Baby Bins: Zoo

This week we learned all about elephants, giraffes, monkeys and more with our zoo themed baby bins. We had so much fun exploring sensory bins and creating crafts this week as we learned about zoo animals.

These zoo themed sensory bins and activities are great for learning and play and are completely baby safe. Baby Bins are the perfect way to learn, build language, play and explore with little ones between 12-24 months old.

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Here is a look at our 6 animal themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

"Dear Zoo" by Rod Campbell is a well loved staple in our board book collection. With adorable animals, flaps to lift, and a surprise ending I’m sure your little ones will love this book just as much as we do. These Baby Bin plans are perfect for learning with little ones between 12-24 months old.

Zoo Theme Read Aloud:

This week’s book, Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is a well loved staple in our board book collection so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include one of our favorites as the focus read aloud for baby bins. With adorable animals, flaps to lift, and a surprise ending I’m sure your little ones will love this book just as much as we do.

Build a Zoo Sensory Bin:

In this bin: black beans, alphabet zoo animals, plastic fences, trees

This zoo sticker sort activity is such a simple way to work on colors and sorting and also get in some great fine motor practice. Baby Bins are perfect for learning with little ones between 12-24 months old.

Zoo Sticker Sorts:

Peeling stickers is always a challenge with this age group, but it is so great for building fine motor skills and concentration. So for this activity, I grabbed a bag full of foam animal stickers and drew colored circles on a few sheets of paper. Aubrey worked hard to peel the backing from the colored animals, with help from me, and then sorted them into the correct color zoo exhibit.

This zoo sensory bath is a fun way to expand sensory play beyond the regular sensory bin and is completely baby safe. These Baby Bin plans are perfect for learning with little ones between 12-24 months old.

Zoo Bath Sensory Play:

In this bin: zoo animal puppets, water, bubble bath

So originally this bin was going to be just that, a sensory bin. But we were having quite the cranky morning and whenever I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts and renew my patience, a mid day bath usually does the trick. So instead of giving our zoo puppets a bath in a sensory bin, we jumped in the tub and washed them in the bubble bath. So don’t be afraid to put your own twist on any of these activities. You know your kids and what they like best so run with it whenever possible!

Zoo Puzzle Hunt:

In this bin: black beans, Melissa & Doug Safari Puzzle

Aubrey loves puzzles so now that she is over 2 most of our chunky puzzles are really pretty easy for her. But Puzzles + Sensory Bins = new life for old puzzles. Adding the hide and seek factor makes puzzles exciting enough to hold her attention again even when they are pretty simple.

Giraffe Finger Paint:

For a fun craft this week, we created this finger paint giraffe. First, I cut out the giraffe outline and mane pieces. Next, Aubrey dipped her finger in brown paint and stamped on the giraffe to create spots. Then she attempted making snips with a scissors along the brown giraffe’s mane piece to create texture. Finally, with help from me she glued the mane behind the giraffe’s head, added googly eyes to the face and taped 2 pipe cleaners behind the head for horns.

Want all of this week’s animal themed activities for baby bins? You can grab them here:
On my site : Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}
On TpT: Baby Bins: Animals {Plans and Printables}

Tons of animal themed activities and ideas. Weekly plans include a book and 5 activities to try out (a mixture of sensory bins, crafts, fine motor and gross motor activities)! These Baby Bin plans are perfect for learning with little ones between 12-24 months old.

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Baby Bin Bundle On TpT here: Baby Bin Bundle

A full year of Baby Bin plans and printables, perfect for learning with little ones between 12-24 months old. Weekly plans include a book and 5 activities to try out (a mixture of sensory bins, crafts, fine motor and gross motor activities)!

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Baby Bins Curriculum Main Page.