Cute Winter Snowman Sensory Bin

December 23, 2020Leave a comment

Snowman Sensory Bin (4)

Instead of painting a snowman today, it was time for a 3-D snowman that was all about sensory play. This little sensory bin of winter goodies was pure fun for Veronika.

To set it up, you’ll need an empty plastic bottle. One with a wide opening will work better than a narrow-necked water bottle in this case; we used a dry-roasted peanut jar.

I added two wiggle eyes and 3 black buttons with hot glue, attaching them roughly where they would be a snowman’s body, then twisted on a sparkly green chenille stem for a scarf and drew a carrot nose with orange marker.

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Next, I added lots of cotton balls to the tray. Once stuffed inside the bottle, it looks just like a little snowman, and one that will never melt!

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The fun (and challenge!) now was for Veronika to put the cotton in and then take it back out again. I added chopsticks to the tray for her to use as a tool (tongs would be great, too).

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But after a few tries, she preferred to use her fingers.

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Or just to upend the bottle and dump it!

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To round out the tray, I added a collection of plastic arctic animals and lots more black buttons.

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After she tired of transferring cotton balls in and out of the jar, she loved putting the little animals inside and then practicing screwing on and off the lid.

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All in all, this was great little bin full of wintry fun.

Pumpkin Scented Rice Bin

October 23, 20201 Comment

Pumpkin Scented Rice (5)

This was easily one of the prettiest sensory rice bins I’ve put together for Veronika. And it certainly smelled the best!

To prepare the rice, you’ll want to start the night before. I didn’t have orange food coloring, but I dripped in a good sized blob each of red and yellow, then added about 2 tablespoons of hand sanitizer. Add a bag of plain white rice, along with 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, and stir until it’s all combined.

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I ended up really liking the striated effect this achieved, since some pieces were more yellow, some more red, and some a perfect blend of orange. All the fall colors! Spoon the mixture onto a shallow tray so it can dry overnight.

In the morning, I laid out the rice for Veronika, along with pine cones and whole cinnamon sticks. Feel free to add other whole spices if you have them, like nutmeg or star anise.

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Veronika loved the bin right away, first wanting to get her hands on the cinnamon sticks. “Can I smell them?” she asked.

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I also added in a few orange pipe cleaners so she could thread the cinnamon sticks onto them, almost like long beads.

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Cinnamon bracelets!

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Then she started sprinkling handfuls of rice over the pine cones. She loved the sound it made!

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It was fun to bury the pine cones in the rice and then unearth them. And of course she paused often to lift the rice near her nose and take a deep breath in. There’s nothing better than the smell of pumpkin pie!

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This one kept her busy for a while!

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Yummy Edible Frozen Excavation

May 28, 2020Leave a comment

Frozen Berry Excavate (3)

Travis used to love hammering into ice as a toddler, and today was Veronika’s first opportunity to do the same. This time, as a twist, I made the game edible.

The night before, I froze berries in individual compartments of an ice cube tray. I also made one larger block of ice full of berries in a Tupperware container, hoping to add some variety.

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It was a hot and humid morning to head to the patio with our icy treasures. I simply set the blocks of ice out on a shallow tray, and gave Veronika her toy hammer and screwdriver (to serve as a chisel).

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At first everything was frozen solid, so she wasn’t very interested after an exploratory tap or two.

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But thanks to the weather it all soon started to melt. This was great because it meant Veronika felt like her hammering was really making a difference, even though the sun honestly did most of the work.

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When she reached the first berry, she immediately needed to give it a try!

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Whoops! The blackberries were a little sour. Then she discovered she could mash and smoosh the berries that had been released from the ice. This was even more fun!

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The melting ice cubes became almost like paint, too, since the dark blue of the berries left swirls of color behind.

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All in all, this was a gorgeous pause in morning sunshine, part sensory play and part snack!

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Sensory Bean Astronaut Box

May 27, 2020Leave a comment

Sensory Bean Astronaut (2)

In honor of SpaceX’s would-be historic launch today, I set up this easy astronaut-themed sensory bin for Veronika!

