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I’ve said a million times, we love sensory play at our house. Henry could play in the sensory bins for hours. He has so much concentration and I can just see his mind working. This is one of our favorite sensory play bins. I busted it out a few years ago with Charlie and Maggie and it is a hit every single time.

Materials

Styrofoam block – any size is fine, I usually get a rectangle one but this time I only had a square one laying around.

Golf tees {I found a huge bag for a quarter or something at a garage sale a few years ago and finally put it to good use}.

Toy hammer – older kids could use a real hammer if you want to get a little crazy.

That’s it. Let them play. Give them the materials, maybe show them what to do with one or two golf tees and let them explore. Henry loves to pound a bunch of golf tees in and then use the claw and try to pull them out. So far, he hasn’t managed to get them out, I end up helping him. Then he starts over. It’s a great activity for working on hand-eye coordination and what kid doesn’t love to hit things with a hammer?!

I’m not sure which picture I love more – the first one with that giant grin or this one where you can see the total focus and see his mind working.

Want to add to the fun? Give them some marbles or cotton balls to put on top of each golf tee.

You can sit with them as they are working and talk about the different colors or how some golf tees are longer than others, how many they have nailed into the block, etc..

BONUS IDEA: Now that Charlie and Maggie are a little older {5 and 7}, during the summer we will take a board we have laying around and start a few nails in, then let them hammer them in the rest of the way with a real hammer. A little more dangerous and requires more supervision but tons of fun as they get a little older.

When we aren’t using it, we store it in one of our sensory bin containers. Want more sensory bin ideas? Check out our ultimate sensory bin list.