Spider Web Sensory Play

For a lot of kids digging their hands into a messy shaving cream sensory play is really fun! You can do so much with shaving cream from the dollar store, you can make bath paint, do shaving cream and ice in the summer, and in the fall you can even make

SPIDER WEBS FOR SENSORY PLAY!

Just get out a tot tray and squirt some shaving cream right out of the can onto the tray in a spider web shape. Then add on some plastic spiders and/or spider rings. Your kids will do the rest!

Witches Brew Oobleck

We loveeee messy sensory play and when it comes to Halloween themed messy sensory play we can really get creative and creepy with it.

Witches Brew Oobleck:
Ingredients:
- green oobleck
- purple cooked angel hair pasta
- plastic spiders and/or spider rings
- plastic witch's cauldron

Firstly, to make the green oobleck all you need to do is mix cornstarch with water until you get the right consistency, which is to be able to grab a handful of it but then once you lift it up have it start running off your hand back into the bin, or in this case cauldron. Add water to your corn starch just a little at a time until you get to this consistency and then add a few drops of green food coloring and mix that in.

For the purple cooked angel hair pasta all you need to do is cook the noodles, drain them and then put them in a Ziploc bag and add the purple food coloring and shake it all up until they are coated.

Put the oobleck in the cauldron (if you didn't make it in there already), add in the noodles too and then the spiders/spider ring add ins. This is such a fun sensory play for toddlers because they will love to get to feel all the different textures, preschoolers playing with this will really get into pretend play with it.

Vampire Jello Sensory Play

I know it's a little early for some people, but we're already getting in the Halloween spirit a bit around here! We did a messy sensory play using cherry jello the other day and when trying to think of a theme for it we thought of red and blood, and then our minds went straight to vampires! 

To make it I first cut some bats from black craft foam, they're definitely less than perfect but they served their purpose just fine.

I made the jello according to the package directions for the quick method, and before putting it in the fridge to set I stuck in the craft foam bats and the plastic vampire fangs. As you can see once the jello had set most of the bats ended up being on the top instead of within the jello like our magnetic letters and numbers have been in the past, so it wasn't much of a search for the bats or anything like that.

We just love getting into jello, it's so messy and cold and fun and great to take outside when it's hot out to cool off with. I recommend putting down a plastic table cloth from Dollar Tree that you can just throw away afterwards or shake off. That's what I've done in the past, but this time I just used a towel and wished I had used the table cloth again!

The idea of vampires might be scary for some kids, but ever since my daughters second Halloween we've had Halloween parties and she helps pick out the decorations and she isn't afraid of any of the stuff and that's because we make it fun instead of scary. You can see in this picture the delight in her face as she dug into the bloody vampire jello play we made! I think it's definitely good to do stuff like this with kids from the time they are toddlers so they won't be afraid.

Chocolate Cake Dough & Cars Dirt Road Sensory Bin for Toddlers

This is the perfect sensory bin for those little ones who love cars! It's very simple and frugal to put together too, seeing as you can reuse the cake dough again and again. 

You only need two things for this adorable sensory bin. A box of chocolate cake dough and some toy cars that can be rinsed off after play!

All you do is pour the box of cake mix into the bin, and then add the cars. The cake dough has a consistency similar to cloud dough. Kids can form it into balls in their hands and crumble it up again.

Lemon Jello Sensory Play

As I've said before I really enjoy jello messy sensory play in the summer time because it's fun to take outside and beat the heat with. Having cold sensory materials to touch outside in the sun helps to cool kids off just like water play. This sensory play stimulates more than just one or two senses too, it stimulates three, and maybe even four or five depending on what you choose to do with it! If you're okay with your little one having jello they could sample the taste while they play, but I didn't let my daughter eat any of it. We use jello just for playing! 

Children learn better when they are using more than one sense. The bright yellow colors, the cold and giggly feel of the jello, the scent of the lemon, all stimulate the senses and help children remember concepts. You can talk about how many lemons there are in the bowl, or if you're trying to teach colors to your young toddler this works good for that too. Enforcing those concepts with sensory play is wonderful to help them learn and remember the knowledge.

 My little one really enjoyed this sensory play a couple of summers ago!

You can make this for your little ones too and here's how:
1. Get a big bowl and prepare lemon jello according to the directions on the box and then put it in the bowl to set. You can add some artificial lemons in before or after it sets, either way!
2. Bring it outside to play!

