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sensory play

Water Beads Sensory Tray

By Sharla Kostelyk

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With all of the sensory bins and activities we have done over the years, we had yet to use water beads. I had a misconception that they were sticky and gross, so I had been avoiding them! After this experience, I can say that we will be using them on a regular basis from now on.

Water Sensory TrayPlease note that due to the potential for sea glass to be sharp and the potential choking hazards of the rest of the items, this tray is designed more for older children than for toddlers. Even with older kids, this is a tray that should be used with adult supervision.

To create this water beads sensory tray, I used a glass 9×13 inch cake pan. I lay sea glass, glass beads, and water beads into the bottom of the pan. For the water beads, I used two shades of blue aa well as clear beads. I then added water.

water tray progressionThe kids loved watching the water beads grow from those tiny little dots to marble sized balls. They also loved how the clear water beads were invisible underwater. This fascinated them! They would scoop their hand into the water and ask someone else to guess how many water beads they had in their hand. Since you could only see the blue ones, the other person would guess a small number and then they would delight in pulling their hand up out of the water to reveal a large amount of beads. I was even amazed at how invisible the clear ones were underwater!

The textures between the gel feeling of the water beads to the sharp rough edges of the sea glass to the smoothness of the glass beads to the moisture of the water gave this tray a lot of variety. This sensory activity held the attention of my kids for a long time and they used it for weeks. We probably would have kept it for longer except that it was beginning to feel a bit slimy! The kids have already asked me to make this one again.

Another caution I will give as well for the water beads is that when they escape the tray, they feel pretty yucky to step on in bare feet!

You can find many more sensory ideas in the Sensory Bins book.

Sensory Bins Book

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

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

Sensory Activities with Baby Oil

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Sensory Activities with Baby OilBaby oil has a scent that either you love or hate and I have some kids in each camp so some of them can’t get enough of these while others choose not to play with them because of the smell and I’m okay with that.

Moon Dough.

Moon dough is so easy to make and provides hours of fun. I recommend playing with it outside as it does tend to be a messy activity.

The basic recipe of moon dough is 8 cups of flour mixed with 1 cup of baby oil. If you are making this for a younger child who may try to eat it, you can replace the baby oil with cooking oil. It will not have the scent but will be safer for younger children.

Playing with Moon Dough

Sensory Bags.

Sensory bags are just as easy to make as moon dough is. I put about equal amounts of water and baby oil in a sandwich bag and then added a few drops of food colouring. You could also add glitter to the bags. The kids really enjoyed squishing the bags and especially liked laying them flat and seeing the colour displace when touching the bag with their finger.

Sensory Bags

Sensory Bottle.

To make this one, I just added baby oil, water, glitter, and a few drops of food colouring to an empty water bottle.

sensory bottle
I will be featuring sensory activities every day this week in celebration of the launch of my new eBook, Sensory Bins.

Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

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

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Filed Under: Sensory, Sensory Bins, Summer Sensory Activities Tagged With: sensory play

Creating a Colour Themed Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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I find that having themes makes creating a sensory bin much easier and often, the themes are easy to think of such as near a holiday or when we are doing a unit study on a particular topic. Sometimes, themes are a bit harder to think of. In those times, doing something a bit more generic such as using items that all start with a certain letter or everything in one colour can be an easy way to create a sensory tub.

Creating a Colour Themed Sensory BinI decided on a purple themed bin because I had some great things on hand that just happened to be purple! For the base, I used crinkly purple paper shreds for crunch, rice that had been dyed purple, purple foam bits that were nice and soft, beads, and pompoms. I added a purple shovel as a scoop, string, plastic grapes in different shades of purple, and a (fake) Canadian $10 bill.

Purple Sensory BinTo create a sensory bin around a particular colour is as easy as having a look around your house to see what you may have on hand that would fit the bill and throwing it all into a container for the kids to explore! The ideas are endless…for a blue themed bin, water with a few drops of blue food colouring could serve as a base as could blue jello or glass beads. For a white bin, cotton batting or cotton balls make an obvious choice for a base, but foam packing pellets, white rice or shaving cream could also be used.

