Under the Sea Sensory Activities

Last week we had two activities with an "Under the Sea" theme. Both activities involved sensory play. I'm sure over the years we will have many more "Under the Sea" themed activities! 

Activity #1: 

The first activity involved a bit of messy play! We are still somewhat new to messy play, so there's a bit of hesitation with one of my littles. For this activity, I purchased cheap shaving cream and use food coloring to color it blue to represent water. I gathered several of our sea animal collection and added it to our tray of shaving cream. I thought there would be hesitation (and I was right), so I had a bowl of warm water beside this. They could "save" the animal and wash it, which eliminated some of the "mess" - fine by me! By the end, I had one little alllllll in the shaving cream with her hands! 

I can't wait to try other messy play ideas when it's warmer out and we can do them outside!

Activity #2:
The second activity consisted of a sensory bin with rice, sea animals, scoops, and mini bowls. For this activity, I dyed rice different shades of blue and added the animals. Later I added scoops and bowls because my littles LOVE to scoop and pour! They are still learning  pretend play and they much prepared scooping and pouring! It still made for a cute activity and they loved it!

 We used the same sea animals from the previous activity.

Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are one of our favorite activities around here and I try hard to always have a sensory bin out! This style of sensory bin is always my little ones FAVORITE, so you could say it's a "regular" around here. It's so incredibly easy to put together and the materials are all budget friendly!

Materials:

• Beans (any kind will do)
• Various types of utensils (here I have wooden scoops, tongs, and a measuring cup)
• Mini bowls (I believe they are for condiments)
• Mini plastic shot glasses (YES, you read that right! They are the PERFECT size for sensory play!)

My girls LOVE to scoop and pour, so this is ALWAYS a hit! It is one we keep on rotation all the time. I change up the utensils every now and then, but the main components are always the same.

Sensory Play

Happy Friday! I'm popping in quick to share TWO sensory play experiences we've had lately. I always, always have a sensory bin out and usually switch them out every two weeks or so. These two activities didn't go in our sensory bin. We kept them separate, but enjoyed them so much.

Sensory Play #1: Every now and then I find this play foam in the Target Dollar Spot. I always grab it when I see it! This month we used green for St. Patrick's Day! Play foam is neat because it can form together to create a ball, but it's flexible and squishy enough to stretch and flatten (we made "pancakes" with it). It doesn't last very long in our house because things stick to it and it becomes a little icky (especially after being used as a basketball!), but it's always a fun activity with a different texture!

Sensory Play #2: Our occupational therapist recently brought us water beads and they are AWESOME! One of my kids loved squishing her hand down in them and loved the feel of it. One didn't prefer it, so we worked on pincer grip by having her transfer them from one container to the next. My oldest really enjoyed water beads as well! This is going to be a MUST in our sensory play from now on!

Shape Sensory Bin

We've had this Melissa & Doug puzzle for a while and I love that not only can you work on shapes, you can work on colors with it, too.



I saw on Fun with Mama blog that she used this puzzle for a fun Shape Hunt Sensory Bin, so we recreated it using black beans. The beans were less than $1 and it took less than two minutes to throw this together. Literally just dump a filler (you could use rice, too) and added the shapes.

Before the activity, I hid the shapes under the beans. Once they found a shape, we talked about what shape it was and they placed it in the puzzle. My little ones really liked this activity and played with the beans for the longest time (with and without the shapes)! 

Valentine's Day Simple Sensory Bin

Last week I shared this fun Valentine's Day sensory bin with you that involved dyed rice, heart shaped cookie cutters, scoops, cups, etc. 

Not all of our sensory bins take a lot of time to set up, some are just simple and thrown together in minutes - like this one below!

I used a lot of the same materials here from the first sensory bin. I created two of these bins in a clear plastic container so they are easy to pull out, grab and go, or simple to keep on the shelf for this month.

Materials:

• Pom poms (we went with reds, pinks, purples, and white for this bin)
• Cups (Wal-Mart)
• Wooden scoops (Amazon)
• Heart shaped cookie cutters (Wal-Mart)

This bin can be thrown together literally in a few minutes and you're done! 

Valentine's Sensory Bin

Happy February! This month I am planning to share 14 days of Valentine's fun for toddler and elementary aged children!

I'll be sharing:

• toddler sensory bin ideas
• toddler math ideas
• toddler fine motor
• arts/crafts
• elementary science
• elementary math 

First, I am sharing our Valentine's themed sensory bin for the month! 

