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I Spy Birds Sensory Bottle

clear bottle on its side filled with dry rice and colourful bird buttons

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Kids can work on their visual perception while playing with this I Spy Birds Sensory Bottle. It is simple to create at home or for the classroom. clear plastic bottle filled with dry white rice and tiny toy birdsThis sensory bottle creates opportunity for kids to use their tactile, visual, and proprioceptive sensory systems. Sensory input is an important part of child development and emotional regulation. 

I Spy Birds Sensory Bottle:

Supplies needed:

    • 16.9 oz. bottle (you can use a sensory bottle or Voss type water bottle)
    • white rice
    • funnel
    • bird buttons 
    • optional: hot glue

Directions:

  1. Using a funnel, add a small amount of rice to the bottom of the bottle.
  2. Place a bird button inside the bottle.
  3. Repeat the above steps until all the birds are placed inside the bottle. By layering the rice and birds, you can ensure they won’t all be in the same place. 
  4. Fill the remainder of the bottle with rice, but leave some space for the rice to move around. You can empty out rice if you feel the rice doesn’t move enough to allow the animals to be seen.
  5. Replace the lid on the bottle.
  6. If you want to secure the bottle, you can secure the lid with a hot glue gun.
  7. Give the sensory bottle to your child or students to explore.
  8. If you want, you can write a list of the birds for them to find.

collage of photos of making a sensory bottle with white rice and bird buttonsAllow the child to move and shake the rice around until they find all of the birds. They can even expand the activity by researching what type of birds they are.

This activity would go well with a unit study on birds.clear bottle on its side filled with dry rice and colourful bird buttons

Expanding your study on birds:

  • Go for a nature walk to observe birds and listen to their songs.
  • Create bird notebooking pages.
  • Set out books on birds. 
  • Make a bird feeder and watch as birds come to eat.
  • Complete some bird worksheets.
  • Play the Birds of North America game.

a collage of four photos of a clear bottle filled with white rice and colourful bird buttonsAs with all sensory play activities, adult supervision should be used at all times. Even if you have secured the lid with glue, it is still possible to get it open and the bottle contains small parts which are choking hazards for children.

Are you looking for more easy sensory play ideas to make for your child or students? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Check out some of our other sensory bottles:

Dinosaur Sensory Bottle

Bugs Sensory Bottle

Van Gogh Starry Night Inspired Sensory Bottle

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Filed Under: Crafts and Activities Tagged With: sensory bottles, sensory play

Ladybug Life Cycle Sensory Bin and Activities

small hands hold a plastic ladybug and leaves

By Sharla Kostelyk

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This adorable ladybug life cycle sensory bin is a great addition to an insect study, ladybug study, or preschool classroom. You can set it up for your child at home or students in the classroom and invite them to explore. dyed green rice, magnifying glass, and toy ladybugs. Text reads "Ladybug Life Cycle Sensory Bin"Whenever you can add a sensory activity into learning, it increases the amount of information children can retain. Sensory bins are a simple way to do this and as kids discover through their senses, they can ask questions which will increase their learning.

Ladybug Life Cycle Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

    • plastic bin
    • rice dyed green >> read how to dye rice for sensory play
    • ladybug life cycle pack
    • rocks
    • sticks
    • plastic leaves
    • magnifying glass

toy leaves and ladybugs next to rocksInstructions:

  1. Dye the rice (read the full instructions here) and let it dry overnight.
  2. Pour the green rice into a plastic bin.
  3. Place the other items into the bin.
  4. Invite your child or students to play and discover.

collage of photos of a sensory bin of green rice and ladybug toysThis sensory bin contains small parts. Adult supervision should always be used when kids play.

