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sensory play

Frozen Sensory Bin

Frozen inspired sensory bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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There’s a Disney movie you may have heard of called Frozen. I am probably one of the few people in North America who has not seen it. I heard little snippets of it once when the kid had friends over who had brought the movie with them and they were all watching it in the other room while I made supper, but I have never sat down and watched it.

I can deduce though given the amount of references to the movie, the frequency of times I’ve been subjected to listen to “Let it Go” sung by my tone deaf daughter, and what I see in stores that this movie is a big deal, in particular to children of a certain age. In this case, given that I haven’t seen the movie, I guess you could say that I was inspired by the movie’s popularity to make a Frozen sensory bin.

Frozen inspired sensory binFor the base, I used salt, but you could also use sugar (which I don’t recommend because it may be too tempting for kids to eat it!) or epsom salt. I added reusable plastic ice cubes in purple and various shades of blue. I froze these to begin with to add another sensory element to the bin of having something cold.

I added fuzzy pompoms in blue and white, glass beads in blue and clear, a tiny Elsa figurine, and some larger Frozen characters, Olaf, Kristof, Anna, and Hans or Sven ( I don’t know which is which!).

Frozen Inspired Sensory BinThis Frozen sensory bin is a simple one but it combines several textures and opens itself up to imaginative play with the addition of the characters.

For hundreds of other sensory bin ideas, you can also follow my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Sensory Bins on Pinterest.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book. The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

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Filed Under: Sensory, Sensory Bins Tagged With: sensory bin, sensory play

Maple Scented Canada Day Playdough

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Homemade playdough is the best. I don’t think there is anyone that would dispute that when compared to store-bought, it is softer and less crumbly and messy and lasts longer. But I used to hate making homemade playdough because it made my arms sore to stir it for so long as it thickened!

I have finally discovered the secret to making homemade playdough without getting sore arms! The answer to my playdough-making-problem was sitting on my kitchen counter right under my nose…my KitchenAid!

Homemade Playdough that won't make your arms soreI got the KitchenAid as my Christmas gift last year and honestly, I have only used it a handful of times, but I noticed it sitting there on the counter and an idea began to form…what if it could do the work for me? I put the flat beater attachment on and began to add the ingredients for the playdough.

I let it mix the dry ingredients first before adding the oil and then the boiling water. I could not believe how well it worked. I kept it on the two lowest settings and it was done in no time at all. 

It took less than five minutes to have soft playdough ready for my kids to use! My arms did not have to get a workout and the clean-up was easy. I will be making playdough in my KitchenAid from now on!

Of course, I also went outside and told my husband immediately that I had found a purpose for the gift he had bought me and it would get plenty of use now!

Maple Scented playdough perfect for Canada DayRecipe for Maple Scented Playdough

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup salt
2 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. maple flavouring
1 cup boiling water

maple shaped candy sprinkles (edible confetti)

Put dry ingredients in KitchenAid mixer. Add oil and maple flavouring and begin mixing with the flat beater. As it is mixing on the lowest setting, add the boiling water. Mix until desired playdough texture is achieved.

Take the dough out of the mixer and allow it to cool before adding some maple leaf shaped candy sprinkles.  If you add the sprinkles before the dough is cool, they will melt.

*Note that the candy sprinkles will melt anyway while your kids play with the dough but waiting until the dough is cool will allow them to retain their shape initially.

Canada Day maple scented playdoughI set the dough out with some play maple leaves and leaf shaped cookie cutters to encourage imaginative play. My kids really like playdough as part of their sensory play.

If you are looking for more playdough ideas and recipes, you may want to follow my Playing with Playdough board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Playing with Playdough on Pinterest.

Free Printable Playdough Mats

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

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Ghost Hands Campfire Fun

By Sharla Kostelyk

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I’m not sure if moms and dads out there are going to hate me or thank me for introducing them to ghost hands! I’m not sure if I should thank my friend Christie for introducing it to my kids but I’m paying it forward by introducing it to the world!

Ghost Hands - the most fun you can have around a campfire!I warn you now. It’s messy. Sticky and messy. And yuck. But fun. So much fun!

We were over at our friends’ (and neighbours) house. It was the first warm Sunday afternoon of the Spring and we were enjoying a visit by the campfire after an outdoor spaghetti dinner. The sounds of approaching summer could be heard over the sound of the dirt bikes and quads the kids took turns riding. Later, the kids made s’mores while the adults visited.

Christie asked my kids if they had ever heard of “ghost hands”. They had not and she kindly decided to teach them. I wasn’t too thrilled with that at first since it’s so messy but it turned into the most fun our family has had in a long while.

The kids weren’t the only ones who were laughing! If you can get past the messy factor, you’re going to love this one! I know there will never be another campfire where my kids don’t ask to do ghost hands!

ghost hands…the most fun that can be had around a campfire!Ghost hands are about as cheap and easy as family entertainment gets!

You only need one item, marshmallows. You could of course do it anywhere but I would HIGHLY recommend you only do this outside!

This doesn’t have to be a campfire activity, but it does make sense to have it be because then everyone is already outside, having fun, and there are often marshmallows on hand to roast over the fire or to make s’mores with.

The ghost hands process is very straightforward. Take one large marshmallow and start to work it between your hands. Work it until it is squishy and just keep smooshing it. It will eventually get to a point where when you pull your hands apart, strings of ooey-gooey marshmallow mush will connect the hands. That’s when you know you have achieved Ghost Hands!

