Simple Science

Tactile Sensory Play with Texture Balloons

Your kids are going to love this tactile sensory play with texture balloons. They will enjoy deciphering what is inside each one and the tactile sensory input they get. You will like how simple and inexpensive this activity is to put together. These tactile sensory balloons are a great way for sensory avoiders to experience textures without touching them directly. As an example, if your child doesn’t like the feel of water beads, you can place water beads in a balloon and they can feel the shape, squishiness, and movement of them without having to feel the wetness or gooeyness.

This activity presents learning opportunities. The guessing and matching is science. Language skills are enhanced while discussing the characteristics of each filler and when reading the cards.

How to make texture balloons:

helium balloons
popcorn seeds
hair gel or hand sanitizer
sand
dry rice
flour
marbles
optional: cards to match up with the corresponding item

Fill each of the balloons with one of the fillers (popcorn seeds, gel, sand, rice, flour, marbles) and tie in a knot at the top to close.
It can be challenging to fill the balloons. The best way I have found is to blow the balloon up first and let the air out.
Insert the end of a funnel into the top of the balloon and place the filler in the funnel. For the marbles, you’ll have to slip them in the top of the balloon one at a time.
Have the child use their senses to try to determine which filler is in each balloon.

Other ideas for items to fill your texture balloons with:

cornstarch
coffee beans or coffee grounds
water beads
water
salt
slime
playdough
whatever else your imagination can come up with

You can find printable cards for the tactile balloons in The Sensory Science Book Volume 1. You’ll also find other easy to create hands-on science activities for kids.

Discussion points:

Encourage your child to also use their auditory sense in addition to their sense of touch. Discuss how the flour and the sugar sound different in the balloon and why that might be.

For older children, you could also fill one balloon with water and another with water and then freeze the balloon so that it is filled with ice and talk about states of matter.

Other sensory science activities you may enjoy:

Sensory Sound Eggs

Nature Sensory Bottle

Jello Colour Mixing Experiment

Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder

By Sharla Kostelyk

I love this project. It’s simple. Kids love it. It only requires a few supplies. It provides opportunities for learning and sensory input. And who doesn’t have an empty toilet paper roll?!

In fact, I love this project so much that we make these pretty much every year. The kids enjoy all aspects of it. One thing I like about this project is how it engages the senses. The peanut butter and the bird seed both give olfactory (smell) sensory input. Rolling it in the bird seed and hanging it on a tree are excellent tactile input. And both making the bird feeder and later observing the birds who use it are visual.

If you have a child who is very sensory avoidant when it comes to touching textures or when it comes to smells, they may prefer to watch someone else make the bird feeder and then enjoy observing it in action once it is complete.

How to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder:

Supplies needed:

empty toilet paper roll
peanut butter
bird seed
knife or spoon for spreading the peanut butter
plate or paper plate
optional: string

Put a layer of bird seed onto a plate.
Spread peanut butter on the outside of a toilet paper roll using a knife or spoon.
Roll the toilet paper roll in the bird seed. Because of the peanut butter, the seeds will stick.
Loop the string through the toilet paper roll and hang it on a tree or slip the toilet paper roll directly onto a tree branch.
Observe the birds who come to feed.

How to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder without peanut butter:

With many schools being peanut and/or nut free, you may need to make this without peanut butter. You can use Sunbutter (a sunflower butter) in place of the peanut butter.

Expanding this activity:

Use a journal or notebook to write down observations of the birds, their sounds, their habits, their colour, their features or to draw pictures of the birds observed.

Using a book from the library or the internet, try to identify the different bird species that are visiting.

Make the bird feeder using a different type of bird seed and observe whether other varieties of birds visit.

Discussion Points:

What types of birds do you think will visit the feeder?

What types of birds are attracted to the seeds we are using?

This is one of the many activities included in The Sensory Science Book Volume 1. It contains ideas for the themes of Colour, The Senses, and Nature. Other Sensory Science Activities you may enjoy:

Colour Mixing Sensory Bottle

Sensory Smell Bottles

Colour Mixing Sensory Bottle

By Sharla Kostelyk

I love when you can combine learning and fun! This colour mixing sensory bottle does just that. It brings science and the wonder of discovery to sensory play.

This activity is effective for teaching the science concepts of colour (for younger children) and density (for older children. By using different densities, the two colours are able to mix to form a new colour and then separate again.

When held up to the light or sunlight, the colours created in this colour mixing sensory bottle are beautiful.

Even I was surprised at how cool this simple science activity was. I wasn’t sure if it would work and was delighted when it did. My kids were even more delighted!