All I used were two different colors of dried beans, which I poured into a shallow tray. I originally had the box half filled with dark red beans and half with white, but they very quickly were mixed together.

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Then I simply added a few astronaut toys, including aliens and a little space rover for Veronika to play around with. It was an instant hit!

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She loved the sound that the rover made as it drove over these bumpy “moon rocks”.

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Of course we could also collect samples of rock to take back to Earth.

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She moved the little figures around in the beans, enjoying the way this made the beans scatter. I also showed her how to bury the alien underneath them, and she could then go digging.

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A sensory box like this would work with just about any toy of course, whatever your toddler currently likes best! Or just add scoops instead of toys, for practice pouring. But the astronaut theme felt perfect in conjunction with today’s historic event, even when we later learned the launch was a no-go for bad weather.

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Towards the end of her play, she discovered that if she raked her astronauts quickly through the beans, they scattered over the edge.

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So then this happened.

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Which is just fine because dried beans are one of the easiest sensory items to clean up ever! You can do this activity over a towel for even faster clean-up, but I find it just as easy to sweep all the beans into a dustpan. They sweep up with zero mess, unlike other materials I could name.

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We are wishing the astronauts good luck on their voyage!

Birdseed Indoor Sandbox

March 20, 2020March 20, 2020Leave a comment

Birdseed Sandbox ($)

I was looking for a good material for an indoor sandbox this morning, and remembered we had a bulk bag of birdseed. What perfect timing for the first day of spring! For a touch of spring whimsy, I added little speckled Easter eggs, a wind-up bird toy, child-sized gardening tools, and a “flower pot”.

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Of course Veronika might not have picked up on these details, but she sure loved coming over to explore!

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First she tested out the birdseed with a lot of scooping and pouring, enjoying both the spade and the cup.

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The little bird had her momentarily intrigued.

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Then while big brother was doing his home school lessons nearby, this happened:

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But that’s okay! The birdseed sweeps up like a dream, and she was so delighted at her own antics.

Erupting Chocolate Ooblek

March 9, 2020Leave a comment

Chocolate Ooblek (3)

Today I made Veronika a new version of ooblek. Wanting to make this one stand out from the crowd, not only did this version feature chocolate, but it could explode! And yes this activity is toddler safe.

As a reminder ooblek is about 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water. From there, there are so many ways to fancy it up. Unfortunately I messed up the texture of our ooblek from the get-go because I thought I had a full box of cornstarch in the pantry. It turned out I only had less than 1 cup left, and I’d already poured in over 1 cup of water to a plastic tub. So our mixture was on the watery side, not true ooblek.

But that’s okay, because there was more for Veronika to play with here! First, we sprinkled on cocoa powder in addition to the cornstarch. This was purely for the heavenly smell. Yum!

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We also added 2 tablespoons baking soda because we wanted our ooblek to erupt. (Note: Be careful, because the baking soda will offset the now-solid-now-liquid property of ooblek, as it will dissolve in the water).

To make the explosions, add white vinegar to squeeze bottles and squirt in a bit at a time. This is great for exercising those little fingers.

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Veronika almost couldn’t believe it when the first bubbles appeared. I had to help out with lots of the squeezing, but she was transfixed watching the eruptions every time the vinegar hit the baking soda.

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The resulting bubbles are really neat ones, too, almost like honeycomb, but with a quasi-solid texture. They won’t pop until you pop them!

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This made for lots of fun poking and prodding. Veronika was a little hesitant to get her hands messy, but adding a spoon helped her get in there.

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There also was also an added auditory component to the fun, thanks to the hissing sound whenever baking soda mixed with the vinegar.

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In sum, this project made for one happy girl!

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Melon Balls Edible Sensory Bin

December 20, 2019Leave a comment

Melon Sensory (1)

This sensory bin didn’t turn out quite as attractive as I hoped, but the goal of course was fun, not Instagram worthiness, and Veronika sure had fun with it. Originally I hoped to arrange the tricolor visual of round honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon balls in a small tray. But with all my small Tupperware in the dishwasher and short on green honeydew, I set the balls only watermelon and cantaloupe on a baking sheet instead.