Materials:

• dyed rice (Wal-Mart)
• wooden scoops (Amazon)
• mini plastic glasses (Wal-Mart)
• cups (Wal-Mart)
• cookie cutters (Wal-Mart)
• table scatter (Dollar Tree) 

To dye the rice, I use this method:

1. Place 1 cup of rice in a gallon sized Ziploc bag.

2. Pour 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. 

3. Add food coloring of your choice.

4. Close the bag and shake so all pieces are rice are colored.

5. Spread on parchment paper to allow it to dry. This usually takes about 5 minutes.

It's that EASY and you can save it for years to come!

This sensory bin has been a HIT already! I put it out a little early and my girls have played with it every single day! They love to scoop and pour, so the wooden scoops and plastic cups have definitely been their favorite so far! 

Snowflake Canvas Painting

Happy January! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. A few weeks ago my girls enjoyed a fun snowflake painting, so I thought I would share this project with you all. We did this activity as part of occupational therapy, but it would be so cute to do anytime in the winter at home!

Materials:

• canvas
• blue paint
• painters tape 

First, make a snowflake on the blank canvas using painters tape. Next, have your child either paint with a paintbrush or for more sensory fun, use their HANDS! We opted for painting with our hands and it was such a FUN activity! I love the added sensory element with using hands. For children who don't enjoy this, you could easily use a paintbrush.

Once the painting dries, take off the painters tape and voila! You now have a snowflake painting! We displayed ours in the playroom for the a decorative piece during winter. 

Christmas Sensory Bin

We are having so much Christmas fun the month of December and I wanted to share with you one of our Christmas sensory bins! This was so easy to put together and my girls loved it.

Materials needed for this Christmas sensory bin:

• Red and green dyed rice
• Red and green pom poms
• Christmas tree cookie cutters
• Miniature trees
• Wooden peg people 

The beauty in sensory bins is that you can put whatever you like in them! For this bin, I stuck with a Christmas theme and added some pom poms from the Dollar Tree, cookie cutters, peg people, and trees. My girls very favorite part of this activity was the Christmas tree cookie cutters. They loved putting it down in the rice and then filling it up with more rice.

It was so simple to dye rice for this project. I used 1 cup of rice to 1 tbsp of vinegar with a few drops of food coloring. I added all of that to a gallon size bag, shook it up, and then let it dry flat on parchment paper. It is so easy to do! I recommend making multiple colors while you have the supplies out. After making this Christmas inspired dyed rice, I made rainbow rice using multiple colors and mixing them together.

I have so many Christmas themed activities to share with you soon! 

Gift Guide for Toddlers (Ages 1-3)

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is my very favorite holiday. It's time to start thinking of the perfect gift for your children. First, I am sharing a gift guide for toddlers ages 1-3. Be on the lookout for my next post, which is geared for older boys ages 8-9.

This gift guide will be divided into a few categories:

• Experiences
• Outdoor
• Indoor/Multi Use

Let's start with EXPERIENCES. 

I love the idea of experience gifts. Last year we purchased tickets for my son to see his favorite wrestler, AJ Styles, at an event in a neighboring state. Not only did he get to experience the show, but he and his daddy made it an overnight trip, which was exciting all in itself. Some experience gifts I would recommend are:

• Zoo - Purchase a family membership to your local zoo for year-round fun! We have found this to pay for itself after only a few trips to the zoo and is well worth the price! Plus, everyone in the family gets to enjoy!
  
  
• Children's Museum - We love our children's museum and go often! It was well worth the price for a family membership so we could go as often as we wanted. This is great for those cold months that we are indoors the majority of the day.
  
  
• Other museums - If you have other museums in your area, whether history museums or science museums, family memberships are great for experience gifts. 

Let's move on to OUTDOOR gift ideas.

• Water table - Water play is so much fun for kiddos and even if they have to wait a few months for warmer weather, a water table makes the perfect gift. We have this one from Step 2 and love it. 

• Tricycles - As your little one gets older, it's time to begin introducing tricycles! We have both (or are getting both from family) the Schwinn and Radio Flyer. 

  

• Picnic table - My little ones love having picnic lunches outside during the summer. This picnic table by Little Tikes is perfect for that. 

• Basketball goal - This basketball goal by Little Tikes is the perfect starter set for a young basketball player. My girls watch their older brother play basketball, so I know they'll love getting to play it themselves. 

• Little Tikes Cozy Coupe - This is a classic and it is so much fun for little ones! We were gifted this princess edition, but the traditional red/yellow is just as sweet. 

• Little Tikes T-Ball set - This is another cute beginner athlete set. My son loved this when he was young. To this day, baseball is his favorite sport!