Due to the weight of the corn syrup, these sensory bottles are on the heavy side, making this a wonderful activity for proprioceptive sensory input. These also of course involve the visual sensory system as children use their eyes to explore the colours changing.

How to Make Colour Mixing Sensory Bottles:

Materials needed:

empty plastic water bottle (330 mL/11 oz. size)
clear corn syrup
mineral oil
food colouring
Wilton oil-based candy colour in primary colours*
funnels or measuring cups with a spout
plastic or glass containers of similar size
spatula

White Corn Syrup Wilton Oil Based Primary Colors Set VOSS Plastic Bottles Mineral Oil

Directions:

In a glass or clear plastic container that is similar in size to the empty water bottle, add clear corn syrup and a few drops of yellow food colouring. Mix well.
In another glass or clear plastic container that is similar in size to the empty water bottle, add mineral oil and a small bit of blue food colouring paste*. Mix well. Add a very small amount of the dye as you can always add more once you see the colour. You don’t want the blue to be too dark.
Pour the yellow corn syrup mixture into the empty water bottle to about the halfway point. You may need to use a spatula to get it all transferred.
Next, pour the blue mineral oil to nearly the top.
Top with the lid. If you want to secure the lid, you can do so using a hot glue gun.

*It is important that you use an oil based food colouring in this step. Water based dyes will not work.

The yellow and blue should stay separated when the bottle is upright. If you tilt the bottle, you will begin the see the colours combine to form green.

You can create other colour mixing sensory bottles by adding yellow and red which when combined will make orange and blue and red which will form purple when mixed.

Note: It works best to have the lighter colour be the one that is mixed with the corn syrup.

What makes the colours separate?

The difference in densities between the corn syrup and mineral oil is what keeps the colours separate. They sit on top of each other unless tipped. The colours will then mix to form a new colour, but when brought upright again, the colours will separate because of the density of the liquid they are in. For younger children, give a simple explanation on density, but focus most of the science lesson on the colour mixing.

For older children, use this science experiment as a way to introduce density. Follow up with this video that helps further explain density. You can then expand the discussion from there.

More sensory science:

This activity appears in the Colours section of The Sensory Science Book Volume 1. In it, you can find other incredible activities to help children discover the world around them.

Experiment with other colour mixing examples.

Colour Mixing Sensory Bags

Colour Mixing Jello Experiment

If you’re looking for more fun ideas for your child, get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Colour Mixing Sensory Science

By Sharla Kostelyk

Learning about colours doesn’t have to be boring. Our colour mixing sensory science made for a very fun few days! We were inspired by our Rainbow theme last week and decided to extent our learning about colors into this week. There is a song that we sang (to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”):

“When you hug blue and yellow, it makes green; when you hug blue and yellow, it makes green; when you hug these two you’ll see a new color magically; when you hug blue and yellow, it makes green.”

Of course, for the next two versus, you make orange by “hugging” red and yellow and make purple by “hugging” red and blue.

We did a few easy color mixing experiments.

Colour Mixing Sensory Bags:

Supplies needed:

resealable plastic sandwich bags
red paint
blue paint
yellow paint

Instructions:

Squirt some blue paint and red paint into one bag, ensuring that the paints are on opposite sides of the bag. Do the same in other bags with blue paint and yellow paint in one and red paint and yellow paint in another.

Seal the bags, removing as much of the excess air as you can.

Discuss primary and secondary colors.

Have the child hypothesize what colours will be created when the paint is mixed.

Have the child mix the paints together with their fingers by moving the paint around through the bag. This is a great sensory activity too. The kids are able to create other colours by squishing the primary colours into each other.

You can hang the bags on the window using clear packing tape and have the child observe how the sun shining through affects the appearance of the colours.

This experiment is one of many included in the first volume of our Sensory Science Book. It is full of engaging hands-on learning designed to help kids retain what they learn because of using their senses in the process.

Colour Mixing Mini Volcanos:

Supplies needed:

baking soda
cake pan
vinegar
food colouring
droppers

Instructions:

Place a layer of baking soda in a cake pan. Fill three cups a third of the way with vinegar and add about five drops of food colouring to each cup.

Fill the droppers with the coloured vinegar and squeeze it out onto the baking soda. By adding another colour on top, you can create little volcanos of new colour in mixing them.

They loved this activity!The kids learned:

-that the best way to form a new colour was to have a person with one dropper of one colour and another person with another colour squeeze at the same time in the same area. Once left on the baking soda, the colours did not mix as easily.

-that mini volcanos are fun.

