Easy DIY Colored Salt + Rainbow Salt Sensory Bin

Sensory bins shouldn’t have to be complicated! You can make easy DIY colored salt in just minutes and then you have amazing materials for lots of sensory play.

There’s loads of activities you can do with colored salt, but fellow blogger Emma from Adventures of Adam decided to make this enjoyable rainbow salt sensory bin! This post contains affiliate links.

Easy DIY Colored Salt

We have recently discovered the wonders of colored salt. It is so easy to make. Simply grate chalk on top of table salt and stir. Seriously. That is it! No more waiting for food coloring to dry.

Within a few moments I had created five containers of different colored salt – red, blue, violet, green and yellow.

It seemed the perfect opportunity to create a Rainbow Salt Sensory Bin. (Although I have to say, we love doing salt writing and drawing, too!)

Rainbow Salt Sensory Bin

Making a rainbow salt sensory bin is really quite easy! I made an arch in the center of our green storage box using violet colored salt. I simply poured out the salt slowly from the container and used a paint brush to push any stray pieces back into the arch.

I repeated the process using the blue, green, yellow and finally red colored salt. In no time at all I had created our Salt Rainbow.

I was surprised by how long my son admired the salt rainbow for. Usually he dives straight into a sensory bin. However, he took time to look at our handy work. Although I had placed a variety of fine motor tools next to the sensory bin, he opted to use his hands to explore the colored salt.

As soon as his hands touched the bin he wanted to combine the colors of the rainbow. Within a few seconds our salt rainbow was no more. Instead we had a beautifully colored salt sensory bin.

My son spent ages scooping up the salt and watching it fall between his fingers. He enjoyed pushing the salt around the sensory bin to create different color combinations.

He tried to move the salt around using the same actions with both hands. He swirled his hands in a clockwise then counter clockwise formation.

He then discovered that he could form letters within the colored sand. He wrote his name several times before shaking the box gently to make the letters “disappear.”

After 45 minutes of play the salt had turned to an almost grey color. My son then turned his attention to the Handy Scooper from our Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set. He discovered that once he had scooped up the salt he could shake the salt out of the small holes in the purple container.

Our Rainbow Salt Sensory Bin was a huge hit. I can’t wait to explore different ways to play with our colored salt.

Find more Spring Sensory Activities on The Jenny Evolution!

About Emma: During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with her toddler as part of that promise. Emma, who is a trainedPrimary School Teacher, has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.