Creating a bin using your child’s favourite colour will make your child feel special. Of course, finding the items to add to the bin can be a great learning experience, especially for children who are just learning their colours. Involve your child in choosing what to add to the bin and in brainstorming what items in that colour may already be in your house.

I will be featuring sensory activities every day this week in celebration of the launch of my new eBook, Sensory Bins. Buy your copy today for just $2.99.

Sensory Bins Cover 3DFor more sensory bin ideas, you may want to follow my Sensory Bins Board on Pinterest or check out our family’s favourite sensory bins.

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

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

Construction Sensory Bins

By Sharla Kostelyk

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In my experience, construction themed sensory bins are a big hit with boys (and girls) and are so easy to put together. I’ve actually made two types of construction sensory bins because the kids don’t seem to tire of this theme.

Construction Sensory BinFor the first bin, I just used sand coloured Kidfettti as the base and just threw in a bunch of construction toys. The kids enjoyed scooping and playing.

Construction Sensory Bin #1A few months later, I made a different sensory bin with this theme. This time, I put a bit more than one minute into making it and I have to admit that the kids did spend longer periods of time playing in the second one than they had the first!

I again used Kidfetti as the base. I like that it’s very easy to clean up, doesn’t get ruined if it gets wet and is smooth. It works well for a construction bin. I added chocolate playdough into one corner so that the kids could pretend it was mud and a pile of rocks into another corner before adding the construction vehicles.

Construction Sensory Bin #2I will be featuring sensory activities every day this week in celebration of the launch of my new eBook, Sensory Bins.

Sensory Bins Cover 3DFor more sensory bin ideas, you may want to follow my Sensory Bins Board on Pinterest or check out our family’s favourite sensory bins.

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

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

Monsters Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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This Monsters Sensory Bin has got to be one of my all time favourites. The little sponge monsters with the googly eyes are pretty darn adorable!

Monsters Sensory Bin with adorable googly eyed sponges #sensoryplay #sensorybins #sensorybin #kidsactivities #monstersLast week, I made a Monsters themed sensory bin. This was such a fun bin to create and for the kids to play with.

As the main base, I used fuzzy, glittery pompoms. I added a BumbleBall Jr. (when you pull the string, it bounces about), a wooden monster, lots of squishy sensory balls and creatures, colourful links, googly eyes, and kitchen sponges that the kids made into monsters.

To make our little monsters, all we did was glue googly eyes onto kitchen sponges. They were fun to make and were a great addition to the monster sensory bin.

monster craft

My kids really enjoyed this sensory bin. Their favourites were the large sensory ball that contained a light up ball inside that jiggled around and the BumbleBall. They also enjoyed using the colourful links as a necklace while they played.

This monster sensory bin is especially fun for kids who love the Monsters movie. You can add in some of their favourite characters from the film.

playing with a monster sensory binThere are a variety of textures includes because of the squishy sponges, the hard plastic on the links and the Bumbleball. There are also lots of other textures to explore with the wood, the fuzzy bits on the pompoms and on some of the sensory balls.

Be sure to use caution if making this sensory bin for little ones. The googly eyes can come off the sponges, especially if they chew on them and that could pose a choking hazard. As with all sensory play, adult supervision is recommended.

If you are looking for more sensory bin ideas or information, you may be interested in my book.

The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

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Edible Freezie Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

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This was one of those activities that probably was better conceptually than it actually was in reality but the kids were just happy to have an excuse to get to eat a freezie!

Freezie PaintingI used fingerpainting paper because it is glossy and doesn’t tear easily. Incidentally, this seems to be my go-to paper for all edible art projects as it is also what we use for pudding painting and condensed milk painting.

This is as simple as cutting the tops off of store-bought freezies (or making your own) and handing them to the kids to paint or drip onto the paper. Some of the kids chose more of an abstract creation while some chose to make shapes or houses or trees.

Some of my kids even chose to lick their papers! And of course all of them chose to eat the rest of their freezie when they were done their painting! (a few clever kids even convinced me that their art needed more than one colour, therefore they needed a second freezie to complete their masterpiece!)

This is part of my series of Summer Sensory Activities.

Summer Sensory Activities Series

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

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