The Chaos and the Clutter

sensory play

Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bag

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We are fans of the Despicable Me movies, particularly because of the adoption theme. I made the kids a Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bottle for the kids a few months ago. I like to make a new sensory bottle every week or two, so once they had tired of it, I used what was inside to create a Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bag.

Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bag #minions #sensoryIt’s funny how when you take exactly the same items and put them in a new format, it breathes new life into the activity. I added a few extra things to the sensory bag just to change it up a bit. I think it turned out really cute!

Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bag

Materials needed:

To create the Minions sensory bag, fill a resealable plastic bag about half full with liquid hand soap. Add the Minions mini figures, the yellow buttons and black and yellow elastics. Remove the air from the bag and seal.

In my case, I emptied the contents of the Minions Sensory Bottle into a bag, then added the elastics and buttons before sealing.

You can also seal the bag to prevent leaking or being opened by your child by folding duct tape over all sides of the sensory bag. This Minions duct tape would be perfect to use. As with all sensory activities, adult supervision is recommended.

Looking for other simple sensory activities? Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

 Despicable Me Minions Sensory Bottle

Superheroes Sensory Bag for Superkids

Christmas Ornaments Sensory Bottle

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My calendar is filling up with Christmas concerts and holiday parties and plans. This can only mean that the holidays are fast approaching. With that, I’m able to pull out the Christmas sensory activities. I created this very simple Christmas Ornaments Sensory Bottle using the same items I used for our Ornaments Sensory Bag.

Christmas Ornaments Sensory BottleChristmas Ornaments Sensory Bottle

Materials needed:

  • water bottle (I used a Voss bottle)
  • liquid hand soap
  • mini Christmas ornaments
  • optional: hot glue

To put together this holiday sensory bottle, empty the water out of the water bottle. Fill it most of the way to the top with clear liquid hand soap. Add some small ornaments. If they get stuck near the top of the bottle, you can use a bamboo skewer to push them further into the bottle. Place the lid back on the bottle.

You can secure the lid with hot glue if you’d like. This is especially important if younger children will be using the sensory bottle, but of course, adult supervision is always recommended.

I used the same items to make a Christmas Ornaments Sensory Bag to give my kids another sensory activity option.

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

Melted Snowman Sensory Bottle

Christmas Counting I-Spy Discovery (Sensory) BottleChristmas Counting I-Spy Discovery Bottle

Peppermint Essential Oil Christmas Playdough

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The smell of Christmas is peppermint for many and this peppermint essential oil Christmas playdough incorporates that into an activity. There are a lot of possibilities for play with this activity. Kids can use their imaginations to come up with new ways to play and enjoy.

Peppermint Essential Oil Christmas Playdough invitation to create #playdough #playdoughfun #playdoughrecipe #sensoryplayPeppermint Essential Oil Christmas Playdough Recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. oil
8-12 drops of green food colouring
3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil
1 cup boiling water
optional: green or silver glitter

I find that the easiest way to make playdough is to use the KitchenAid mixer. Add the flour, salt, cream of tartar to the KitchenAid mixer. With the dough beater (the flat one), begin mixing on low and add the oil, food colouring, and peppermint essential oil. As it mixes, pour in the boiling water and continue to mix on low until it resembles playdough texture.

Remove the dough from the mixer and knead it for 30 seconds to a minute. If you want to add glitter, add it in at this point and mix it through by kneading.

I wanted this playdough activity to encourage open-ended play so I set out quite an assortment of items with the playdough. When I create an invitation to create with playdough, I like to use a party platter serving tray. It makes everything accessible and look appealing so that the kids can just dive right in. This time, what I included in the invitation to create with peppermint playdough was:

  • jingle bells
  • beads
  • coloured pushpins
  • mini Christmas ornaments
  • cookie cutters (I put out a Christmas tree, a stocking, a star, a cross, and one that is shaped like a candy cane one way or a J the other so it could also be a J for Jesus)
  • peppermint essential oil playdough

Big caveat here: I was using this with older kids, so I felt comfortable setting out the pushpins for them to use and they were the favourite item, BUT they are sharp and wouldn’t be appropriate to use with younger children. And of course, as with all sensory activities, adult supervision is recommended.

My kids explored and created with the peppermint playdough for hours. One pounded the dough with their palms while another preferred to roll it out with a rolling pin. They shaped it using their hands or the cookie cutters. They pressed beads and mini ornaments and pushpins (tacks) and jingle bells into the shapes. They discovered that once playdough is inside jingle bells, they no longer jingle!

