sensory play

Construction Sensory Bins

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.

For 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.

A 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.

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

For 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.

Monsters Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

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!

Last 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.

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.

There 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.

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

Edible Freezie Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

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!

I 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.

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

Frozen Treasure Find

By Sharla Kostelyk

I find that it’s so much easier to think of fun sensory activities when the weather is nice! While this activity did require some prep work on my part, it was so worthwhile because this kept the kids occupied for a very long time!

I actually made one big frozen treasure find for the kids all to work on together and then little ones for each of them just for fun.

For the individual ones, I used empty yogourt containers and put a few small items in each. I used glittery foam stickers, sequins and pompoms. I then filled them with water and froze them. The little ones were much more challenging to unmold than the big one was, but after having them sit in water for a minute, they came out easily.

The larger one took more time to make as I made it in layers. I used an empty ice cream bucket and placed some items at the bottom before adding a layer of water. I then put that in the freezer and when it had set, I added a few more items and a layer of water that I had added some blue food paste to so that it created layers of blue. The interesting thing is that the layers of regular water I added afterwards each took on a bit of the blue but less with each layer, creating a really cool effect that was completely unintentional!

The weather hadn’t been great, so I wasn’t in a rush to complete this and took a few days of adding layers here and there and keeping it in the freezer in between.

For the “treasures”, I used a few play coins, sequins, ocean life shaped ice cubes, pompoms, silk flowers, foam stickers, string that I wound through the layers, toy fish, and mini pinwheels. I tried to stick with a summer theme.

I ran the bucket under the water for a few seconds to release the ice creation from the ice cream pail and set it outside for the kids to play with. They used spray bottles, squirt bottles, a turkey baster, and plastic spoons to try to release the treasures from the ice.

This occupied them for a long time and it morphed into a bit of a science project as they decided to experiment with different temperatures of water in their bottles and with different techniques. It was also a good way to cool off on a hot summer day!This project is part of my series on Summer Sensory Activities.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

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

Ice Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

Ice painting is a great outdoor activity for kids to engage in. It allows exploration of temperature, texture and art. All that is needed for this art project is an ice cube tray, tempera paint, popsicle sticks, and paper. As I have been doing for some of our sensory art projects, I again used fingerpainting paper because of its glossiness and durability.

The set-up for this particular art was very simple and the finished products turned out quite well!

To prepare for this, I poured tempera paint in ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. I let them set for a bit and then inserted small popsicle sticks in them before allowing them to freeze completely. I actually left mine in the freezer for several days because it was a rainy week and I was waiting for a day when the sun came out!

When it came time to the actual painting, I ran the bottom of the tray under water to loosen the paint pops and then gave the kids their ice paint pops and let them paint away! As the paint pops melted, some of the kids used their hands to spread paint around.

I forgot to add that Snuggle Puppy really got into the whole “sensory” concept and decided to lick the ice pop! I do not recommend you try this one at home!!!

This is just one of the projects we did as part of our 5 Days of Summer Sensory Activities.

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

Shaving Cream Polka-Dot Sidewalk Painting

By Sharla Kostelyk

The last time we did shaving cream painting, I used food colouring to add the colour and we painted mostly inside on paper, though the kids did end up using it to paint on trees and on themselves! Since I still have many cans of shaving cream that I got for free using coupons, I thought that maybe we could try an outdoor version.

I purchased a bath mat at the dollar store (so this entire activity ended up only costing me an extra dollar!). The bath mat caught my eye because it was full of holes and I immediately knew that we could use it as a giant stencil for something.

This time, I used actual paint and mixed it into the shaving cream in a muffin tin. I used washable tempera paint so that it would easily wash away during the next rain. I used shaving cream that was lemon-lime scented to add another sensory element. I lay the bath mat on the concrete and the kids used plastic spoons and their hands to spread the foamy paint onto it. When we lifted it up, we had a polka dot pattern on the sidewalk!

This was something that kept the kids occupied for longer than it took to set up the activity and that always translates into a success in my mind!

This is part of my 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.