Messy Jello Math Play

One of my favorite sensory materials for my daughter to play with outdoors in the summer is cold jello! I especially like to put things into the jello before it sets. Seeing that is a very cool experience for kids, and if they've never seen it before (and even if they have) they're sure to be delighted. This messy jello sensory play incorporates math because there is magnetic numbers in it. The math part of it can be changed up for different ages. Such as learning numbers, or putting them in order for toddlers, and addition or subtraction for preschoolers. 

You can see from the picture above and the picture below that it starts out looking all smooth and set and then quickly gets giggly and wiggly. The best part is that the kids get to be the ones to make it that way. It's a really neat sensory process for them to experience.

Neither of us can keep our hands out of messy sensory play.

To make this you'll need:
- a box of jello mix (any color)
- magnetic numbers
- a big bowl
- maybe another big bowl for transferring if your kiddo always ends up doing that

Just make the jello according to the directions on the box and then before you put it in the fridge to
set add in the magnetic numbers. This jello
can be saved and played with a few more times
before being tossed out.

Shaving Cream & Ice Weather Sensory Bin

I couldn't decide which picture to use for this so I am using both! Neither picture does justice to how cool the lightning bolt shaped ice cubes really looked!

This sensory bin is a messy play bin that's perfect for outside in the summer heat to cool off with. It also can be part of a tot school or preschool weather unit.

Shaving cream and ice is really one of the funnest combinations of sensory play materials that there is. Squeezing an ice cube through a shaving cream covered hand is a very unique feeling, and on a hot summer's day helps to cool the kid (and you, I know I can never keep my hands out of it!) down.

To make this bin you'll need:
- shaving cream from the dollar store
- neon blue food coloring
- a lightning bolt ice cube tray. The one I have seemed to be sold out online, but here's a link to a similar one
- yellow food coloring (the more you use the more orange they will look, so watch out for that)
- a bin of course, and a spoon or paint brush or something to mix the blue food coloring into the shaving cream

Step 1:
Fill up the lightning bolt ice cube tray with some water, and then add in a couple drops of food coloring to each slot and mix it in a little bit with a spoon or something small so the color will spread throughout the water, dying the whole ice cube.

Step 2:
Once the ice cubes are frozen (leave them in the freezer) and fill up a bin with shaving cream, squirt in quite a few drops of neon blue food coloring and mix it in.

Step 3:
Pop the lightning bolt ice cubes right out onto the shaving cream right before you're about to play with it, so that way you can get the most use out of it before they melt. It's very fun!

Messy sensory play is so important and so much fun in the summer!

Sensory Farm Small World

If you're looking for a sensory bin that includes some pretend play small world fun this is a great one. It's particularly great for a farm tot school or preschool theme. 

For this bin you will need:
- cornmeal
- baking soda
- water
- lemon-lime koolaid mix
- rocks
- some little people or other plastic farm animals, a tractor and farmer too if you can

First you'll need to make the dough by filling a bowl with the amount of baking soda you want and then very, very gradually adding water and mixing it together until it forms a dough that you can make into a ball and crumple again. Too much water will result in it just turning into liquid.

Once you have that dough made you can add some to the bottom of one half of a sensory bin, then put a row of rocks on it and pour some cornmeal on the bottom of the other half.

Then all you need to do is add in the animals and other things.

Halloween Spiders Jello and Literacy Sensory Play

Here's some more Halloween sensory play! This one involves literacy learning. You can use it to teach the alphabet, phonics, and spelling with this jello while having some Halloween fun.

To make this you'll need to prepare a box of orange jello and put it into a plastic bowl. Before you put it in the fridge to set you need to add in some magnetic letters and some plastic spider rings.

I like to make this before bed, and then let it set in the refrigerator all night. Once it's ready you just take it out of the fridge and present it to your kid to play with. We take it outside with an outdoor blanket, or we do it on the kitchen floor on a plastic sheet from Dollar Tree.

My daughter loved this particular sensory play!

 

As she played I pointed out which letters were which since she was not even two yet. This year we're working on what sounds each letter make and putting them together to make short words.

International Kissing Day Messy Sensory Play

In honor of International Kissing Day today I made this adorable messy play sensory bin for my daughter! It was great to take outside and beat the heat with since there are ice cubes involved! 

Isn't it adorable?

My daughter got right into exploring it, feeling the ice cubes and squeezing them through her hands with the shaving cream. She's done this type of play before so she knows what to do!