Life Stages of a Ladybug:

  1. egg
  2. larva
  3. pupa
  4. adult ladybugtoys of the life stages of ladybugs sitting on dry green rice

Activities to Expand on Your Ladybug Study:

  • Observe ladybugs in nature.
  • Download and print off this ladybug life cycle printable.
  • Set out books about ladybugs and other insects.
  • Make and hang suncatcher decorations to go along with your theme.
  • Create a craft out of a paper plate.
  • Use these life cycle sequencing cards.
  • Print and colour these ladybug life cycle pages.

small hands hold a plastic ladybug and leavesKids will engage their visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems by playing in this sensory bin. You can also add something for the olfactory (smell) system by scenting the rice using essential oil.small hand holds a ladybug pupa in dyed green rice

Resources for Learning About Ladybugs:

Ladybug Life Cycle PackLadybug Life Cycle PackLadybug Life Cycle PackLadybug Life Cycle Reversible Hand PuppetLadybug Life Cycle Reversible Hand PuppetLadybug Life Cycle Reversible Hand PuppetLadybug Land with Live LarvaeLadybug Land with Live LarvaeLadybug Land with Live LarvaeThe Grouchy Ladybug by Eric CarleThe Grouchy Ladybug by Eric CarleThe Grouchy Ladybug by Eric CarleLife Story of a LadybugLife Story of a LadybugLife Story of a LadybugColor the Life Cycle of a Ladybug, Cricket, Butterfly, Honey Bee, and a FrogColor the Life Cycle of a Ladybug, Cricket, Butterfly, Honey Bee, and a FrogColor the Life Cycle of a Ladybug, Cricket, Butterfly, Honey Bee, and a FrogLadybugsLadybugsLadybugs

 

You might also want to check out our other life cycle sensory bins:

  • Frog Life Cycle Sensory Bin
  • Praying Mantis Life Cycle Sensory Bin
  • Chicken Life Cycle Sensory Bin
  • Life Cycle of a Bee Sensory Bin
  • Life Cycle of a Sea Turtle Sensory Bin
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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Printables, Sensory Bins

February Emotions Printables for Kids

printed pages with sentences and hearts

By Sharla Kostelyk 1 Comment

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February is a time for celebrating love. Not just romantic love, but friendship and family. Kids can however have mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day. They may feel jealous of those who receive more Valentine’s, indifferent, happy, or sad due to circumstances within their family or with friends.collage of printed pages of words and heart faces with emotions on them. Text reads "February Emotions printables"

These Valentine’s themed February emotions printables can help kids identify and talk about their feelings.

February Copywork Emotions Sentences:

I strongly believe that teaching emotions is more important than teaching academics. Children need to develop a firm understanding of emotions and learn how to effectively express their own. These February emotions printing practise worksheets allow kids to practise their printing while also normalizing talking about emotions.

These copywork pages allow students to explore emotion words and associate the images with the corresponding feeling. This expands their emotional vocabulary.printed pages with sentences and hearts

Supplies needed:

  • February Emotions printables
  • pencil or pen OR
  • plastic sleeve AND dry erase marker

Download the printable pages. If you want them to be reusable, laminate the pages or slip them into a plastic page protector. Students can then use a dry erase marker to complete the tracing and writing.

For one time use, give the student a pencil, crayons, coloured pencils, or markers and the printed papers.printed page with sentences and a heart in a plastic sleeve with a dry erase marker on top

Instructions for the student:

  1. Read the sentence.
  2. Fill in the outline.
  3. Trace the dotted words.
  4. Write the sentence on the lines provided.
  5. Discuss the different emotions.

These worksheets can be the jumping off point for a discussion with the whole class or one-on-one talk about different emotions. They can be used by teachers, homeschoolers, parents, or therapists.

February Feelings Log:

Keeping a daily log of feelings helps kids to look at their emotions. It can also allow them and their teacher or parents to recognize any patterns they see emerging when looking back through the log. This can provide a lot of insight. 

Doing this quick daily exercise is an easy way to help kids to talk about their emotions and get to the root of why they are feeling the way they are. Doing this at the same time each day can develop a positive habit. 

It may be most helpful to do this in the morning to then be able to adjust activities or expectations based on how the student is feeling or it may be best to do after supper or before bed to reflect on and analyze the day. printed pages with hearts that have faces with feeling expressions

Teaching emotions is such a powerful tool. It arms children with a skill they can use their whole life.

I’ve created a special Feelings Log for February. It includes a writing prompt and drawing prompt about Valentine’s Day, and weekly tracking sheet of “Today I feel” along with cute heart faces to use to help them better express their emotions.

