sensory play

Sensory Smell Bottles

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.

Simple Hallowe’en Slime

By Sharla Kostelyk Leave a Comment

Any excuse is a good excuse to make slime (according to my girls anyway!). With the leaves changing, I guess it’s time for Hallowe’en Slime! The thing that makes this particular slime so simple is the glitter glue. You don’t have to mess with food colouring or paint or glitter because the glitter and colours are already in the glue. Super easy!

Simple Hallowe’en Slime Recipe:

6 oz. bottle of Elmer’s black glitter glue
6 oz. bottle of Elmer’s orange glitter glue
about 3/4 cup liquid starch

In one bowl, slowly mix the black glitter glue with about half of the liquid starch. Add 1 Tbsp. at a time and continue to mix. You’ll know you have the right amount of liquid starch when the mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a clump. Take out the mixture and knead by hand about five minutes, pulling, stretching, and pushing it until slime consistency is formed and it’s no longer sticking to your hands.

In another bowl, repeat the exact same process using the orange glitter glue.

Once both mixtures are slime-like, you can make alternate strips of each colour to create a really cool look.

Please be aware that once you start to play with the colours together, they will mix and a black slime with orange and black glitter will form.

This slime will also look like it fits in with the season as the orange will still be visible in the glitter.

Homemade slime tip: When I make slime, I like to use wide craft sticks rather than spoons when I stir. That way, I don’t have to wash glue off the spoons later!

This Hallowe’en slime recipe is fun to play with and would make such cute favours to hand out at a party or at the door to little Trick or Treaters. You can buy small plastic containers with lids to hand this slime out in.

If you’re using it for play at home or at school, store it in an airtight plastic or glass container or resealable plastic bag.

Check out some of our other Hallowe’en slime ideas:

Creepy Spider Web Slime Hallowe’en Sensory Game with Slime

Hallowe’en Sensory Game

By Sharla Kostelyk Leave a Comment

This Hallowe’en sensory game is so much fun! It combines a very popular sensory material with learning and fun. This game engages the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems.

I remember when I was about eight years old. The neighbourhood moms put together a Hallowe’en party for all the kids. One of the activities was us having to reach our hands into things and guess what was inside.

It was things like cooked spaghetti (brains) or jello (guts). I still remember the feeling of the squishy spaghetti noodles slipping between my fingers. Yuck!

This sensory game is a bit of a play on that idea. It uses one of the most popular sensory materials out there, slime.

How to Play the Hallowe’en Sensory Game:

In order to set this game up, you’ll need to first make one or several recipes of fluffy slime. There is a recipe listed below. The reason that you want to use fluffy slime for this is that it sticks to hands less than other slime does.

Take a medium sized bowl or plastic container and put a layer of slime inside. Add in some small Hallowe’en trinkets and toys. Put another layer of slime and another layer of small toys. Top with more slime to cover the toys. Ideas of toys to use:

For older kids, you can pick gory type toys like the Zombie fingers in a black slime for maximum fun factor. For younger kids, brighter coloured slime and cute little toys are best.

There are two ways to play. Of course, if you can’t decide which to try, you can always play both versions!

Have each child reach in and retrieve an item. You can let them keep their item as a prize.
Have each child reach into the container and try to guess (without looking at the item) what the item is only using their sense of touch (tactile).

Fluffy Slime Recipe:

16 oz. Elmer’s washable white school glue
3 cups of shaving cream
food colouring or acrylic paint
1 cup liquid starch

In a large bowl, mix together the glue and shaving cream. Add some food colouring or paint in the colour you want to create. With fluffy slime, because of the shaving cream, you’ll have to use more colouring than you do with regular slime to get the same colours.

Once the glue, shaving cream, and colour are well mixed, slowly begin to add in the liquid starch. Continue to stir and add the starch in until the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a clump.

At this point, remove it from the bowl with your hands. Knead it until it has reached the consistency of slime. It is now ready to be used to set up the Hallowe’en game.

You can use all one colour of slime or make several colours and combine them or layer them. You can use Hallowe’en colours like black and orange or green and purple. Any colour will work though. It just looks more Hallowe’en-y if the colours fit. I hope you enjoy our little Hallowe’en sensory game. It would be fun for the classroom, home, or for a Hallowe’en party.

Check out these other Hallowe’en Sensory Activities:

Eyeball Sensory Bin

Monsters Sensory Bin

How To Make Squishies

By Sharla Kostelyk 1 Comment

My kids love squishies. They are a great sensory tool. I came up with the idea to make a DIY squishy for them. I had a hard time figuring out how to make them myself until I stumbled upon something. That’s how these DIY Emoji Squishies were born. I found that the size of these was perfect for my kids to squeeze. They fit easily into their hands. So satisfying to squish!

Materials to make Homemade Emoji Squishies:

round makeup sponges (we found these colourful ones at the dollar store)
permanent markers in a variety of colours (you’ll need black and red at minimum)

How to make Homemade Emoji Squishies:

Draw an emoji face onto each round makeup sponge with permanent markers.

Set them aside overnight to dry. It is important that you resist the urge to squish them until they are fully dry or the faces will smear. We made that mistake initially. Once they have sat overnight, squish them, play with them, share them. Toss some into backpacks or purses for on-the-go fidgets.

I love how these emoji squishies are not only a sensory tool, but a great way to help kids talk about their emotions too. You know I’m all about helping kids to develop an emotional vocabulary and making it fun and natural for them to talk about their feelings. I encouraged the kids to tell stories using the emoji faces. I thought this would be a great way for them to practise their emotional vocabulary.