Looking at the ice cubes as they start to melt.

Even once they all melt the shaving cream and water mixture is cold and fun to play with for a long while after!

To make this bin you'll need:

- A bin

- Shaving cream

- A ice cube tray of lips

- Water

- Hot pink food coloring

All you need to do is fill the ice cube trays with water, add in some pink food coloring to each and stir it in. Then pop those in the freezer. Once frozen, fill your sensory bin with shaving cream. Then put the lip ice cubes on top of the shaving cream.

Take this bin outside, set on top of a towel if you want. Bring out some paper towels and have the kids wear some tshirts or something in case the food coloring stains. Clean up is easy everything will wipe off with a paper towel. Then you can rinse the contents of the bin off in the sink and it'll all go right down the drain.

4th of July Patriotic Messy Noodles Sensory Play

I made this last year and am not able to find a picture of just the bin set up before the kids got into! I appoligize, but I think you'll still get this gist from these!

So, cooked angel hair pasta is a wonderfully messy sensory play activity and it can be turned patriotic which makes it perfect for the 4th of July tomorrow!

It's really easy to make too.

Step 1:
Cook an entire box of angel hair pasta.

Step 2:
Drain it, and let it cool a little bit. You don't have to wait until it's completely cooled though.

Step 3:
Divide it into three sections for your red, "white" and blue.

Step 4:
Get out 2 gallon size Ziploc bags. Add one section of your cooked pasta to one bag, and another to the other. These will become your red and your blue.

Step 5:
Add in a little bit of vegetable oil to each bag mix it around a bit to coat the noodles. Then squirt in quite a few drops of red food coloring into the first bag and zip it up and shake/squeeze the bag all around to coat all the noodles with color. This part is fun to have little ones help with! Repeat with blue food coloring for the next bag.

Step 6:
On separate pieces of foil paper, laid out in a sunny spot, put the colored pasta to dry.

Step 7:
Once dry put in the bin in a red, white and blue order.

Step 8:
Let the kids play with it and watch them be amazed and have so much fun!

4th of July Patriotic Sensory Dough

Here's an awesome, easy to make, fun to play with sensory dough for the kids to play with on the 4th of July. If you bring this to a party where children will be playing, it's sure to be a hit! I did last year and it was loved by many!

You'll need:

- A big box of baking soda

- A packet of cherry Koolaid

- A packet of ice blue raspberry lemonade Koolaid

- Dry pasta, I used rigatoni 

- A bin

- Another bin, because kids like to transfer!

It's really simple to make. All you have to do is pour the baking soda into your bin until you've reached the desired amount that you think you'll be needing for the kids to play with. Then you SLOWLY add water and mix around with your hand until it becomes moldable but still crumbly. If you add to much water it will quickly become all liquid. Next, separate it into thirds. Put one third in one bowl, another third in another bowl, and you can leave one third in the bin since it is staying white, but you'll want that third in the middle. (the picture shows what I'm talking about). 

Pour the packet of cherry Koolaid into one of the bowls of sensory dough and mix it in until it's all colored. Repeat this process with the ice blue raspberry lemonade Koolaid packet and the other bowl of sensory dough. Then add both doughs back into the bin, in the red, white and blue order.

Now, you can omit the hard, colored pasta if you want, but I think it makes it funner and cuter as well as adds more texture elements for more sensory play. All you have to do is put some of the dry pasta into a ziploc bag, add in a little bit of vinegar or alcohol, shake it around so they're coated, then add in a few drops of food coloring and shake it all around again until all colored. Then lay them on a paper towel to dry for a little while. You'll obviously use two separate plastic bags to make the colored pastas, and red food coloring for one, and blue food coloring for the other. Once they're dry lay the red pasta on top of the red dough, and the blue pasta on top of the blue dough. I overlapped into the white a bit, because that's the look I liked!

Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck

Oobleck is one of the funniest messy play sensory materials that there is! It's relatively cheap and easy to make as well, which is always a plus. I decided to make an oobleck that would go with our ocean unit. It turned out great!

To make Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck you'll need:
- a bin
- cornstarch
- water
- neon blue food coloring
- some seashells
- some small ocean animals. We used this tube from Animal Planet

Step 1:
Fill up your bin with some cornstarch, then slowly add water. Mix it with your hand until you get the right consistency. You want to be able to grab a ball of it in your hand like a solid and then have it immediately start to turn into a liquid and run off of your fingers. It's about a 60% cornstarch, 40% water mixture.