Supplies needed:

  • printed Feelings Log pages (download here)
  • scissors
  • markers, pencil crayons, or crayons
  • pencil or pen

scissors, crayons, square pieces of paper with coloured hearts on themEnter your email below to download the free February Emotions Printables. You can use this with your child at home or print it off to use with your students in the classroom. 

Our other monthly emotions printables:

  • April Emotions Printables
  • May Emotions Printables
  • June Emotions Printables
  • July Emotions Printables
  • August Emotions Printables
  • September Emotions Printables
  • October Emotions Printables
  • November Emotions Printables
  • December Emotions Printables
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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Printables

Colourful Celery Experiment

a boy looks at celery stalks in coloured water

By Sharla Kostelyk

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A few years ago, one of our daughters decided to do the celery experiment for her science fair project. This is such an easy project for kids to do. a girl smiles as she looks at a blue celery stalk in blue water. Other colours of celery are visible. Text reads "Colourful Celery Science Experiment"Kitchen science experiments are a great way for kids to learn. They are using materials that are familiar to them. This experiment uses celery, food colouring, and water which are all things that are familiar to most kids.

Hands on learning is so much more effective for retention. This particular experiment uses simple items that are cost effective and easy to find rather than expensive, hard-to-find materials. 

Kids are able to observe the changes happening and delight in the process.a boy looks at celery stalks in coloured water

Colourful Celery Experiment:

Supplies needed:

  • celery stalks
  • clear cups
  • food colouring
  • water

Instructions:

  1. Fill the plastic cups a little more than half full with water. 
  2. Add some drops of food colouring to each cup (one colour per cup) and stir.
  3. Cut the bottom ends off celery stalks.
  4. Place one freshly cut celery stalk in each cup. 
  5. Invite kids to make a hypothesis. What do they think will happen? Depending on their age, they can colour a picture or write out what they think will happen.
  6. Each child can watch what happens and write or colour their observations.

celery stalks in cups of coloured water and changing colour themselvesThe colour will climb up the celery stalk through the capillaries which shows how plants pull up the water and nutrients. This is a great visual explanation. The results are more noticeable if you leave the leafy part on the celery. a stalk of celery sits in a glass of blue water and its leaves have a blue tinge to themThis is such an easy science experiment to do and a great visual aid for kids learning about plants and osmosis!

For older kids:

If you’re doing this experiment with kids who are older or are capable of a deeper understanding,  you can expand the learning into how water moves from the roots in the soil to other parts of the plant or tree such as the leaves and stem. This takes place in the xylem which are vein-like tubes similar to the capillaries in the celery. 

Here are some links for further research on this:

  • Thirsty Plants: How Plants Get Water from the Soil to their Leaves
  • Evapotranspiration and the Water Cycle
  • Osmosis and Osmotic Pressure

For younger kids:

If you’re doing this with littles, you can get out a magnifying glass and take a closer look at the capillaries at the bottom of the celery. Note that they are hollow, kind of like little straws. Once the coloured water has risen in them, you’ll be able to see the colour at the entrance of the capillary. 

For her science fair presentation, our daughter showed pictures of the process, wrote out the process, and drew what happened. We put all of it on a tri-fold presentation board and she was able to answer the judges questions about what she had learned through this. 

4 cups with a different colour of water in each and one celery stalk in eachWhen I started homeschooling and began to incorporate hands-on science fun into our days, it made me wish that I had had the opportunity to do more of that kind of learning when I was in school. I know that many schools now recognize the importance of this and are doing experiments in the classrooms. Learning by doing is learning that lasts. 

Check out some of our other awesome science activities:

Melting Ice Experiment

Easy Earthquake Experiment

How Fold Mountains FormThis is a great hands-on science experiment to explain how fold mountains are formed.

Layers of the Earthhand holding half a ball with layers of colour and a book open to a page about the layers of the Earth

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Simple Science

Chocolate Oobleck or Fake Mud for Sensory Play

a child's hands pull a brown sensory material over a bowl

By Sharla Kostelyk

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In case you’re not familiar with it, oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid. That means its viscosity can change from liquid to solid depending on the pressure it’s under. So this chocolate oobleck is both a sensory play material and a science experiment!hands in a bowl with a brown messy sensory material. Text reads "Chocolate Oobleck"This recipe makes great messy fun for kids. It can be used at home or in the classroom for a fun sensory activity. Because it’s taste safe, it can even be used with toddlers or preschoolers.

