Meaning of Easter Sensory Bin

This year I've had a lot of fun "crafting" sensory bins for my two toddlers.  With time to craft in very short supply around here, it's allowed me to use my creative side with our homeschooling to make something fun, but also educational.  My latest version was created specifically for this week:  Meaning of Easter Sensory Bin.

I'd seen a number of cute "Easter" themed versions with the usually chicks, bunnies and eggs, but nothing that really included anything Christian or Jesus-related.  That's the point of Easter, right?  So, I put my thinking cap on to create one!

My starting point was this cute sets of finger puppets (disclosure I carry these in my shop here).  It has all the key figures of the Easter story - Jesus, the Marys, the angel, a solider, John & Peter, in soft silicone:

I used a piece of wool felt for the ground in our bin.  I got this faux rock cave at the pet store in the fish section to use as a tomb.  The hole is the perfect size for the figures and there's also a hole in the bottom to make it easier to get them in & out and, since it's meant for fish (that are sensitive to chemicals just like little kids), it's also non-toxic:

I found a cool 40 pc set of rock blocks here that came in lots of colors and sizes.  The biggest was just the right size to roll in front of the tomb opening.  

The blocks stack really well and can be sorted in many ways, so they add a lot of sensory action.  I'd also recommend this particular set as they are choke-test and non-toxic certified.  There are a lot of cheaper sets out there that aren't, and seem to be smaller, so I didn't think it was worth taking a chance on to save a couple of bucks.

A 4 inch wooden handheld cross (also from my shop), was the perfect scale for our figures too.   Surrounding the cross with some rock blocks keeps it upright too.  

A few different sized plastic eggs are ideal for putting the figures inside, as well as some paper shred style Easter grass to add some more interesting texture and additional places 

to hide them.

Besides being fun with colorful shapes and textures, it's a nice way to give my little ones some holiday-themed play and introduce them to the Easter story in a way they can understand.

Happy Easter!