sensory play

Gingerbread Playdough Station

This week, we are concentrating on the letter “G” and I just couldn’t think of a great sensory bin to go with that, so instead, I made a Gingerbread Sensory Table. I have this awesome recipe for Gingerbread Playdough that looks and smells like real gingerbread dough. We make it most years before the holidays.

This scented gingerbread playdough smells just like gingerbread and makes such a fun Christmas sensory station. The only negative thing about this playdough is that it smells so good and the colour looks so much like true gingerbread dough that kids want to eat it. In fact, my great-niece was over last night and couldn’t resist tasting it!

I set out a rolling pin, a cookie sheet, 3 gingerbread cookie cutters, and a flipper (spatula) along with a large container of the gingerbread playdough. Our kids have so much fun pretending to bake gingerbread men. You can also set out items like yarn for them to decorate their gingerbread men. The playdough stays fresh for a long time as long as it’s kept in a tightly sealed container in between play sessions.

Gingerbread Playdough Station

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe:

5 cups flour
1 cup salt
6 Tbsp. oil
2 1/2 tsp. alum
3 pkg. unsweetened orange Koolaid
3 1/2 cups boiling water
6 Tbsp. instant coffee
1 Tbsp. each of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves

Mix Koolaid, flour, spices, alum, and salt in a bowl. Pour in oil and mix until crumbly. Combine water and instant coffee and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well. Keep dough in an airtight container.

This dough makes a great Christmas gift, especially if packaged with a few gingerbread cookie cutters and a children’s rolling pin.

We also have several other Christmas playdough themes that you may be interested in. I find that they are a great way to keep kids occupied during the holiday season while I am busy preparing food or cleaning.

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Snow Playdough and Invitation to Play

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

Condensed Milk Edible Paint

By Sharla Kostelyk

We had so much fun with this condensed milk painting. The edible paint produces beautiful glossy art. Your kids will love the end results and the process to get there!Condensed milk paint was something I stumbled upon. A week or so ago, I opened up a can of condensed milk for a recipe only to discover that the recipe actually called for evaporated milk!

This left me with an opened can of condensed milk sitting in my fridge. I was going to just throw it out until I came across an idea to do condensed milk painting!

Making this edible paint is so easy.

Condensed Milk Edible Paint Recipe:

300 mL or 415 mL can sweetened condensed milk (10 – 14 oz.)
food colouring
ice cube tray
toothpicks (optional)

Fill an ice cube tray with condensed milk.
Add one or two drops of food colouring in each cube.
Use toothpicks to stir them.
The paint is now ready to use.
Use paintbrushes (or fingers) to paint on paper. You can use regular paper, card stock, or finger paint paper.

This edible paint recipe is included in the Sensory Play Recipes eBook. You’ll find so many easy sensory ideas inside. You can get a free sample using the form below.

My kids really enjoyed using this paint to create pictures. The pictures turned out so well. The paint gave a shiny, glossy finish. The kids were really pleased with the cool effect of that.

Even after the paint dries, it maintains its shiny look.

Each of the kids wanted to try tasting the paint. Snuggle Puppy ate almost as much as he painted with! Condensed milk painting is a simple sensory activity. It engages the visual, tactile and gustatory (taste) sensory systems.

I love suggesting this activity to other moms because most people already have the ingredients needed in their kitchens. This makes it an easy last minute or rainy day activity.

Because it is taste-safe, condensed milk paint is also great for toddlers and even babies to play with. It can also be used as finger paint.

Other easy homemade sensory recipes you might want to check out:

Shaving Cream Painting Lavender Scented Bubbles

Soap Foam

Textured Butter Slime

Bubble Painting!

By Sharla Kostelyk

Bubble painting is something I’d been wanting to try for awhile, but it sounded complicated, so I wanted to wait for the right time. The right time came along one afternoon last week when only the girls were home. As it turns out, it was easy and I could have done it with all the kids!

All you need are a few simple items. Most of them you may already have around the house. You can see in the video below how easy this project is to do.

Bubble Painting:

Supplies needed:

Bubble Painting Recipe:

Use a ratio of 4 Tbsp. dish soap to 2 Tbsp. of the paint.

Directions:

Put newspaper or butcher paper down on the table to protect it from mess.
In shallow bowls, mix the dish soap with paint. Make up a separate mixture for each colour.
Have your child blow bubbles in the paint mixture using a drinking straw until the bubbles are at the top of or above the bowl.
Gently place a paper on top and allow the bubbles to pop before removing the paper. Do the same with other colours. The more coloured bubbles you create on the paper, the cooler the effect.
Once the desired look is achieved, allow the paper to dry flat.

I was hoping that by using primary colours, we would also get some colour mixing, but even when overlapping, the colours don’t mix on the paper because the paint is so thin with it being created with a bubble.

This was a fun and easy craft and used household items. It’s an inexpensive art project for kids. I wish we had done it sooner and I am sure that we will do it again soon because the boys want to try!There were lots of giggles while the girls were blowing the bubbles. This project incorporates visual, tactile, proprioception, and gustatory (oral) sensory input.