Cozy and Colorful Sensory Box Ideas for Kids

Looking for a fun, hands-on activity to engage your kids this fall? A sensory box using colored noodles is the perfect DIY project that’s both creative and budget-friendly! Using simple ingredients from your pantry, you can create a vibrant sensory experience that sparks imagination, helps develop fine motor skills, and provides hours of entertainment. Whether you’re exploring autumn colors, textures, or even pretend play, this fall-themed sensory box will keep little hands busy and minds engaged. Let’s dive into some easy ideas to get started!

To get started we need to color our noodles

You can use whatever shape of noodles you would like. We just used what we had in our pantry for this. To color your noodle you will need:

• Red, yellow and green food coloring
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Dry Noodles (I used 1 whole box for our)
• Ziplock bags

How to color your noodles-

1. Start with separating your noodles into ziplock bags.
2. Pour a splash of rubbing alcohol into each ziplock bag.
3. Add 10-12 drops of food coloring into the bags.
4. Seal the bag and squish everything around to coat all the noodles.
5. Once everything is covered let them dry in an even layer on paper towels. I like to let mine sit for an hour so I can make sure they are nice and dry.
6. Once they are dry I mix all the colored noodles together and store in a gallon size ziplock bag.

Ways we used our noodles for sensory box play-

We used these fall inspired colored noodles in so many different ways to play. Here’s how we played.

Hide-n-seek sensory box:

This was my 1 year olds first time playing with a sensory box. We took a bigger bin, hid favorite puzzle pieces and covered them up with the noodles. He loved moving the noodles to find his puzzle pieces to place them on the board. However he also enjoyed just playing with the noodles. He tried to eat some so if you’re doing this with little ones keep an close eye on them.

Counting Acorns

Inside our bucket of leaves we added acorns to count to use with our printables. Where can you find acorns? I found the ones we use at the Dollar Tree in the fall decor. Or if you are lucky to live in an area with lots of acorns go on an adventure to have the kids find 10! However if you can’t find any here are some that you can cut and hide in your box.

I have created two fun pdf files that you can download free below. These files will help counting to 5 and counting to 10!

Flash cards:

These are a great learning tool to help with counting to 5. My 3 year old really enjoys the counting games when we make sensory boxes. Hide some acorns in the noodles and then find them to place on the flash card. This helps with counting and number recognition.

Let’s count acorns sensory box:

This is a count to 10 activity sheet. Hide 10 acorns in the noodles and let your little one find them with their fingers or their favorite tools. We used our pinch tongs to help with fine motor skills to help build those finger muscles for future writing but also to help with her cutting at preschool.

Looking for more fall sensory box ideas? Check out more from our blog here.

We also have a Pinterest folder filled with tons of ideas for all year!

We hope you enjoy October themed sensory boxes! Let us know in the comments your favorite fall activity.