Sensory Play Specifics:

There is so much sensory input with this one activity. The smell of the peppermint essential oil is an alerting scent. This can help with kids who may be low energy or sluggish. Due to the scent, the olfactory sensory system is engaged. The activity also engages the visual and tactile senses while children explore colour and texture through touch and sight and even the proprioception sensory system as they knead or push and pull the dough.

Snow Playdough and invitation to playGlittery Snow Playdough

Gingerbread Playdough Station

Looking for other sensory play ideas? Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Christmas Ornaments Sensory Bag

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That season is fast approaching and with it, all the preparations and excitement. I find that my kids need extra sensory input around this time of year. This Christmas ornaments sensory bag is such an easy one to put together and fits with the holiday theme.

This sensory bag couldn’t be more simple. You only need 3 things to create this including the plastic bag! The nice thing about it being so simple is that you can so easily use ornaments you already have at home. I picked the ones I used up at the dollar store.

Christmas Ornaments Sensory BagChristmas Ornaments Sensory Bag

Materials needed:

  • resealable plastic bag
  • clear hand sanitizer
  • small, multi-coloured Christmas ornaments
  • optional: duct tape

To make the sensory bag, fill the resealable plastic bag about half full with the hand sanitizer. Add in the ornaments. Remove the excess air from the bag and seal.

If you are going to be giving this bag to younger children or if you want to prevent potential leaks, you can fold duct tape over all the edges. Using holiday duct tape can make it look better and add to the fun. There are lots of different types.

Of course, as with all sensory activities, adult supervision is recommended, especially as the small ornaments could be a choking hazard.

Looking for more easy sensory activities? Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

I-Spy Christmas Sensory Bag

Arctic Sensory Bag

Superheroes Sensory Bottle

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Superheroes are universally appealing for boys and girls which is one of the best things about this sensory bottle. It is also so simple to create. We used similar items last month to create a superheroes sensory bag.Superheroes Sensory Bottle #superheroes #sensory

Superheroes Sensory Bottle

Materials needed:

  • water bottle (I used a Voss bottle)
  • superheroes stickers (the ones I used happened to be glow-in-the-dark ones)
  • Spiderman squishy head
  • liquid hand soap
  • optional: hot glue

To assemble this sensory bottle, empty the water out of the water bottle and fill it about a quarter of the way up with liquid hand soap. Add a few of the superheroes stickers. Squeeze the squishy head to be able to get it through the opening of the bottle and push it in. Add another layer of the liquid hand soap and a few more stickers. Finish it off with more of the liquid soap before putting the lid back on the bottle.

If you will be giving this superheroes sensory bottle to younger children, you may want to use hot glue to secure the lid.

A tip for getting your sensory bottle to look the way you want it to:

Before adding the lid back onto the sensory bottle, use a bamboo skewer to push down, push over, turn around, and maneuver the stickers to the place you want them to be in. This way the front of the stickers will be facing outwards.

If you’re looking for other simple sensory activities, join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

We used many of these same items to make a Superheroes Sensory Bag which the kids really enjoyed as well.

Superheroes Sensory Bag for SuperkidsThis Space sensory bottle is naturally weighted. Kids can also use it as an I-Spy activity.Weighted Space Sensory Bottle

Unicorn Sensory Bag

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When I was in the fifth grade, I was obsessed with unicorns. I had unicorn stickers, posters, erasers, and even a unicorn snow globe. I remember a lot of girls in my class liking unicorns at the time. You can imagine that I found it amusing when my daughters started to like unicorns themselves right about grade five!

I decided of course to embrace all the unicorn madness and made them this unicorn sensory bag. Being a mom of four boys, it’s always extra fun for me when I get to make something girly! I threw in some glitter and gems and went with a pink and purple theme. My girls were pretty happy with their unicorn sensory activity.

Unicorn Sensory Bag #sensory

Make a Unicorn Sensory Bag

Materials needed:

Fill the resealable bag about half full of hand sanitizer. Drop in the gems and plastic unicorns and add the glitter. Remove excess air from the bag and seal.

Sensory bags are notorious for leaking, so you may want to fold duct tape over all the sides. You can find fun rainbow duct tape that would go really well with the unicorn theme. You will also want to use the duct tape to seal it closed if younger children will be using it so that they don’t open it and dump the contents. Just like with all sensory activities, adult supervision is recommended.

 

Looking for more easy-to-put-together sensory activities? Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Squishy Mermaid Sensory Bag

Shark Sensory Bag