the counter pieces and hidden goodies they find along the way. You can also offer kiddos a small bowl, a clear laundry detergent lid, or a variety of other household materials that elevate play!

🔎 Challenge: Ask Child to Find a Specific Number of Items

Toddler's hand removes counters from a Halloween themed sensory bin and places it inside a mini trick-or-treat bucket.

Every time I've done this activity with toddlers, they naturally progress into practicing their counting aloud. You can lean into this by challenging little ones to collect a specific number of counters in each bucket/container or a specific numbers of any of the additional accessories you've mixed into the bin.

🌟 Reactions from Kiddos

Whenever I pour the beans over the counters and tinker toys, 2-year-olds are usually genuinely perplexed at where the toys went. Meanwhile, 3 year-olds find it to be super silly and are full of smiles.

I've had kids ask, “where the toys go?”

I just kinda go along with it by saying something like, “Maybe they disappeared. Or maybe they’re under the beans, can you see if you can find a ghost?"

They then spend 5 min sorting through the beans to find the object. Often, they forget what they're supposed to be looking for and get lost in their own play. Twenty minutes later, they stumble upon the ghost and are super excited to show you as they shout, "I found ghost!"

Overall, kids have so much fun with this activity. It typically keeps them occupied for 30-40 min (minimum).

🎓 Can a Toddler Learn Anything From Playing in a Halloween Themed Sensory Bin?

Absolutely! In addition to counting skills, toddlers practice speech as they narrate the play scenarios within their sensory bins. They may also learn new words and practice using them (think: cauldron; skeleton; vampire).

Also, this is an activity that can help kids subconsciously connect the dots between elements of nature (the lentils and beans), play, and mindful memories. Despite this activity being the easiest setup ever, it's still plenty educational.

🧠 Developmental Benefits: fine motor skills; sensory exposure; color recognition; classification and sorting; counting (STEM); language development and storytelling

🫶🏽 Teaches: appreciation for nature; simplicity; resourcefulness

🍚 Can I Just Dye Rice Halloween Themed Colors Instead?

The texture of beans can offer a different tactile experience for kiddos in comparison to rice, as beans and red lentils are smoother to the touch. With that said, feel free to dye rice in Halloween themed colors if you're up for it!

In the past, I've dyed rice purple and orange, mixed in small Halloween themed toys, and thrown it all in a sensory bin— kids loved it! Months later, we ultimately ended up mixing the Halloween batch of rice with other batches of dyed rice in order to make rainbow rice.

This year (and every year since 🤫), I simply haven't been interested in investing the time to dye a new batch of Halloween rice. As cool as it is, I dread the process of actually doing it and waiting for it to dry. And let's be honest here, no one wants to spend nap time dyeing rice (unless it's your first time doing it, that's like the only time it's fun lol).

From carving pumpkins to getting candy corn stuck in their teeth, Halloween is full of opportunities to expose little ones to festive senses and for making mindful memories!

Please leave a comment if you try this activity with your kiddo and what they think of it!