Sharla Kostelyk

The “No Rules” Garden

Children love to create and explore. They also love to do what they’ve seen their parents doing and they love to pretend. All of those factors come together to make this activity a guaranteed hit!

I gave the kids a patch of soil where in years past we have planted a garden. This year, we only managed to plant in the pots on our deck, so this patch by the garage was just sitting there filling with weeds.

I provided them with a few garden tools and a small garden play kit from the dollar store that included a watering can and some plastic gardening tools. I also lay out some gloves and packets of seeds. I gave them no direction whatsoever except to point out to the older ones that on the packets of seeds, it lists how deep they should be planted and how far apart. I then set them loose in this gigantic sensory bin to do as they pleased!

It was a bit of a challenge for me not to want to give them instructions or show them how to plant so I had to consciously step back and let them explore. I was there if they wanted to ask questions but I let them just have fun and do things the way they wanted to. Some of them ditched the tools after awhile to get in there with their hands and really get muddy once they had poured water in there!

They especially liked that I gave them real seeds to plant. I imagine we may have some surprise vegetables popping up in a few weeks!

When kids are just starting out with gardening, following the “rules” of gardening isn’t what’s important. It’s about fostering a love of nature and giving them an opportunity to experience watching something that they planted grow. If their seeds are planted too close together or with vegetables they “shouldn’t” be next to, worry about teaching them those things when they get older.

The point of this exercise is to set them free to explore through their senses and discover the joy of gardening.

This life sized sensory bin is part of my 5 Days of Summer Sensory Activities Series.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Ice Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

Ice painting is a great outdoor activity for kids to engage in. It allows exploration of temperature, texture and art. All that is needed for this art project is an ice cube tray, tempera paint, popsicle sticks, and paper. As I have been doing for some of our sensory art projects, I again used fingerpainting paper because of its glossiness and durability.

The set-up for this particular art was very simple and the finished products turned out quite well!

To prepare for this, I poured tempera paint in ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. I let them set for a bit and then inserted small popsicle sticks in them before allowing them to freeze completely. I actually left mine in the freezer for several days because it was a rainy week and I was waiting for a day when the sun came out!

When it came time to the actual painting, I ran the bottom of the tray under water to loosen the paint pops and then gave the kids their ice paint pops and let them paint away! As the paint pops melted, some of the kids used their hands to spread paint around.

I forgot to add that Snuggle Puppy really got into the whole “sensory” concept and decided to lick the ice pop! I do not recommend you try this one at home!!!

This is just one of the projects we did as part of our 5 Days of Summer Sensory Activities.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Shaving Cream Polka-Dot Sidewalk Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

The last time we did shaving cream painting, I used food colouring to add the colour and we painted mostly inside on paper, though the kids did end up using it to paint on trees and on themselves! Since I still have many cans of shaving cream that I got for free using coupons, I thought that maybe we could try an outdoor version.

I purchased a bath mat at the dollar store (so this entire activity ended up only costing me an extra dollar!). The bath mat caught my eye because it was full of holes and I immediately knew that we could use it as a giant stencil for something.

This time, I used actual paint and mixed it into the shaving cream in a muffin tin. I used washable tempera paint so that it would easily wash away during the next rain. I used shaving cream that was lemon-lime scented to add another sensory element. I lay the bath mat on the concrete and the kids used plastic spoons and their hands to spread the foamy paint onto it. When we lifted it up, we had a polka dot pattern on the sidewalk!

This was something that kept the kids occupied for longer than it took to set up the activity and that always translates into a success in my mind!

This is part of my Summer Sensory Activities Series.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Pretend Play Sensory Activity

By Sharla Kostelyk

This project is so simple that I hesitate to add it to this week’s Summer Sensory Activities but sometimes, the easiest projects are the best!

All that is needed for this activity is water and paint brushes and/or rollers. We used old paintbrushes that we already had and a pack of two foam rollers that I picked up at the dollar store. This activity is perfect to be used after the Cotton Ball Throw! Have the kids “paint” away the paint residue left on your fence or in our case, the playhouse.

The key to this activity is to make it fun and not a chore or consequence. Kids love pretending they’re painting and having the added bonus of being able to see results when they are able to “paint” away the colour makes this even more fun!

I’m joining in the Summer Hopscotch with the lovely ladies of iHomeschool Network.

Summer Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

This summer sensory bin is one of my favourites of all time. It was perfect for outdoor play. As an added bonus, I didn’t have to worry about glitter being all over the house because any excess glitter stayed outside!I bought a small blow-up boat for just one dollar to house this sensory bin. I started by laying in some plastic fish (also from the dollar store) and some leaves and a flower that I cut from a bouquet of silk flowers also purchased from the dollar store.

I then added water. I sprinkled a fair bit of glitter in the water because glitter always makes things more fun! I brought the boat outside. It’s been my experience that sensory bins that involve a lot of liquid do better outside because then I am less stressed about the potential for mess!

I gave the kids a small net and watering can to use with the bin and they just had a great time exploring, scooping fish into the net, watering the flower, even adding real grass.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

This activity is one that I am sharing as part of this week’s series of Summer Sensory Activities. I will be posting two new ideas a day all week.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Cotton Ball Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

This cotton ball painting activity was fairly easy to set up and was very popular. All of my kids loved it and the neighbour’s two kids who were over at the time also thought it was pretty awesome, so this will be one that we will do again!

Cotton Ball Painting Instructions:

Materials needed:

large sheets of paper
tape (I used clear packing tape)
cotton balls
paint
paper plates or pie plates

I taped pieces of white paper onto our playhouse. Taping the paper onto a fence would work really well and that is what I would have done if we had a fence!

I mixed paint with water (about equal parts of each) in tin pie plates. Be sure to use washable tempera paint because unless your kids have great aim, the fence is likely to get some paint on it. A rainfall should get rid of any paint residue.

All the kids had to do was to dip a cotton ball in paint and throw the cotton ball at the paper. This activity combined all kinds of sensory between the softness of the cotton balls and squishiness of them once they get dipped in paint and the large flinging motion the kids get to experience when they throw them and the sound of them hitting the paper.

It also has elements of fine motor (pinching) and gross motor (throwing), making it a great game for preschoolers or older kids.

Some of the paint got onto the playhouse, so the next day, we did a pretend play sensory activity where basically the kids “painted” the playhouse with water to wash off the extra paint.

Both activities are ones that I am sharing as part of this week’s fun series of Summer Sensory Activities. I will be sharing two activities a day all week.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.