Step 2:
Add in a few drops of the food coloring and mix it around with your fingers or a spoon if you don't want to get a little stained up!

Step 3:
Add in the seashells and the small ocean animals for ocean play presentation. The kids can play with them in the oobleck ocean for a while like a small world, and then take them out to really get into the hands on oobleck play.

Note: above I mentioned staining, your hands would only get stained if you choose to mix in the food coloring with them. If you use a spoon to mix in the food coloring, and only put your hands in after it's mixed the color will not stain your skin at all. It won't stain the kids skin either. It's a good idea to put on some play/paint clothes though in case of anything getting on the clothes. This is really easy to clean up, and washes right away with water.

What's in the Dirt? Science Lesson

I recently picked up this SID the Science KID DVD for my daughter. 

It features 4 episodes. One is about animal communication, one is about birds, one is about leaves, and one about dirt. This activity was us expanding on the episode about dirt and bringing what we learned to life with a hands on experience. I think any time kids can get outdoors is really beneficial, I believe the same for sensory play, and of course science is a very important subject for kids to gain knowledge on. This activity combines all three of those wonderful things. Hands on activities really do help kids learn so much better than when they just hear or see something during a lesson!

In the episode the kids collect some dirt in a bucket, pour it onto a tray, explore it with a magnifying glass, and then draw what the saw in their journals. We did the same thing!

To start, I had my daughter in her swimsuit doing some sprinkler play. We eventually used the sprinkler to get a section of dirt in our yard wet. This created mud! That in itself is a wonderful science and sensory experience for kids. When water is added to dirt it creates mud! How fascinating. Once it became mud I gave my daughter her Minnie Mouse cultivator and shovel. She used the cultivator to loosen up the mud a little bit and the shovel to get it into her bucket. Try and make sure your little one(s) doesn't get a bunch of grass their bucket, which is especially easy to do if they use a cultivator and put that straight into the bucket. You don't want that grass throwing off the result of what is IN the dirt.

Once the bucket had enough mud/dirt in it we took it over to her outdoor table, which had one of our plastic tot trays waiting on it, and dumped it out onto the tray! She started to touch it immediately, kind of flattening it down as if it was play dough. We used our hands and the cultivator to spread the dirt around on the tray so we could find out what was in it.

I encouraged her to use her magnifying glass to get a closer look. She was very eager to do so! This and other fun science activities are great for getting kids used to using magnifying glasses, which are a very important tool in the science world.

 

We found that our dirt, still a little wet, was very clay-like. I was able to roll it into a very smooth ball. My daughter thought that this was neat. We discussed the similarities some dirt has to clay.

We also realized that our dirt, at least what we got from the first inch or so of the ground really didn't have a lot of things in it. There was no little rocks, no worms, no different colors (things they found in their dirt in the SID the Science KID episode). We did see some little pieces of grass and what seemed like roots. After playing with the dirt for a while though, we did start to see some ants, and then we saw a VERY SMALL gray insect of some sort. They're so tiny they are hard to see. It's great for kids to get to see that there are some living things in the world that are that small. It's a very impressive thing.

After we were all done exploring our dirt we hosed off our tray, bucket, shovel and cultivator and set them out in the sun to dry.

Fairy Garden (sensory play, pretend play, outdoor play)

I am absolutely in love with this fairy garden that I made for my daughter! We had been gathering the supplies for it all April, and then ended up putting it together on Easter. I wanted to make her this Fairy Garden so she could do some digging in the dirt, some pretend play with her fairies, pretend to plant the flowers, move around some loose parts, and have something she could do beside me while I tend to our garden. 

I found that perfect pot for it at Menards, and filled it up with the dirt! 

The materials I used for inside of it were all purchased from Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree (aside from the aquarium gems which some are from Pet Co, some have came in holiday sets from Hobby Lobby). I think the gems really add to it though, since they're loose parts that are intriguing for imaginative play. They also sparkle very pretty in the sunlight. We use the black ones for around the house and stepping stones. The green ones can look like grassy areas, and the orange ones we put on the tables to be tea and crumpets.

 Here's another picture with everything included. The bridge wasn't in the last picture.

All things from Hobby Lobby were in one aisle, so getting these items doesn't require much searching. I purchased over $100 worth of items there that day and only ended up spending about $60 because of a great coupon I had. I think it was well worth it. From that aisle we got the house, mushrooms, flower bed, bridge, 3 fairies, bench, tables, and fencing.

