Category Archives: Sensory Play

Sep15

Beading Necklaces

Posted on September 15, 2013 by TodayWeDid

Since L was able to thread beads onto some elastic, she has loved making her own necklaces and bracelets. Plastic beads are readily available and reasonably cheap, and are great for beading fun with the kids. It is cheaper, and longer lasting than store-bought play jewelery, and you get all the fun of creating something for yourself with the beads you want to use. L and A use the jewelery they have made in their dress-ups, and often wear them around the house and out and about just because they like them. They have also made them as gifts for their friends.

We usually use elastic for our beading projects, as it makes it easy for the kids to put on and take off themselves. Proper clear beading elastic is the best for this, but we have used basic hat elastic too. Unfortunately, after a while, the hat elastic tends to stretch and break, which requires tying the broken section together (more knots on the necklace) or re-threading the beads.

This time, however, I had some pre-made non-stretchy necklace lengths with clips to do them up, I think they came from Spotlight. Only the beads with the larger holes would fit over the end of each length, but the kids didn’t mind, they threaded lots of beads onto them, and then wore them about the house. I had to help them undo and fasten the clips though, so it didn’t lend itself to independent dress-up play as much as the elastic ones we’ve made.

A also spent some time running her hands through the beads, swishing them around with her fingers, and trying to get them to stick to her hands. She liked the sensation of rolling the beads in her palms, and spreading them on the floor.

Sensory play with the beads.

Sep5

Sandpit Spelling

Posted on September 5, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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Preparing the sandpit.

We cleaned out the sandpit on the weekend. It had various sand toys scattered through it, and there was some grass growing along one edge that needed removing. I think we’ll have to get some more sand for it soon, A has been gradually removing the sand, one shoeful at a time 🙂 Once it was cleared out, L raked it over ready to write her spelling words in the sand. She was going to use a stick as a pencil, but in the end she decided to just use her finger. The words didn’t last long, L dug them up pretty quickly and just played in the sand.

Aug31

Bird Seed Play

Posted on August 31, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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I found an old bag of wild bird seed in the laundry cupboard this week. I’m not sure how long it had been there, but it still looked fine, so I pulled it out to do something with. I remembered how much fun A had at the school’s ‘Stay and Play’ when they put out bird seed to play with one morning. So I tipped the rest of the bag of seed into two of our play tubs, one for each child, as they told me they didn’t want to share it today.

Having fun.

Whisking.

They enjoyed running their fingers through it, and watching the seeds drop back into the tub. Then they got busy with the funnels and sieve, as well as some of the measuring cups, spoons and jugs. L picked out a lot of the sunflower seeds and put them into her jug. A put her feet in the tub to see what it would feel like, and then proceeded to sit in the tub for further fun. They made bird seed pancakes and muffins, and whisked it round and round. Then they started stealing it from each other, leading to some screaming and complaining…. that didn’t last though, the bird seed was too much fun, and they went back to playing nicely together.

Using the funnel.

This was a very simple activity that gave both of the kids a good deal of enjoyment.

Aug25

Jelly Dig

Posted on August 25, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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The kids love to eat jelly in just about every flavour. They like to slurp it up, and squish it between their teeth, and unfortunately, drop it on the floor. So I wondered if they would also like to play with it. I was going to just make up a batch of jelly that they could stick their hands into, but then I saw a ‘Jello Excavation’ at Tinkerlab, and thought that would be even more fun.

So I made up two packs of lime jelly and as it cooled I dropped little plastic bugs and critters into it. I think I might have added too much water though, as the jelly was a bit soft. Then again, it was Coles brand, and I normally use Aeroplane jelly, so maybe it was meant to be like that.

Squishing the jelly.

Being a little wobblier than normal made it harder to get it out of the bowl in one piece, despite the spray oil I’d used in the bowl, but most of it came out intact. I placed it in a tub and put it outside for the kids to play with. I’m very glad it was an outdoors activity as, predictably, A got into the tub with the jelly before they were finished. She said it was to feel it squish between her toes. She likes to feel all of our messy and sensory play things with her feet… maybe she just likes to be extra messy 🙂

They used various implements to pull the critters out, and play in the jelly. They added in some pretend play too, making up gross critter food orders, such as bug soup with a side of slug slime and a snake milkshake. The jelly got thoroughly churned with a whisk, and was pushed through a sieve, put into cups and funnels, and spooned into the watering can, along with most of the critters. No one tried to eat the jelly, which surprised me.

Rescuing the bugs and animals from the jelly with tongs.

Pushing jelly through a funnel.

It was very messy, but very fun.

I found an old tin of edible gelatin in the cupboard this morning, so I think I will use that for our next jelly play. I will make it firmer so that the kids can cut it into chunks and really excavate the bugs and critters, maybe with some spoons as digging implements. Looking forward to another chance to have a jelly dig in the backyard.

Whisking the jelly.

Aug17

Shaving Foam Painting

Posted on August 17, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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Coloured shaving foam paint tray.

The kids love playing with shaving foam. It’s slippery and squishy, but it’s also easy to clean up. We’ve used shaving foam in its plain white form straight from the can plenty of times. A quite likes the noise it makes as it comes out of the can. Last week I added some yellow food colouring to the shaving foam in a tray for A to play with. She got it all over herself, and ended up actually hopping into the tray to squish it between her toes. Watching her play with the coloured foam gave me the idea to paint with it. So today I used a muffin tray as a makeshift paint tray, and put shaving foam into each hole. I added food colouring and mixed it thoroughly.

Sharing the shaving foam paint tray.

A brush for each colour and we were set. L painted a rainbow with grass, a sun, and a stream. Predictably, A just smeared the paint around on her piece of paper, and then started mixing all the colours together. We have so many brown paintings done by A.

L painting a pink love heart.

The coloured foam went on the paper nicely with a sort of puffy texture. The colours lightened a little as it dried, and the large clumps of foam became crumbly, but we’re still very happy with the result. The food colouring stained the kids’ fingers (and hands, legs, faces, hair…) a little, but most of it washed off in the tub. And the rest will fade. Since we did this activity outside on the tarp, I just rinsed the brushes at the end, and washed out the tray and clean up was done.