Crafts and Activities

Easy Indoor Sensory Activities at Home

Sensory play is so important. It helps not only with fine and gross motor development, language and communication, and boredom, but it also improves mood and lowers anxiety. And I would say that right now, those things are very needed. I wanted to provide you with a list of easy sensory activities at home that you can do starting today.

No matter how old your kids are from toddlers up to teens, sensory play can make a big difference in how your days go. If you incorporate sensory play opportunities at regular intervals throughout your day, you’ll be surprised at how much calmer the house will be. I encourage you to participate in some of the play yourself as it will also help lower your anxiety.

These sensory activities don’t need to be complicated. A lot of the supplies you need are probably already in your home.

Easy Indoor Sensory Activities at Home

Dinosaur Fossils in Playdough

Scented Bubbles: Calming Lavender Bubble Recipe

Condensed Milk Painting

How To Make Squishies

How to Make Sensory Balls

How to Colour Moon Dough

How To Make Kinetic Sand At Home

Rainbow Soap Foam

Seek and Find Sensory Bin

Squishy Shark Sensory Bag

Tactile Sensory Play with Texture Balloons

Sensory Smell Bottles

How to Make Slime - A Comprehensive Guide

Lemonade Oobleck Summer Sensory Play for Kids

Nature Inspired Spring Sensory Soup

Sensory Sound Eggs

Lego Sensory Bottle

Seaside Sensory Bin

Tactile Sensory Cards

Calming Lavender Scented Playdough

Photo Credit: teachingmama.org

Homemade Puffy Paint

Photo Credit: www.steampoweredfamily.com

Hide and Seek Oobleck: Sense and Chemistry Science Challenge

Photo Credit: busytoddler.com

Salt Writing Tray Activity

Photo Credit: www.growinghandsonkids.com

Sensory Processing Play: Laundry Basket Push Game

Shaving Cream Painting

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Peter Rabbit Playdough Invitation to Play

By Sharla Kostelyk

With the new Peter Rabbit movie coming out soon, we thought it would be cute to set out a Peter Rabbit Playdough invitation to play for the kids. This playdough tray evokes imagination. Your child can explore and create scenes and stories.

This sensory play activity is engaging and a wonderful learning opportunity. If your child has seen the movies or read the books, they can recreate scenes or they can just use their imaginations to build their own Peter Rabbit world. They can then act out scenarios with the characters.

Using the playdough, they can create a garden or a field and have the characters interact with each other. This activity is cute for any time, but it would be especially appropriate for Spring or Easter time.

Peter Rabbit Playdough Recipe:

Supplies:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. oil
green food gel
1 cup water (boiling if making with KitchenAid)
optional: a few drops of peppermint essential oil*

*a note about choosing a playdough scent: Some scents are calming while others are alerting. Peppermint is an alerting scent. This is great if you are wanting kids to stay focused. If you want this activity to be a calming one, be sure to choose a more calming scent.

KitchenAid Directions:

Put the dry ingredients into your KitchenAid mixer.
Add the oil and colour and begin mixing on low with the flat beater.
As it is mixing on the lowest setting, pour in the boiling water.
If you want to scent the playdough, add a few drops of essential oil in peppermint or the scent of your choice. Mix until it is the texture you want.
Store in an airtight container or resealable bag when not being played with.

Stovetop Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a pot and stir in the oil, water and the food colouring.
Cook over medium heat, stirring, being sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot.
Cook until the dough forms a ball. Remove from heat.
Place dough on a piece of wax paper. Knead. If you want, add a few drops of essential oils for scent.
Allow to cool. Store the playdough in an airtight container or resealable bag.

Peter Rabbit Playdough Sensory Station:

Supplies:

plastic tray with separated compartments
playdough (make the recipe above or you can purchase it)
twigs
rocks
wood slices
plastic trees
small Peter Rabbit figurines
fruits and vegetables Toob

Peter Rabbit Poseable Figures Fruits & Vegetables Toob Play-doh-resealable Green

Directions:

Set the green playdough in the middle compartment in the tray.
Place all the other items in the compartments around it.
Invite your child to explore, play, and create.

