Sensory Play is one of the few activities that I know will entertain my kids for quite a long period of time. The quicker and easier the set-up for me, the better. 

For today's activity, rather than make up some slime for my son to play with, I gave him the two basic ingredients, popped out a selection of his little superhero figurines and let him make it for himself. 

This not only means less work for me, but more importantly, it means that he is experimenting and learning a range of skills and concepts through experiencing for himself.

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Today's simple play idea is one that people often play outside, but is equally as fun inside too. Making potions! My children very much enjoy adding little leaves, flowers and pebbles to water when they are outside. In fact, I remember loving to play like this when I was young too. To play inside, rather than searching the garden for potion supplies, we raid the pantry and craft cupboard instead, looking for small items that can be mixed into water. 

Here is a fun sensory "Invitation to Play" potion making that encourages skills such as pouring, transferring and scooping whilst investigating solubility (which things dissolve or not), capacity, buoyancy (whether they sink or float) and more.

Ages: 2 years +

(N was 3 years old here. See the handy tips at the bottom to Simplify and Extend to suit your child's needs) 

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Here is a simple little activity, quick to set up, that can have children busily creating for ages.

When I set out this invitation-to-play with playdough and pasta, it was with the intention to use it to further our interest in building and design. We talked about architecture and the different ways buildings are made these days. If you like, you can have a look at our engineering activity and use the pictures of different buildings as inspiration.

This activity can encourage creative thinking, problem-solving, fine-motor skills, literacy skills, hand-eye-coordination, mathematical concepts, design, concepts of gravity and more.

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Have a whole pile of squishy, sensory fun, making and playing with dinosaurs in sticky mud! With a super simple recipe, you can whip up this sensory experience in just a couple of minutes.

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My kids love messy play! A lot of the art and sensory play that we do involves a certain amount of mess, (perhaps that's part of what makes it so fun?).

One of my daughter's favourite sensory activities, that she first played with at preschool, was Soap Slime. 

Now, this is definitely messy play, but it's made from soap, so it must be clean, messy play, right? Well, sort of. It depends on the colouring. 

Since the lesson we learnt making cornflour slime, I have been hesitant to use food colouring in their messy play but hey, we won't know until we give it a try, right? 

What better way to test than with Rainbow Soap Slime.

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Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS. Brought to you weekly by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum and One Perfect Day.

This week we are showcasing

"7 water play activities"

Water play is often thought of as "summer play" or something reserved for hot weather, however, depending on the activity, children can incorporate water play whatever the weather. As a readily available sensory material (in our part of the world, anyway),  water play is often very inexpensive, easy to set-up and loved by children of all ages. Here are a collection of 7 different activities involving water, one for each day of the week. Number 6 would be best saved for warmer weather, but the rest can be attempted at any time, with a number being suitable for indoor play.

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Last year, we finally got around to making the mud kitchen that I'd been wanting to do for ages. I think I'd been putting it off because it seemed like it would be an involved project that would take me time I didn't have. Then one day, I decided that realistically, it didn't need to be anything flash at all. In fact, I could sit an empty pot next to a mud puddle and the kids would think I was the best mum ever. So, with that knowledge in mind, I set about making the quickest and easiest mud kitchen I could. I first wrote about our mud kitchen here on Kidspot.

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Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS for this week.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day

This Week:

Learn with Play at Home is showcasing

5 Simple, Fun Christmas Sensory Play Ideas

These great posts came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup. 
Don't forget to check out the other great features from our co-hosts.

FEATURED

My kids love Sensory play and so do I, as it's generally something that keeps them entertained for ages. Besides the fun they're having, there is so much learning that takes place through these experiences.

It is very worthwhile for children to be exposed to experiences where they can use multiple senses in order to develop these further and to make connections about themselves and the world around them in a way that is natural to them. Just sit back and observe as they hone their fine-motor skills and practice things like tipping and pouring and cutting. See them investigate and explore the varying materials and their properties and listen as they question occurrences or state observations. It really is delightful to watch.

With Christmas fast approaching, it's fun to get in the spirit so here are some lovely but simple to set-up, Christmas sensory play ideas. (Because let's face it, time is tight at the moment!)

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The other day we were making a batch of coloured rice to use for some measuring fun so I thought I'd share the details of how we made it in case you'd like to know.

It's very easy to do and you can colour it in a whole rainbow of colours for fun and interesting play and learning.

Materials: White rice, White vinegar, Food Colouring

(I have seen other people use an alcohol instead of the vinegar or even. just water. 

I use the vinegar because it helps to spread the colour evenly whilst also sterilizing 

and hopefully preserving the rice so we can get extended use out of it.)

Directions

Pour some vinegar into a bowl (or plastic ziplock bag) and add your food colouring.

You can use up to 1 tablespoon of vinegar per cup of rice.

Add as much colour as you'd like to get your desired colour.

Hint: I made 4 cups of rice so I used 4 tblsps of vinegar. 

I could have gotten away with using a little less though.

Add your rice to the bowl (or plastic ziplock bag) and stir (shake) until all the rice is evenly coloured

I lined my trays with foil and then spread out the rice for it to dry.

 (I'm always tempted to use towelling paper to speed up the drying process but I'm sure that the rice would stick to it!)

How long your rice takes to dry depends on a number of factors.

How wet you made your rice, how thinly the rice is spread and the temperature/conditions under which the rice is drying.

Hint: If your rice is very important for an activity I would suggest making it the night before

 so you are sure you will have nice dry coloured rice.

Despite it being a damp day, our rice took only a couple of hours to completely dry on the trays sitting in the kitchen.

Now your coloured rice is ready for play!

Enjoy!

Have a look at how we used this rice for some Playful Maths
(Click the picture to go to the post)

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS 

This Week:

Learn with Play at home is featuring

Sensory Play Ideas

from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup

(if you missed it, we featured 5 ideas for Learning with Play)

FEATURED

We love sensory play. It's a fabulous way for children to learn more about the environment around them while connecting with their senses. 
We found a whole bunch of super fun Sensory Play Ideas on last weeks Tuesday Tots and just had to share them with you.

9 Simple Sensory Play Ideas by Picklebums

The ABCs of Sensory Play by Creative Playhouse

Things to do with Spaghetti and Kids by Making Boys Men

3 Ocean Themed Sensory Bins by Learning and Growing the Piwi Way

Alphabet Sensory Activity by Creative Learning Fun

Number Button Sensory Bin by 3 Dinosaurs

Exploring Marshmallows with the 5 Senses by Fantastic Fun and Learning

Rainbow Noodles by Miss Courtney meets Bobo

Congratulations if you were featured!  Feel free to grab a featured button.

Here are a few sensory play ideas for you to browse from us.

(Click on the picture to take you to the post)

   

    

If you enjoyed this post, please spare a second to give me a vote in the "TOP 25 Creative Moms". 

Just click the badge below and click "vote" on Learn with Play at home. Thanks!

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Here is your chance to link up your posts for children 5 and under. 

Remember to check back on all the great ideas that are linked up weekly by Kid Bloggers worldwide.

Who knows, perhaps next week you will be featured.

(please read the guidelines before linking up)

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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The P.L.A.Y Group

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