Sensory

Christ-Centered Easter Sensory Bin

This was a very simple sensory bin to make. I used four colours of Easter grass as the base and added a cross shaped cookie cutter, a wooden cross the kids had painted gold, and a stained “glass” cross. I am also adding Resurrection Eggs as we complete them. We use Resurrection Eggs every year, but this is a new way to use them.

After we discuss the item in each egg and how it relates to the Easter story, I add that egg and its item to the sensory bin and the kids can then play with them when they play in the sensory bin and reinforce their learning.

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St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

One of the great things about all the just for fun holidays when you’re a mom with kids who have sensory issues is that it’s a lot easier to create your sensory bins! For our St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin, I kept it very simple.

Simple St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin for kids I used a green plastic bin to go along with the theme and filled it with a shamrock garland, homemade green playdough in a plastic container, gold and green St. Patrick’s coins, and plastic Leprechaun hats. I purchased all of the items at the dollar store other than the playdough.

st-patricks-day-sensory-bin I also used the extra coins to create a treasure hunt for the kids.

If you are looking for a fun way to start your day, you can read how to make and easy St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.

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

I Spy Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

To make this I Spy sensory bin, I used dry black beans (one bag) and various items from around the house. For my reading kids, I made a list of items for them to find so this also becomes an opportunity to practice their reading. For my non-readers, I included a sheet of visual cues for them to search for the items (as my artistic skills are lacking, I will not be including a picture of that sheet!).

As I used things we already had, the entire bin cost just over $1 as I was able to pick up the bag of black beans on sale. This was a simple, inexpensive and versatile sensory bin and the kids loved it!

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

Shaving Cream Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

Since I had oodles of free shaving cream from back in my couponing days, I had been wanting to try shaving cream painting for awhile. I wish that we had done it back in our Color Week because it was a great exercise in color mixing. It was also a great sensory activity. I used the lemon-lime scented shaving cream to add to the sensory experience.

I used muffin tins and it worked really well. Just add drops of food coloring to the shaving cream and stir. I let some of the kids help in this step and they had fun mixing different colors to see what the outcome would be as far as making a purple that was more on the blue side or making pink by only adding a few drops of red.

Next, they got painting…

Or I should say that the girls got painting! First, they experimented with different brushes and foam and then they got in there with their hands. Meanwhile, the boys had disappeared into the bathroom and were using their paint in a different way…

They were practising shaving using the foam brushes! Pretty soon, the girls had painted their own faces with shaving cream and all the kids had loaded their hands up with as much as they could carry and gone outside to paint the trees!

While my kids didn’t use the shaving cream paint in the way that I expected they would, they had an awful lot of fun!

FYI: On my paler kids, the shaving cream did stain their faces for a few hours so you may not want to do this prior to any public outings or family portrait sessions!

Birthday Party Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

This week just for fun, we did a birthday party theme. It was a nice change of pace and easy to find activities for. I made a birthday party sensory bin to go with it.

Birthday Party Sensory Bin:

Materials needed:

party hats
blowouts
streamers
party horns
happy birthday glasses
ribbon curls
clown nose
birthday candles

Just dump everything in a plastic bin. Let your child play. That’s it!I was able to find all of the items for this sensory activity at the Dollar Store. With all the bright colours, this bin provides great visual sensory input. This activity also gives tactile (touch) sensory input and if the kids rip or scrunch the streamers, it provides proprioceptive input too.

The kids enjoyed this sensory bin a fair bit although the candles got broken pretty quickly and the streamers didn’t last long either.

The kids mostly enjoyed wearing the hats and glasses. The clown noses were especially popular! They produced a lot of laughs.

Birthday books that would pair well with this sensory bin:

Happy Birthday to You!Big Birthday Happy Birthday, Mouse!Birthday Monsters!How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party

If you’re doing a birthday party theme, you may also want to create this birthday cake sensory bin.

How to Make Sensory Balls

By Sharla Kostelyk

I have been busy making activity bags (also known as busy bags ironically!) for Dancing Queen and one of the things I decided to make for her were sensory balls. Making your own stress ball or sensory ball is easy to do and so inexpensive. Now that I know how easy these are to make, I keep some in the van, one in my purse, one in each of the kids’ backpacks, one in each of the calm down kits, and some in almost every room of the house.

How to make a stress ball:

The first time I made sensory balls, I filled balloons with homemade playdough. I didn’t bother to add scent or food colouring because once it was inside the “ball”, it wouldn’t be seen or smelled.

The next step seemed easy enough…stuff some of the playdough into a balloon. This was much easier said than done!!! I tried holding the balloon open with my fingers and shoving it in with the other hand. I tried holding it open with the fingers from two hands while having one of my girls shove playdough in and that resulted in little cuts on my fingers from her nails.

At this point, I still did not have one full stress ball! I then came up with the idea to insert a coupler (cake decorating tool) into the top of the balloon and make skinny snakes with the playdough and get them in that way. It was still tedious, but it was much easier than the other methods I had tried.After making about five of these playdough filled balloons, I began to think that there must be an easier way to make these sensory balls. I did a google search and read about filling them with flour. I made a funnel out of paper and quickly filled five balloons with flour.

The flour filled sensory balls felt very similar to the playdough filled ones. They had somewhat of a softer feel and did not hold their shape when pressed in the way the playdough filled ones, but when surveyed, every one of my kids preferred the flour filled sensory balls. I also filled a few with dry rice (also using the paper funnel) for a different sensory experience. None of my kids like the rice filled ones.Now when I make sensory balls, I don’t bother with the playdough ones at all. I fill all of them with flour instead of messing with the playdough or bothering with rice. The kids really like squeezing the sensory balls and they are a fraction of the cost that store-bought stress balls are.

*note: use the helium quality balloons for best results

Update: We’ve made these using just flour another half a dozen times or so over the past few years. They sometimes last for many months at a time. You can use permanent marker to draw a face on them or write the name of the child it belongs to. Remind kids not to bite them as they will break if bitten hard enough.

We take our sensory balls with us everywhere. The kids each have one in their backpacks. I have one in my purse for waiting rooms or in the van. Our kids also include them in their anti-anxiety kit and we have one in our sensory room.

Important note: Balloons present a choking hazard and a mouthful of flour isn’t very fun either, so only use these if you know your child won’t be putting it in their mouth and always provide supervision. If you have a child who always needs to put things in their mouth, give them an alternative sensory item for chewing.

For sensory information and resources for the home or classroom, check out Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.

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