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Play dough is a staple amongst ECE educators. It's a great tool for imaginary play, exploration, and helps to build-up the fine motor skills needed for writing. It's also cheap to make. I often use this no cook recipe from The Imagination Tree. It's what I used in the picture below. I added yellow food coloring and green glitter
to make it "springy." 
The dollar store is a handy resource for cheap exploratory supplies. If you are like me, and don't go often, Amazon is fantastic too (not to mention it'll be delivered right to your doorstep). When I go to the dollar store, it takes me forever because I'm hunting for anything I can use for art and sensory activities. It's amazing what you can find, especially amongst the seasonal items. And the containers! So many cute ways to present invitations to play/explore as well as for storing said objects.
For this particular invite, I set out the homemade play dough, sparkly Mini Styrofoam Eggs
, silk flowers, and plastic butterflies
. The other play dough tools are all on a low shelf for easy access. 
This particular spring themed invitation allows a child to explore concepts of spring: plants/gardening, new life, insects (life cycle), and Easter (if one chooses). This activity allows for independent play and free exploration of materials.
You may be asking, "what is an invitation to play?" and that would be a great question. For an awesome tutorial, check out Creating the Invitation to Play on Teach Preschool and Creating Invitations to Play! on The Imagination Tree.
If you wish to expand this activity through reading, you might try:
back in December on Amazon while searching art supplies for my 3 year old. They looked cool, but not what I wanted at the time. I added them to my wish list, hoping someone else would pick them up for her for Christmas. Lucky me, I was recently contacted by a representative that asked if I wanted to try them in exchange for a review if I liked them. Who am I to pass up trying new things?
. I imagine the average person would need a bit less, probably just Windex and some paper towels. 
, and 
for a complete sensory experience.
, silk roses, 
, and 
laying around for warmer weather. Well, dig it out because it's not just for water! Water tables have many uses, that I hope to explore over the coming months. 
(shoe box sized).
(size is up to you)
being stored for warmer weather, but why wait when you can use it for all sorts of play, not just sand and water. But if you want to do a sensory bin that is easily storable, table or floor friendly, and on the smaller side, 
or 
. My daughter received some Frozen characters for her birthday so it seemed like a natural fit. I threw in some winter type animals too. 