This activity is so sensory rich. Kids engage their visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems when they are squishing, moulding, sculpting, shaping, rolling, and pressing the dough and the other items in the invitation to play. If scented playdough is used, then they are also engaging their olfactory sensory system.

Are you looking for other easy sensory play recipes? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Check out some of our other playdough invitation to play activities:

White Snow Playdough

Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play

Valentine’s Playdough Center

Dinosaur Fossils in Playdough

By Sharla Kostelyk

Playdough offers so many opportunities for great sensory play. Create dinosaur fossils in playdough to accompany a dinosaur unit study or just for fun.

This simple activity which also gives fine motor skill practise is great for preschools or home. For older kids, it can be a good way to involve sensory into a unit study.

Dinosaur Fossil Playdough Activity:

Supplies needed:

dinosaur skull fossils
playdough (store bought or homemade)
toy rolling pin or if you don’t have one, a regular rolling pin (in a pinch, you can use the empty playdough can!)
optional: other playdough tools

Directions:

Invite your child to roll out the playdough.
Set out the dinosaur fossils.
Encourage your child to press the Dino skulls into the playdough and carefully remove them. This will create a fossil impression.
Another way to use this activity is to have the kids create the impressions and then match the dinosaur skulls up like a puzzle.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Kids get proprioceptive feedback by pressing into the dough and from rolling it out. They also get input from the visual and tactile systems with this activity. If using scented playdough, the olfactory system will also be engaged.

If you are doing a unit study on fossils or dinosaurs, this is an easy and relevant hands-on activity to accompany that.

Are you looking for other easy to create sensory play ideas? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Other great hands-on activities for a dinosaur unit study:

Dino Slime

Dinosaur Fossil Sensory Bin

Gross Motor Action Cube (dinosaur theme)

Dinosaur Sensory Bottle

Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats

By Sharla Kostelyk

Alphabet playdough mats are a wonderful teaching tool to use with children. Whether you are using them with toddlers or preschoolers to introduce letters or with students in kindergarten or early elementary to help reinforce the letters and their sound, learning through play is the most effective way.

When we first brought home two of our kids from Ethiopia, not only were they trying to learn a new language, they were trying to learn a new alphabet. I tried all of the usual methods to no avail. My kids weren’t making any progress.

It was then that I decided to try a more sensory rich approach. A big part of that was using playdough mats. We also used salt trays and sensory bins. That made all the difference!

When using playdough mats, kids can shape the dough into the desired letter which provides a sensory experience and reinforces what they are learning. In addition, they are receiving visual cues. They can also use their finger to trace the letter or can draw the shape with a dry erase marker.

How to use alphabet playdough mats:

Print off the Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats.
Laminate the pages or place them into a plastic sheet protector.
Have the child trace the letter with their finger as they say the name of the letter.
Set out some playdough. You can find our favourite homemade playdough recipe here.
They can then shape the playdough to form each letter of the alphabet and place it on the corresponding playdough mat.
Have the child say the name of the transportation example that begins with that letter so that they can practise the sound each letter makes.

Ways to expand on this activity:

Use dry erase markers to trace inside the letter or colour the letter in.
Name words that start with that letter.
Set out cookie cutters in the shape of the letters. The child can then use that to press into the dough and reinforce learning of each letter.
Put out alphabet stamps which can be used to stamp impressions into the playdough.
Use slime instead of playdough to shape the letters.
Fill the letters with stickers.
Use bingo dabbers.
Make a collage of things that start with each letter and glue them on the plastic sleeve around the letter.

The benefits of using these playdough mats printable worksheets:

reinforcing the ABCs.
practise fine motor skills.
get visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory input (olfactory too if you use scented playdough!).

Get your free printable alphabet playdough mats by entering your email address below. You’ll also be signed up to receive our email series Sensory Activities and Solutions.

Check out some of our other free playdough mats for kids:

Pirate Emotions Playdough Mats

Birthday Party Emotions Playdough Mats

Valentine’s Emotion Game

By Sharla Kostelyk

This printable Valentine’s Emotion Game can be just for fun or it can help kids develop a deeper understanding of their feelings. This works well for at home, in therapy, or in the classroom.

