I’ve made plenty of squishy sensory bags for Veronika in the past, but never before lots at once! The purpose of today’s activity was more about comparing and contrasting, rather than focusing on the way one particular material (i.e. shaving cream) felt within the bag.
I wanted to use small, sandwich-size zip-top bags since I’ve found these are easier for her hands, but I was running low! Instead, I used 3 small ones and 2 larger ones. The bags contained the following:
hair gel (tinted with green food coloring)
vanilla pudding
body lotion
ketchup
mustard
fingerpaint
I sealed each bag tightly. Here’s where the difference kicked in. Most of the bags were at room temperature, but the ketchup and the pudding were both very cold from the fridge. Meanwhile, I set the bag with lotion in a bowl of hot water until warmed through. (You can also microwave the bags for about 10 seconds, as I later did for the hair gel bag).
I presented them all to Veronika, and it was like a surprise each time she put her hand down. The lotion was warm! The pudding was cold!
The lotion was still warm! The ketchup was cold!
She loved moving her hands back and forth, and tended to ignore the ones that were just room temperature in favor of these two extremes.
She wanted to pick some of the bags up and give them a “tour” of the apartment. And of course she enjoyed the process of squeezing and squishing them!
This was a great game for talking about opposites in addition to being hands-on fun.
joyful parenting 