Last Updated on October 19, 2025 by Sheryl Cooper
Inside: You will love this easy gingerbread sensory bin for toddlers and preschoolers! Super easy to put together, lots of fun to play with. Win, win!
I love the gingerbread man theme, but I think my students love it even more.
They love acting out the story using our props, then pretending to be the gingerbread boy running in the gym.
When I planned for this theme, I wanted our gingerbread sensory bin to be hands-on, fun, too.
I found the right materials to make it that way!
Related: Kinetic Sand Gingerbread Man Sensory Bin
Watch the Video
Easy Gingerbread Sensory Bin for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Supplies
- Red and green dyed rice (see below)
- Gingerbread man bendables
- Gingerbread man boxes
- Gingerbread houses
- Scoops
These are what we had when I put this sensory bin together. What you have might be a bit different, and that is fine!
Also, I purchased paper mache houses from Amazon and sadly they are no longer available, nor can I find a replacement. I ended up linking them to some I found with a different company.
I got everything set up before the classroom door opened. We read our first gingerbread book before opening centers time.
We also had a gingerbread house holiday gift box that I added, and I cannot find anything like it on Amazon. So, use what you have!
When it was centers time, this Christmas gingerbread sensory play activity was an immediate hit. First they wanted to fill the gingerbread house with rice.
How to Dye Rice
- Grab a gallon sized plastic baggie that can be sealed.
- Pour about a cup of rice inside the bag.
- Add about a teaspoon of white vinegar.
- Add as much coloring as desired. (I love using Wilton icing color!)
- Seal the bag and shake until the rice is coated well.
- Open the bag and dump the rice onto a paper towel, spreading it out so it’s a very thin layer.
- Allow to dry thoroughly.
If you want to have different colors of rice, do the above procedure for each color and then, when dry, mix the colors.
Once you have your rice, just add desired accessories to the sensory bin and you are ready to go!
If you want more inspiration, check out these other dyed rice sensory bins we’ve loved:
And then they started playing with the little gingerbread figures.
They decided to see if they could fit all 12 in one of the gingerbread man boxes. They counted them as they placed them inside.
They couldn’t all fit inside, so then they placed one gingerbread boy figure inside each cardboard gingerbread boy box. 1:1 correspondence!
Then I noticed the preschoolers lining them up along the edge of the sensory bin. More counting and figuring out that they all weren’t completely the same.
You can see a video of our preschoolers actually playing with this on Instagram.
We will expand on this activity with some gingerbread man cookie baking tomorrow!
Gingerbread Man Books
- The Gingerbread Man (Easy to Read Folktales)
- Gingerbread Baby (Jan Brett)
- How to Catch a Gingerbread Man (Adam Wallace)
- Ten Tiny Gingerbread Men (Tiger Tales)
Gingerbread Theme Activities
We love starting the Christmas season with a gingerbread theme! There are so many fun activities out there, just perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.
See more here: How to Put Together a Gingerbread Theme
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Fun activity with so much learning!!!
Thank you, Lena!