-that when you pour the three glasses of color into each other, you end up with almost black.

Mommy learned that when you do this activity, you should put newsprint down to protect your counters!!! (note that in the early picture, there was none underneath!)

The kids especially liked the look of the bottom of the cake plate after we were done and wished we could hang it like artwork. Unfortunately, a picture of it will have to do!

Some of the books that we read that were related to colour:

The kids also completed a great colour mixing worksheet (find it here) and had fun with some Mandala coloring pages that I printed for free from here.

They also had plenty of opportunity for hands-on learning on colour mixing with paint.

Check out these other great sensory science activities:

Jello Science Experiments

Sensory Smell Bottles

By Sharla Kostelyk

I’ve been wanting to make smell bottles for a long time. I first learned of them as a Montessori activity. They are also an amazing sensory activity for teaching about olfactory and providing sensory input. Sensory Science Smell Bottles #sensoryscience #smellbottles #sensoryplay My kids really enjoyed this activity. Of course, boys being boys, I got to hear what other smells we could have bottled!!! How is it that boys can always find a way to find the gross factor?!

If you’re doing a unit on the Senses, this is a good way to introduce the sense of smell.

This is an inexpensive activity as you will likely have most of the supplies at home already. I found the travel spice bottles we used at the dollar store. You could also use leftover empty spice bottles if you have any.

How to Make Sensory Smell Bottles:

Supplies needed:

travel spice bottles
cotton balls
coffee beans or coffee grounds
cinnamon
peppermint extract or peppermint essential oil
lavender essential oil or lavender
coconut
lemon essential oil or lemon juice

Put the coffee grounds or beans in one bottle, some cinnamon in another, some coconut in another.

Put some peppermint extract or essential oil on a cotton ball, lavender essential oil on another, and lemon juice or lemon essential oil on another cotton ball. Place each cotton ball into a container.

Have the child guess what each smell is. With younger kids, allow them to use their visual sense as well. They can look for clues such as colour and pair that with the smell to help them figure out what it is.

Help your child play “Sensory Detective”. If you print out the corresponding Smell Bottle Cards (available in the Sensory Science Book Volume 1), lay them out for your child to match the scents to.

With older kids, have the child try the activity blindfolded so that they are only using their sense of smell.

Try filling the bottles with more challenging scents to identify such as a flower, dirt, honey, pepper, salt, or orange.

Talk about what the smells are and how our sense of smell also affects what things taste like. You can find an explanation about smell and taste to share with kids here.

Note that just like all senses, some kids will be more sensitive. They may find some (or all) of the smells too strong or even offensive.

Allow them to go at their own pace. Let them hold the bottle further away or even smell through the lid. Some kids’ sense of smell is so strong that they will be able to smell it through the closed lid.

Find this sensory science activity and many more in The Sensory Science Book, full of engaging hands-on learning ideas.

Check out these other sensory science activities:

Jello Colour Mixing Experiment

Outdoor Sensory Scavenger Hunt

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities (just pop your email into the box below) and get a printable list of 175 Great Sensory Ideas.

Melting Ice Experiment

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Dancing Queen wanted to do her Science Fair project on melting ice. She was curious about what would make ice melt faster. This is a simple science experiment to do with items you likely already have in your kitchen.

Materials needed for this simple science experiment:

small Dixie cups
water
scissors
6 compartment muffin tin
salt
sugar

Before beginning the experiment, have students talk about what they expect the results to be. Ask them what variable will melt the ice fastest.

Fill 6 small Dixie cups with water. Freeze overnight. Cut the frozen water out of the cups (adult help may be required for this step). Place one in each of the compartments in the muffin tin. Pour hot water on one, cold water on another, steam on another, salt on another, and sugar on another. Leave one alone so that it can act as the control.

Adult supervision is important, particularly with the steam and hot water.

Students can document the progress through taking pictures or journalling observations at one minute, five minutes, half an hour, and one hour after adding the variables.

Here is a picture before we added anything to the ice:

This is immediately after adding the variables to the ice:

This is after five minutes:

This is after half an hour:

This is after one hour:

As you can see, the control did melt slower than any of the others. Hot water melted the ice the fastest.

Dixie Cups Wilton 6 Cup Regular Muffin Pan Morton Morton Salt

Dancing Queen then dictated to me what she had observed during the experiment and we included that as well as a picture she drew of the process and the photographs on her display board for the Science Fair.

Here are some other simple science experiments using common household items that you may enjoy doing at home or in the classroom:

How Fold Mountains are Made 10 Jello Science Experiments

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