
Summertime just begs for watermelon in all its forms, and today we decided to use watermelon as a theme not just to eat but to play!
I made two watermelon sensory bags for Veronika and although these didn’t turn out exactly as I hoped, she still had lots of fun.
The first was a true watermelon bag. Using leftover chunks from a big watermelon we sliced into for snack, I placed cubes of fruit in a zip-top bag. Seal with green duct tape to prevent your toddler from opening (and to look like a watermelon rind!). Then squish!

Veronika loved using this bag with her hands, crushing the soft cubes between her fingers. She also smashed at it with a toy hammer.

Then we made a pretend watermelon in a second zip-top bag. Fill the bag with clear hair gel and add a touch of red food coloring for a pink tint. Unfortunately my red turned out to look more purple, so next time I would color it with pink tempera paint.

As a result, the fact that we were trying to replicate a watermelon was lost on Veronika. Still, I added a few black seeds from the real watermelon, and she loved moving these around with her fingertips. Initially she thought they were bugs, but then she started saying “seeds!” as she squished at them.

Arguably, she liked this “failed” squishy bag better, holding it, squeezing it, and occasionally even draping it on her head.

So if the goal of a sensory bag is to keep a toddler busy, then this one was a winner.