Now let's move on to INDOOR/MULTI USE gift ideas. 

• Little Tikes Mini Trampoline - We recently received this gift and my two year olds LOVE it. 

• Play kitchen - Our little ones will soon receive a kitchen and I cannot wait! A play kitchen was one of my most loved toys as a child and I cannot wait for my littles to enjoy one. We decided on this Kidcraft play kitchen. We decided on a corner kitchen since our space allows it and it looks big enough for 2 to comfortably play. 

• Play food - If you go with a play kitchen, you'll need accessories like play food. We debated on wooden vs. plastic play food. In the end, we decided to go with plastic, but we knew all plastic play food isn't made the same. I loved the durability of the play food at our local children's museum. It is from Lakeshore Learning, so we invested in it. 
  
  
• IKEA Flisat table - This table is PERFECT for sensory play, which is what we plan on doing with it! We purchased the white Trofast baskets to go down inside the Flisat table. 

• Mega Blocks Lego set - This is a classic beginner Lego set. They come in primary colors, pinks, and they even have a stack and learn set. 

•  Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Sink Toy - This has been a favorite toy of my littles for well over a year! It is great to teach the very beginning stages of brushing teeth, combing hair, and washing hands.

• Melissa & Doug Geometric Stacker - I originally was looking for a simple circular stacker, but found this set from Melissa & Doug and grabbed it. It is great for hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills.

• Toy animals - We bought a ton of animal figures from Hobby Lobby when my son was two years old. Six years later, they are still in GREAT condition and have proven to be WELL WORTH the investment. I recommend a high quality set that will last for years. 

 

• Puzzles - My favorite puzzles are from Melissa & Doug. They are such good quality that lasts. This farm animal puzzle is a favorite of ours.
  
  
• Kinetic sand - Kinetic sand is so great for sensory play. We use it often! 

• Do-A-Dot markers - These markers are great for crafts! We use them with printable Do-A-Dot sheets online. Great for hand/eye coordination!

• Dress up - Superhero capes, princess dresses, etc. What's not to love?! We are dedicating a spot in our playroom just for dress up. We have a Minnie Mouse dress up set, a Riverbanks Zoo vest, a superhero cape, and a veterinarian vest. 

• Play Doh - I know, it's messy. Little pieces of it get everywhere no matter how careful your children are. I like to throw down a sheet before we play so that (hopefully) all of the remnants stay on the sheet. Play Doh is GREAT for sensory play. We also like the Play Doh tools. 

There you have it! LOTS of gift ideas for toddlers ages 1-3! I hope this was helpful to you. What items are on your list for your little ones?

Be on the lookout for my next gift guide --> boys ages 8-9! 

Halloween Activities for Toddlers

Today I'm sharing some of the Halloween activities I did this season with my two year olds. Most of these ideas involve sensory play and arts/crafts. Admittedly, Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, BUT we enjoyed lots of Halloween themed activities leading up to Halloween. 

We do a LOT of sensory play activities. One of my girls loves sensory play, while one is a little more hesitant. It is so important to me to expose them to sensory play for sensory development. 

Activity #1: 

Our first activity was a sensory bin that involved shaving cream and several Halloween themed goodies: skeletons, eyeballs, and spiders. The spiders and skeletons were purchased in a pack at Wal-Mart for around $1. I purchased the eyeballs years ago (for a different activity) from Dollar Tree. I placed all of the spooky figures into the shaving cream and had my girls pick them out and play in the shaving cream. We may have had a moment of one falling INTO the bin and getting shaving cream everywhere, but hey - it was an easy clean up! 

Activity #2: 

I created another spooky sensory bin using black webbing, mini pumpkins, (both purchased from Dollar Tree), and spiders. This bin was met with a little more hesitation, but they ended up enjoying it. The spiders got hooked in the webbing, so we used some fine motor skills to "rescue" them. 

Activity #3: 

After "rescuing" the spiders, we organized them by color! Easy, quick, and reinforces colors! Both of my girls call any and all spiders "Itsy" so we organized all of the Itsy's! 

Activity #4: 

If you can't tell already, I'm all about reusing materials I have on hand to get the most bang for my buck. We created this Witch's Brew for some spooky water play using the same materials listed above. 

Activity #5: 

It wouldn't be Halloween without carving or painting pumpkins! I knew that carving pumpkins would be too much for my sensory hesitant girl (and honestly by son has never liked it either!), so we opted to paint pumpkins using these Mod Sticks Tempera Paint Markers. They worked perfect for this activity! Next year we will try carving pumpkins to see how my girls like it!