The things I added from the Dollar Tree were the artificial flowers and rocks.

There's just another view, without the bridge again.

My daughter likes to play with the fairies and they have tea parties and their tables, water the flowers, etc.

She also likes to take the fairy items out sometimes and really get to digging and getting dirty with her minnie mouse shovel and cultivator from Toys R Us. I also give her a big bucket so she can transfer/scoop and pour the dirt when she wants too. She can also pretend to plant the artificial flowers again and again.

I think this is great outdoor fun for any child. I'm always looking for things to do outside so we can spend more time out there. If you don't want your sons playing with fairies, this could be made more "boyish" by using gnomes instead of fairies (also found in the same aisle at Hobby Lobby).

Orange Creme Sensory Dough

This sensory dough is so great because it is scented like a flavor of sherbert. That makes it perfect to use for pretend play. When playing pretend with this wonderful dough kids will get to act out scenarios, learn a bit about money concepts, scoop and pour (transfer), all while their senses are being stimulated.

Ingredients for the dough:
- Baking soda
- 1 Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Packet in Orange Creme
- Water

Other things you'll need:
- Large bowl
- Measuring spoon
- Gallon size Ziploc bag
- Small bowls (I use a set of plastic dip bowls from Target)
- Pretend money
- A sign saying what the child is selling and how much it costs (optional, helps with having child be in a print rich environment so they get used to labels and signs even before they can read)

Just fill your bowl with the desired amount of baking soda, then add very little water a time, slowly, until you have a consistency that you can mold a bit and crumble easily. Too much water and it will become all liquid very quickly. Once you've got that mix in the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations packet.

Set this all up for your little salesperson. Put out the bowl of dough (sherbert), serving bowls, sign, etc. Have your money ready! You can take turns playing who is the buyer and who is the server. You can talk about the service industry and how much things cost. You can give specific orders and amounts, ask for change back, etc. Let your imaginations flow and the pretend play go on.

My daughter loved this activity!

 

Pirates Treasure Oobleck

Today I'm going to share with you a VERY FUN and VERY MESSY sensory play experience your kids will absolutely love. First things first, the main material is oobleck (aka goop on some occasions). If you've never made Oobleck before then read on to find out how.

To make this black oobleck for your Pirates Treasure Oobleck bin you'll need:

- Cornstarch

- Water

- Black food coloring (this will leave yours and your little ones hands stained until you get a good soak in the tub, so if you're opposed to that you can buy black washable liquid water colors and use that instead)

First, put the desired amount of cornstarch into your bin. Then slowly add some water and mix with your hands until you get the right consistency. It will probably end up being about 70% cornstarch at least in your mixture. If you add too much water it'll be all watery and won't work at all. You should be able to grab some of it up with your hand and then it should instantly start turning back into a liquid and running off your fingertips. The sensation is amazing and I think I might love it more than my daughter! Guaranteed neither of you will be able to keep your hands out of it. Okay, okay, back to the how-to. After you've got that mixed how it needs to be, add just a couple drops of your black coloring and mix it in with your hand or a spoon.

Then to turn it into Pirates Treasure Oobleck add in a whole package of fake jewels from the aquarium section of your local pet store.

Tell your little one the main idea of this bin and let their imaginations take control of the rest. For added fun you could also give them an eye patch.

This activity is best done outside since it is pretty messy. The mess can be contained though if you'd rather do it inside. Just stay on surfaces that you're able to wipe down afterwards, and keep plenty of paper towels (wet and dry) nearby. I've also found that when doing such messy play it's handy to have the bathroom prepped for a quick rinse off or bath. Having the towels and such already there will assure you don't get them messy when you're grabbing them too.

Sand Paint

This is a really fun sensory paint that you can use for summer crafts with your kids. It's really easy to make too! You just squirt the desired amount of washable tempera paint into a paint pot or bowl, whatever you'll be using. Then you shake in some sand and mix it together.

It's a great sensory experience to finger paint with these paints. Kids will experience an all new texture as they use it.

My Little Pony Strawberry Cake Dough Bin

Have you tried playing with cake dough yet? If not, you should! It couldn't be more simple and although the boxes of cake mix can be pretty expensive (a couple dollars or more) this dough lasts well over a year, so it is still frugal!

For a sweet My Little Pony messy play bin just get a box of strawberry cake mix and dump it into your bin. Then add the ponies and present it to your little one. They will be delighted!