My plan may have backfired a bit when little miss here decided to create a love story between two of the emoji faces. Her little drama ended in them kissing! Silly girl!If you’re able to find your makeup sponges at the dollar store, then these are so inexpensive to make. Ours came in a pack of 6, making these less than 25 cents each to make! They would be cute to give as party favours or to make with a group.

They are a nice change up for kids to use instead of a stress ball as they have a similar effect. These are also a great fidget toy to have in the classroom as they don’t make any noise.

For more easy and fun ways to help your kids learn about emotions and be able to communicate their feelings, check out our popular Teaching Emotions Toolkit.

Join me for a free 5 part email series, Little Hearts, Big Worries offering resources and hope for parents.

Rainbow Confetti Party Slime

By Sharla Kostelyk Leave a Comment

Whether you are new to the slime craze train or barreling full speed ahead down the tracks, you’ll love this simple rainbow confetti party slime.

My kids are fully on board the slime train, so we have had the chance to make many types. By adding a small twist to each type, they never seem to get bored of it.

As with all slime recipes, supervise younger children, wash hands and surfaces that come into contact with the slime after playing, and avoid contact with clothing and hair.

Trust me on this one: slime and hair are a nasty combination!

Although I experiment with different types of slime, I prefer glue based slimes as they seem to have the best success rates. The type of glue you use matters, so rather than experiment, I suggest you use Elmer’s Washable School Glue. It’s tried and true.

There are many times when I suggest buying items from the dollar store or using a no-name brand, but this is not one of those times. If your kids are fully hooked on making slime, I suggest buying it by the gallon!

Rainbow Confetti Party Slime Recipe:

1/2 cup Elmer’s white glue
1/2 cup water
Wilton Color Right liquid (black)
1/4 cup liquid starch
rainbow sprinkles

Adult supervision is recommended for making the slime as it does involve a chemical reaction. I like to use the wide popsicle sticks (also called craft sticks) for mixing because I can throw them away afterwards. Spoons work as well of course, but I find the glue a bit finicky to get off after.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of glue.
Mix in the liquid color.*
Pour in the liquid starch.
Stir. Keep stirring until the liquid is gone and a glob of slime forms.
Knead the slime. It will be stringy and goopy in the beginning, but will quickly become more and more the consistency of slime.
Set the slime down and allow it to flatten out.
Sprinkle with the confetti sprinkles and let it sit 20 seconds or so.
Pick the slime up from underneath.

Elmer’s Liquid School Glue, Washable, 1 Gallon Rainbow Sprinkles Wilton Color Right Food Color Black Sta-Flo Liquid Starch

*Gel based food dyes are hard to mix into slimes and even harder to create a uniform colour with. I use a liquid based food dye for this reason.

Note that as the slime is played with, the sprinkles will mix in and lose their coloring, but that’s all part of the fun. Once they are dissolved, it will look like a completely new slime! Slime is great for sensory play. This particular one would be fun to make at a birthday party. Each of the kids could take home their slime in a small plastic container as a party favour.

For awesome slime recipes at your fingertips, check out The Slime Book – From Edible Slime to Glow-in-the-Dark Slime – it’s got it all!

Check out these other slime recipes:

Holiday Jingle Bell Slime

Outdoor Sensory Scavenger Hunt for Kids

By Sharla Kostelyk 1 Comment

This outdoor sensory scavenger hunt is a great way to not only get kids outside and moving, but to also teach them about all 8 sensory systems. This activity is such a fun way for kids to get their ever important sensory input.

This is a great hands-on sensorimotor activity that encourages children to explore their senses and the world around them.

How to create a Sensory Scavenger Hunt:

Setting up this scavenger hunt couldn’t be simpler! Print off the Sensory Scavenger Hunt checklist or create your own. Give each person a crayon or marker along with their sheet. Go outside and begin the scavenger hunt.

This can be done in your backyard, a nature preserve, or park. All that’s needed is the paper, something to mark it with, and a child eager to explore.

Use the activities on the checklist to teach or reinforce the different sensory systems. Each item lists the sensory system that it corresponds to. This is a great way to help kids learn the terminology.

The scavenger hunt includes samples for the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, vestibular, proprioception, and interoception senses.

This is an excellent example of a hands-on way to reinforce the concepts of sensory processing that are taught in the My Sensory Self Workbook for Kids. By allowing kids to actually do things representing each sensory system, it will make the concepts more concrete for them.

My kids completely loved the sensory scavenger hunt. They appreciated that it went beyond the usual “finding” that goes on in a typical scavenger hunt. One of my daughters particularly liked the rolling and balancing activities while another preferred being still and finding shapes in the clouds.

This activity is such a fun way to explore nature through your senses! Plus, it’s a great boredom buster.

You can also create your own sensory scavenger hunt specific to your backyard or indoor space. Kids can help design the scavenger hunts as well or help brainstorm additional ideas.

This gets great discussions going about all the different senses and how we can use them.

If your child finds rolling or balancing difficult, you can choose other vestibular tasks to replace those. I also have one daughter who can’t stand the smell of flowers, so while her sister loved smelling ALL the flowers in our yard, I let her smell the grass instead.
To get your free printable Sensory Scavenger Hunt, just enter your email address below.

You can also combine this activity with creating a Nature Sensory Bottle or Nature Sensory Bin by collecting some of the items found along the way. Just like that, you’ll have a double dose of sensory fun!