We’ve made regular oobleck, candy cane (scented) oobleck, and lemonade oobleck. I had the idea of doing a chocolate version because I thought it would be fun with Valentine’s Day coming up. The chocolate smell really brings in the Valentine’s theme.

Once I saw it, I realized that it would make a really great fake mud for sensory play. When my boys were younger, they would have had so much fun driving toy trucks and construction vehicles through this stuff!

So regardless if you use this in a sensory bin with toy vehicles as a safe fake mud or in a Valentine’s theme bin with a heart mould to pretend to make chocolates with, this recipe is where you start!a child's hands pull a brown sensory material over a bowl

Chocolate Oobleck Recipe:

Supplies needed:

  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 2 cups cornstarch
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. water

Instructions:

  1. Mix all ingredients together.
  2. Get to playing.

collage of photos of making chocolate oobleck including the cocoa, cornstarch, and water neededImportant notes: Make your oobleck on the day you want to play with it as it doesn’t keep longer than a day or two. NEVER dispose of oobleck down the drain as it will clog your drain. Allow it to dry uncovered and then scoop it into the garbage.

When kids squish or squeeze the oobleck, it will act like a solid but when they allow it to fall through their fingers, it acts like a liquid. hands hold clumps of a brown material over a bowl

Playing with this oobleck engages the tactile, visual, proprioceptive, and olfactory (smell) sensory systems. It is also taste safe, so technically, it could engage the gustatory system but I wouldn’t recommend eating it as with all that cornstarch, it won’t taste great.

Enjoy the messy, sensory, science fun!

Check out our other oobleck recipes:

Lemonade Oobleck

Candy Cane Ooblecktray of red and white oobleck and candy canes with a pair of hands squeezing the oobleck

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Filed Under: Crafts and Activities Tagged With: sensory play

Fun Birthday Slime Recipe

thumb pulling blue slime filled with confetti

By Sharla Kostelyk

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This stretchy birthday slime recipe is great for pretend play or for celebrating a birthday. It can even be given out as a party favour for guests. stretched out blue slime with confetti in it. Text reads "Birthday Stretchy Slime"

Slime is a wonderful tool for sensory input. It engages the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems. thumb pulling blue slime filled with confetti

Birthday Slime Recipe:

Supplies needed:

  • 6 oz. bottle Elmer’s clear school glue
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup warm water, as needed
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup liquid starch, as needed
  • birthday themed glitter 
  • fine blue glitter (or whichever colour that matches the theme of your party)

collage of photos of making blue celebration slimeDirections:

  1. Pour the clear glue into a medium-sized bowl.
  2. Stir in 1/4 cup warm water with a fork.
  3. Add the fine blue glitter and stir well.
  4. Drop in 2-3 Tablespoons of liquid starch and stir well for 2 minutes.
  5. If the slime is too stiff, add more water. If it’s too stiff, add more of the liquid starch.
  6. Continue stirring until the slime forms into a ball.
  7. Knead for 2 minutes, adding more water or liquid starch as needed to get to the right consistency.
  8. When the slime is stretchy and no longer sticky, knead in the birthday themed confetti and glitter.
  9. The slime is ready for play.

collage of photos of blue slime with birthday confetti in itWhen not in use, store in an airtight container or resealable bag. Adult supervision should be used for this and all sensory play. Be sure to wash hands well after handling slime. 

stretched out blue slime with birthday confetti

Ideas for Making this Slime into a Party Favour:

  • Place the slime in a plastic container and use a hot glue gun to attach a bow, small figurine, decoration or to the top of the lid.
  • Or for a less expensive option, place the slime in sandwich bags, seal, and decorate with stickers. 
  • If you want to make this super interactive and fun, you can set up slime stations and have the kids all participate in making their own party favours. This idea is best when it’s a birthday for older kids or teens or when you have other adults to help.

Are you looking for more sensory play recipes you can easily make at home? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.
 

Check out these other fun slime recipes:

Shark Edible Fluffy Slime

Glittery Butterfly Slime

Glow in the Dark Slime

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Filed Under: Crafts and Activities Tagged With: sensory play, slime

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