Printable Valentine’s Emotion Game:

Supplies needed:

printed game pages
heart shaped buttons or small plastic hearts to use as place holders

Instructions for how to play:

Print pages 2-4. (Get the free pages here.)
Laminate the pages if you want to increase durability.
Cut apart the cards.
Shuffle the cards and stack them together.
Place the cards on the table face down.
Players take turns drawing one card, reading the emoji, and moving their place holder to the correct space. The first player to “finish” wins the game.

Game Play Variation:

Each time a player pulls a card, the player gives an example of a time where they have experienced that emotion. “I feel scared when it’s dark.” or “I felt sad when my friend moved away.”

Allowing kids to get used to talking about their emotions through opportunities such as this game, you normalize it. Kids learn best through play. Particularly when it comes to discussing hard topics, play allows kids to let down their walls and open up.

This game is a nice addition to the classroom as a learning station, an activity for after students have completed their work, or for a Valentine’s party.

Be sure to input your email below to get your free printable Valentine’s game.

Here are some other learning through play opportunities for kids to work on their emotions:

Printable Pirate Emotions Playdough Mats

Feelings Jenga

Spider Emotions Matching Game

Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play

By Sharla Kostelyk

I love open ended activities that allow kids to explore and use their imaginations. This Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play does just that. It engages not only their senses but also their creativity.

While we have made several Christmas playdough invitations to play in past years such as the Peppermint Christmas Tree Playdough or Scented Gingerbread Playdough Station, this year, I wanted to focus more on the reason for the season even in our sensory play.

With this in mind, our holiday sensory play this season has focused around the nativity with Nativity Slime, a Nativity Sensory Bottle, simple Nativity Sensory Bag, and O Holy Night Sensory Bin. I wanted to share them to show that there are many possibilities to include the story of Jesus’ birth even in sensory play.

These play opportunities create the chance for kids to engage with more than one sense while reenforcing the true meaning of Christmas.

Nativity Playdough Recipe:

Supplies:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. oil
brown food gel to make a light brown colour
1 cup water (boiling if making with KitchenAid)
gold glitter
optional: a few drops of essential oil in pine, orange, clove, or Frankincense*

*a note about scents: Certain scents are calming while others are alerting. If you intended this activity to be a calming one, be sure to choose a calming scent while if you are wanting to create an activity that keeps kids focused, use a more alerting scent.

Directions if you have a KitchenAid:

Put dry ingredients in KitchenAid mixer.
Add oil and the colour and begin mixing with the flat beater.
As it is mixing on the lowest setting, add the boiling water.
Add in the gold glitter. If you want to scent the playdough, add a few drops of essential oils. Mix until the playdough texture you want is achieved.
Store in an airtight container or resealable bag when not in use.

Directions if you don’t have a Kitchenaid:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a pot and stir in the oil, water and food colouring.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, being sure to scrape the sides and bottom.
Cook until dough forms a ball. Remove from heat.
Place it on a piece of wax paper. Knead. Add glitter in at this point and if desired, drops of essential oils for scent.
Let cool. Store in an airtight container or in a resealable bag.

Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play:

Supplies:

tray with separated compartments
playdough (recipe above)
Playmobil nativity set (or other children’s nativity set)
rocks
small wooden blocks
raffia
natural wood slices
stars
plastic animals

Directions:

Set the playdough in the center of the tray.
Place the other items in the compartments around it.
Invite your child to explore and play.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Stretching, pulling, pressing, kneading, and pushing the playdough engages the proprioceptive sensory system.

Creating the scenes uses the tactile and visual sensory systems. If the playdough is scented, then the olfactory (smell) sensory system is also being used.

This Nativity Playdough pairs well with the Christmas story at home or in a Sunday School class. Students can listen to the story or read it themselves and then create their own manger scenes. Playing with playdough also lays foundation for concepts of engineering by allowing children to build and design something that solves a problem. In this case, the problem is how to create a manger scene or tell a story using the materials in front of them.