Bible sensory bins for sunday school and homeschool Bible

I’ve been brainstorming some ideas recently of different Bible lesson ideas I could create. I’ve got my two year Bible curriculum, but I want to expand that. One idea I’ve been playing around with is Bible sensory bins. Since that is my new fascination I dove into the black hole of searching up Bible sensory bins and seeing what people do with this. Here are some ideas I’ve gathered

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What I’m looking for in a Bible sensory bin

I was never particularly successful with sensory bins with my kids, my few attempts ended with a giant mess.

So, when I looked at different Bible sensory bins here are my criteria:

Biblical- I don’t just want random Bible-ish bins, I want to tie them to a specific Bible passage or concept
Not too messy- I want to be able to recommend something you won’t hate cleaning up, so easily swept up or vacuumed up if it spills out of the bin (no glitter).
Not expensive- I want items to be able to be used across several bins, obviously some items will be specific or be consumed, but I don’t want to suggest something that will have someone spending $10 a week to create a cool sensory bin

Here are a few of the things I’m gathering to start making Bible sensory bins

He Lives Finger Puppets and Nativity Story finger puppets– most of the figures from these sets can be used in several different stories. If you have it the Little People nativity set or the Little People Noah’s ark set would also be great.
Land Animal Toys and Sea Animal Toys– I bought these because there are so many stories involving animals, and I liked that the sea animal set came with some plants, another useful thing. If I still had preschoolers I would probably put in lots of Little People Zoo animals (I’m sorry we gave that set away) or Duplo animals.
Dyed Rice– Because this feels cool to run your fingers through.
Easter grass– I bought this on clearance after Easter (that tells you how long I’ve been musing on this).
Crinkle shredded paper– Also bought on clearance after various holidays.
Play dough– I’m on the fence with this one because leaving it out could make such a mess, but I’ve also seen some really cool Bible sensory bins using playdough.
blocks– There’s a few cool ideas I have using blocks.

I’m still brainstorming more ideas of things to put in and keep on hand for this. I know I need a small boat, and maybe a few other things.

Old Testament Bible Sensory Bins

Creation sensory bin– planning through a Creation unit is what got me started on all of this
Noah’s ark sensory bin or this Noah’s ark sensory bin without food
10 Plagues sensory bin– I’m trying to decide how I feel about sand in sensory bins….. Non food Plagues sensory bin
Israelites in the Desert sensory bin– I kind of like the idea of an edible sensory bin, but probably not one you could do at church
Psalms 119 sensory bin
Daniel in the Lion’s Den sensory bin

I’ve done a bunch of searching, but I haven’t found that many Bible sensory bins, there are several variations on some fun sensory bins for a few stories, but I was sad to not see any for a whole slew of great Bible stories.

New Testament Bible Sensory Bins

Again, there is a whole slew of Nativity sensory bins, and several for different parables, but there is a whole slew of Bible stories I can’t wait to start thinking of what I’ll do for it.