5 Activities You Can Do with Ball Pit Balls

What’s one of the most fun memories of your childhood? I bet it involved ball pits. All kids love ball pits.

Did you know you can get the same kind of balls for your own home so you don’t have to deal with smelly kid feet at McDonald’s or Chuck E. Cheese?

You totally can.

And there’s more than just one use for them! Here are 5 things you can do with ball pit balls.

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1. Make your own ball pit

You don’t have to buy the actual ball pit if you don’t want to. You really just need some balls.

You can fill up your Pack n Play with 200 balls.

If you get 100, they’ll just barely cover the bottom of it. I got 200 and it was just enough to look and feel like a ball pit.

Using different containers to make a ball pit can add novelty to the activity so your toddler feels like it’s something new each time.

If you just use them in a designated ball pit, it might get a little old after the third or fourth time.

But if you put the balls in a cardboard box and then into a laundry basket, it’s suddenly NEW and a different activity! (at least to a toddler)

Other large containers you can use as a ball pit:

• a cardboard box
• a laundry basket
• the bathtub
• a storage bin
• a toy box
• a kiddie pool

2. Throw them into bins or baskets

Get a basket or a bin and set it just far enough away for your toddler to throw the balls into it.

You can use several boxes or baskets in case their aim is off. If you have 3 laundry baskets next to each other it’s bound to go into at least one of them.

One of Toot’s favorite activities is throwing the balls.

I’ve been trying to get her to practice throwing them into her toy bins to work on her gross motor skills.

She prefers to throw them OUT of the Pack n Play, though.

One-year-olds can just try to get the ball into the bins. Two-year-olds and three-year-olds and up can try sorting the colors into specific bins.

Have your toddler or preschooler throw the yellow balls into a yellow bin and the blue ones into a blue bin.

For older kids, you can turn it into a game with different sized containers worth more points.

Or put the containers in a row like the Bozo the Clown bucket game. Remember that? Ahh, the 90s!

3. Play with them in the bath

Grab a few of them for bath time. They float and can easily be scooped up with the water and poured out.

You can turn the ball bit balls into a STEM toy just by talking about the buoyancy and how they float.

The balls are so light they make a cool sound when you throw them into the water.

Toot also likes to throw them out of the tub. Yikes.

The best part about this activity is you don’t really have to plan much. It’s a low prep activity for toddlers because they can just explore and play how they want to.

In the summer, you can use a small kiddie pool with some water and ball pit balls. It’s like a giant sensory bin.

We also use our ball pit balls in our water table in the summer. They fit nicely into the Ferris wheel and they float around in the water.

However, they don’t fit down the spiral slide. But the Ferris wheel is fun!

4. Sort them in a cupcake tin

Ball pit balls fit perfectly in cupcake tins. You can sort them by color or mix in a few shape toys.

We like to make patterns with the shapes and the balls in the cupcake tin.

You can try to roll them along the edges to see which cup they end up in. That’s a fun game for babies and toddlers.

Preschoolers can try to guess where the ball will end up and see if they were right.

Toot was happy just picking them up and putting them into different cups when she was a year old.

5. Hunt them like Easter eggs

Hide the balls around the house and your little one can have the fun of Easter egg hunts all year round.

You can also make up little rules like “find all of the red ones first.”

Or if you have multiple kids, give them each their own color to find.

Hide a specific number of balls like 10 or 15 so your toddler or preschooler can practice counting them.

And some basic math skills such as “You found 9 balls and there are 10 total. How many do you have left to find?”

The best part of using balls instead of eggs is that they don’t break like plastic Easter eggs. I’ve stepped on many plastic eggs and cracked them.

Ball pit balls are very hard to crush. It takes some real effort. And even if you do crush them, they won’t be sharp.

What are your favorite ball pit ball activities?

Let me know how you play in the comments below!

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