I added a few scoops and spoons, as well as a chopstick spear, and set Veronika loose!

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She loved using the spoon first.

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The chopstick was novel, and she lifted the pieces of melon up and down on it.

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I encouraged her to get right in there with her hands, showing her how we could squeeze and squish the melon.

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Of course this led to the delightful discovery that it tasted good.

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And that it made a satisfying “splat!” when thrown against the floor.

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In sum, this kept my thirteen-month-old busy for quite a while, filling cups, nibbling, and enjoying.

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Corn Meal to Explore

November 7, 2019Leave a comment

Snesory Cornmeal (7)

It’s getting too cold for outdoor sandboxes, so today I made one for Veronika indoors… with corn meal! I simply dumped an old container of corn meal on a pizza pan, set out a few scoops, and let her begin to explore.

The scoops themselves seemed to delight her with their bright colors, First she just wanted to play with these…

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…but soon found her way over to the corn meal.

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Unlike anything gloppy, she had no hesitation getting fingers in dry corn meal. She picked up little light fingerfuls and watched it rain down into a cup, then dumped them out and started over.

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What fine motor skills! Next, I added cars, because you can make great tracks through cornmeal. If you have any toy construction vehicles like dump trucks or diggers, this is the perfect way to use them. But for Veronika I added a few favorites: a fire truck, school bus, and mail truck.

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She loved vrooming them in the corn meal, especially once she had a thin layer of it on the floor.

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I let the happy play continue until we had to leave the house.

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To clean up, I dusted off her pants, swept the cornmeal into the dust bin, and that was that!

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Sensory Activity: Dry Pasta Noodles

November 6, 20193 Comments

Sensory Dry Pasta (1)

The last time I gave Veronika pasta as a sensory item, it was cooked and she was tiny (she looks so little even though this was only 5 months ago!) Now for my bigger girl, the item of the day was dry pasta! I’ve seen sensory bins like this done with dried macaroni, but I chose larger cavatappi noodles just in case she tried to eat one. Little did I know how much fun would be had with this simple activity!

I set out a bin with the pasta, along with a few containers that it could be scooped into, a big plastic spoon, and a larger jug.

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Veronika instantly knew she wanted to transfer the pasta to the jug but couldn’t quite figure out the mechanics.

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I helped her along with the ladle. What fun when it landed in the jug with a plink!

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The smaller containers I had set out were great for scooping up pasta. With the lids on, these were just like maracas.

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Veronika also loved transferring pasta piece by piece from the small container back to the big bin. Over and over!

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What I hadn’t anticipated was how much even my 5 year old would love this sensory tray!

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He loved filling the jug, shaking it, and playing some imaginary game involving the pasta pieces. Soon they were happily sharing, and I loved seeing them play together.

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Once the jug was all filled up, Veronika looked so pleased!

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Rice Cereal Sensory Tray

November 4, 2019Leave a comment

Rice Cereal Sensory (2)

One-year-olds are a tough age when it comes to devising activities. They’re old enough to want variety and to do things with those little hands and bodies, but not skilled enough yet for the games and projects they can enjoy once true toddlers (closer to 15 or 18 months).

Here’s a fantastically easy sensory bin that’s sure to engage a baby at just this age. If you have a box of rice cereal, just dump it in a bin! I added a few of her favorite little toys (Duplo figures, plastic farm animals) and buried them somewhat in the cereal. Now everyone was hiding in the rice paddy!

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I also added a rake for her to explore with, thinking this would make less of a mess than shovel. This wasn’t necessarily the case, but the rake became a fast favorite, and she trotted over to her playroom with it once the sensory play was done!

I also added a spritz bottle. Toddlers can practice squeezing the handle themselves. For Veronika at age one, I spritzed the water so she could watch the droplets in the sun-lit room.

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The instant the water hits the rice cereal, you’ll also get a scent sensory bin, with the homey smell of cereal for breakfast wafting up.

The water also means the rice cereal will clump together. She delighted in handfuls, picking them up, marveling when they stuck to her little palm, and shaking them loose with glee.

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