Now it’s up to you what you do with your ghost hands. You can play with the mess you’ve created and enjoy the sensory experience or you can chase your parents, siblings and friends around the yard, pretending that you are going to touch their hair with your ghost hands if you catch them!

You can put your hands down on the grass and the grass will stick to them, creating a sea creature hands type of effect. You can try to catch mosquitos in the white web you’ve created. There’s no end to the fun that can be had with just that one marshmallow! If you want to, you can even lick your hands (eww)!

Ghost Hands FunThese pictures were taken before the kids got the idea to chase the adults around the yard, gooey hands outstretched, reaching for our hair! You can see Christie’s delight though in having taught my kids something that will surely be creating messes for me for years to come!

Note to parents:

This washes off easily. Just bring out a basin of warm, soapy water and your kids will lose their ghost hands and you won’t have to worry about them making sticky handprints in the house!

I wasn’t sure how this one would go over with some of our SPD (sensory processing disorder) kids but they loved it and there were no issues.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.
Minute to Win It Family Fun Night

Trampoline Games and Other Fun Trampoline Ideas

Waiting Rooms: a Parent’s Survival Guide

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Citrus Sensory Bin

Citrus Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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I first got the idea for making this sensory bin when my neighbour was telling me that you can dry out limes. I thought it would be neat to combine some elements of real food with other items in a sensory bin. I liked the idea of keeping some of the natural scents and textures.

Citrus Sensory Bin

This took me on a bit of an experimental journey into drying citrus! I had some limes that I had taken some of the zest off for a recipe (that’s why there are stripes on the limes in the picture!) and I set them on top of the registers so that when the heat came on, they would dry out.

Drying the limes worked really well so I decided to try the same process on oranges and lemons. The larger fruit didn’t fare as well.

I wasn’t deterred. I then tried slicing oranges and lemons and limes and drying the slices in the same way I had dried the limes. I threw a few more of the whole fruit on there as well to see if I might have better luck the second time around. The larger lemons and orange didn’t work out but the citrus slices did.

drying citrusFor the sensory bin, I used dried lemon, orange and lime slices, the dried limes, some dried mini mandarin oranges, 2 plastic lemons, some oranges I had cut out from the cardboard box the mandarins came in, and a yellow scrubber. I also added a shaker of lemon pepper to put another element of citrus scent in the bin.

It was a very different sensory bin than what we usually make so it was a nice change and the kids thought it was neat that it used real fruit.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book. The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

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Filed Under: Sensory, Sensory Bins Tagged With: sensory bin, sensory play

History Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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I find it easiest to create sensory bins that have some type of theme to them. If there is something that we are studying in homeschooling, a sensory bin along that theme can further reinforce what the kids are learning as well as providing an opportunity for sensory play.

Last week, the kids watched the classic musical “Annie Get Your Gun“. They adored it and are still singing “no, you can’t get a man with a gu-un”! Granola Girl was even singing it through the aisles in the grocery store the other day!

Since they were already so interested and asking lots of questions, I decided to expand their learning and teach them about the history of Annie Oakley, the woman the movie is based on and about that time in history. I happened to have a Wild West TOOB which had an Annie Oakley figurine in it (I hadn’t even noticed that when I bought it!) so I used that to create a sensory bin that would allow the kids to play and expand on the story they had watched in the movie.

History Sensory BinFor the base of the bin, I used dry white beans in one section, aquarium rocks that we had left over from a science experiment we had done the week before in another section and I finished it off with an area of moss. Then I added the Wild West TOOB figures and let the kids play.

I know that my sensory bin may not be completely historically accurate, but the point of it is to get the kids more interested in history and its characters by letting them explore. They loved that there was an Annie Oakley figure and had such fun reenacting scenes from the movie.

You can create a history sensory bin to go with any period in history (think Ancient Greece or Ancient Egypt) or that is centred on a specific historical figure (think inventors, artists, politicians or heroes).

For hundreds of other sensory bin ideas, you can also follow my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Sensory Bins on Pinterest.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book. The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Sensory, Sensory Bins Tagged With: sensory bin, sensory play

Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin

Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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For the start of our holiday season this year, I thought I would create a sensory bin with a winter wonderland theme. It’s a stark difference from our usual Christmas sensory bin with bright holiday colours, but the kids were delighted by it.

Winter Wonderland Sensory BinI used a large foil roasting pan as the bin because I thought the silver looked best with what I was planning. For the bin’s base, I used shredded snow. I bought a bag of it from the dollar store and when I examined it once I got home, what it looked like was shredded bubble wrap, so it would be easy enough to make your own.

I added silver candles, silver puffy snowflakes, large clear plastic snowflakes, silver beads, jingle bells, silver ribbon, small white pompoms, a clear plastic ornament with white and silver detailing, and a white poinsettia clip.

Playing with Winter Wonderland Sensory BinMy kids have been enjoying the bin.Dancing Queen gravitated towards exploring the sounds by listening to the jingle bells and the crinkle of the beads. Granola Girl was initially after a more tactile experience and found the texture of the clear snowflakes very appealing. She kept touching them to her face as well as running her fingers over the ridges.

The boys were most interested in the feel of the fake snow and they may have had a small “snowball” fight with the white pompoms! Such funny creatures boys are! They can even find a way to make a sensory bin an action packed adventure!

If you are looking for more sensory ideas or information, you may be interested in my book and by following my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Winter Sensory Tray

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

Winter Sensory Bin

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