Rainbow Pouring Station Sensory Bin for Kids

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Rainbow Pouring Station is one of those amazing sensory bin activities that your kids will absolutely love. And so will you! Why? It’s easy to set up, great for indoor or outdoor play and it involves one of the best sensory bin fillers around: water!

Rainbow Pouring Station Sensory Bin for Kids

Sensory Bins

When it comes to setting up an activity for all three of my kids, sensory bins are my go to. They are easy, can be aged up or down depending on your needs and allow my kids to play together. I also like them because they promotes other key skills like, sharing, negotiating as well as problem solving skills. All skills required who playing with siblings of different ages.

I set up this sensory bin yesterday after school and my son got super excited as soon as he saw it. I saved it for after dinner and they played together while I cleaned up after our meal! At 4, 4 and 7, getting my kids to play independently isn’t as much of a challenge as it was when they were younger. But if you are at that stage where getting your toddler or preschooler to play independently is a challenge, give this sensory bin a try! I find these types of water sensory activities are great for promoting independent play.

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Looking for more Rainbow Activities? Check out these fun ideas:

My Favourite Books About Rainbows

How to Set Up A Rainbow Pouring Station

For this sensory bin I used up all our beakers, test tubes and Erlenmeyer flasks that I had purchased for a science themed Valentines Day sensory bin, where they made love potions. These items have been in heavy rotation ever since (mostly in the bath) and I knew that they would be perfect for this sensory bin.

You will want to find as many clear plastic containers of various sizes as you can. But if they aren’t clear no worries, this activity will still be fun!

For each colour of the rainbow I used between 2-3 containers. For the colour, I used washable non-toxic kids paints instead of food colouring. If you are doing this activity with children that still like to put things into mouths I would use a small amount of food colouring instead to create this rainbow pouring station.

Making the Rainbow Pouring Station with Paint

Into each container, add a drop or two of paint and then fill it up with water, mix it around with a spoon to ensure all the paint has dissolved. The more paint you add the more vibrant the colours but also the messier the activity becomes. I stuck with just a drop and the colours were still amazing.

Place all the containers into the sensory bin. I also added a few empty containers for pouring and mixing and invited my kids to play!

Keeping The Mess Down

To help keep the mess down, I lay an old towel underneath the sensory bin. I also reminded my kids of the number one rule of sensory bins; Everything Stays in the sensory bin. At their age I don’t need to remind them not to put tings into their mouths but if you have young children you should remind them of this rule as well as keep an eye on them.

They did a fantastic job of keeping all the pouring in the bin and only pouring it on themselves a small bit. This sensory bin was easy to clean up. I simply grab everything and rinsed it out in the sink once they were done.

My favourite supplies for this sensory bin

How they Played with the Rainbow Pouring Station

There is no set way to play with this activity. My kids immediately decided that they were going to try and make brown. I talked to them about mixing colours and how they can make green, purple and orange.

I also talked about how when you mix colours that are far from eachother on the rainbow they tend to make brown faster than if you mix colours that close to each other. For instance, mixing rend and purples will definitely make a brownish colour where as mixing red and orange will make a lovely sunny colour!

They had a blast testing out the mixing and coming up with new colors. We talked about the names of these different colours like turquoise, crimson, coral, aquamarine, forest green, lime green and cyan, and many of shades!

About half way through they asked for more colours and since it was so easy to make it and we have tons of paint that was not a problem. I also had to dump the sensory bin of the excess water that had spilt out as they were pouring into the sink.

Age Suitability

This activity is great for kids 2 years and up. My kids are 4, 4, and 7 year old.

Supplies for Rainbow Pouring Station

(This post and list contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. Please visit my disclosure policy for more information.)

Sensory bin
Water
Various clear plastic containers of different sizes
Washable non-toxic paint or food colouring

Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids

Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.

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Make quiet time their favourite time!

Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.

My Sensory Play Kits are a fun and easy way to keep your child engaged while at the same time capitalizing on the benefits of sensory play to nurture their mind!