Super Mario Sensory Bin

Super Mario Bros. is a favored play topic for Bear {5.5 yrs} right now.  I found little Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool figurines at a local consignment shop for a couple bucks awhile ago.  Bear loves to play with them.  One night, I was chatting with a friend, and all of a sudden, it hit me… an awesome way to extend his play….  A Super Mario Bros. sensory bin!!

I was able to do some of the prep work in front of Bear without him being able to guess what I was doing.  I painted the tubes and the yellow stars around him.  He even helped me build the Lego castle.

But by the time, I started making the little mushroom guys, he knew it had something to do with Super Mario.

Once he saw the whole sensory bin put together, he flipped out, jumped up and down, and shouted how awesome it was.  He said it was even better than the board game sensory bin and the firefighter sensory bin {which are his two favorites}.

What I used:
2- 2lb bags of elbow macaroni
Super Mario Bros. figures
3 toilet paper rolls
wooden stars
wooden handmade mushrooms
paper mustaches
shiny red craft pom poms
wooden cubes
plastic coins
brown castle made from Legos

How I did it:
The two bags of macaroni were the base for the bin.  Aside from the plastic Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool figurines, plastic gold coins, and paper mustaches, I had to prepare everything else.  I was originally going to cut out the mustaches out of black felt, but found cardstock gift tags for 99 cents and figured it was easier to go that route.  We built the castle from brown Legos. I painted flat wooden stars yellow and used a permanent marker to draw eyes on the bigger ones.  The brick blocks are small 3/4″ wooden cubes painted brown with the cement lines drawn in permanent marker. I painted 3 toilet paper rolls green like the tubes that Mario goes in and out of.  {You could also use pvc pipe pieces spray painted green}  And then the shiny red craft pom poms are supposed to be the fireballs that Mario and Luigi spit out when they get the fire power flower.  You can see how I made the wooden mushrooms here.  I also gave him white gloves like Mario and Luigi wear to use  while he played, but he opted not to wear them.

It’s been a few days and Bear has played with it every day since.  It’s so neat to sit and watch the mini-stories he plays out with the characters and bin pieces.  His little imagination is definitely getting a work out!

You can find more fun sensory bin ideas from myself and lots of other bloggers on my Sensory Bin Pinterest board.