Birthday Sensory Tub

 

For my son's birthday, I put together a Birthday Sensory tote for him.

He loves it! It has birthday decorations, balloons,  a giant party hat, an invitation and a felt envelope that I made, loot/goodie bags, party favors, candles, birthday cookie cutters, gift box, noise makers, and more.

If it makes you think of a birthday, it is in there!

 

Here is a close up of some of the items...

Valentine's Day Sensory Tub/Tote

 

Today, we put together our Valentine's Sensory Tub.

 

For those of you that do not know what a sensory tub is,

it is tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning. The tub can have a theme or include random miscellaneous items. I tend to stick with a theme, because I just find it to be more fun that way.

 

It is filled with all things Valentine's!

 

There are a ton of different hearts, including stuffed felt hearts, cookie cutters, erasers, and ornaments. There are little arrows I made from pipe cleaners and felt scraps. I also put some of my simple Felt Roses in.

 

 

I used this container of conversation heart foam stickers as the filler. I picked it up last year when it was on clearance for 75% off, I knew I'd put them to good use one way or another!

 

I also made a heart button snake to put in our tub. Button Snakes are quick and simple to make and they help preschoolers with their hand and eye coordination.

 

 

Be sure to check out all of other Sensory Tubs!

Christmas Sensory Tub

 

With Christmas right around the corner, I put together a Christmas Sensory Tub for my son.

For those of you that do not know what a sensory tub/tote is, it is a tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning.

This sensory tub is loaded with all things Christmas!

 

 

 

There is fake pine needles, little presents, little beaded candy canes that my son made, bells, and more!

 

I used Christmas shaped pasta as the filler.

 

For added fun and exploration, I added a Santa hat, reindeer ears, and a Rudolph nose.

My son wears these as he plays.

Do you have a toddler or preschool aged child? Put together a simple Christmas Sensory Tub for them! You'd be surprised  how easily you can throw one together with items that you already have!

 

Merry Christmas!

Halloween Sensory Tote

My son loves his sensory totes,  so of course I had to put together a Halloween Sensory Tub for him. He is really enjoying it with all the skeletons, snakes, and other creepy crawly things that are in it-- What boy wouldn't?  It is filled with all things Halloween,  including ghosts,  costume glasses, trick or treat baskets, vampire teeth, pumpkins,  Jack-o-lanterns,  and witch fingers.  This is a great way for my son to explore all of the fun things about Halloween!

New Testament Sensory Tub-- A Fun Way to Learn About the Bible!

 

Today, we put together a New Testament Sensory. I thought this would be a fun way to teach my youngest a little bit more about Jesus and the bible. I put this sensory tub together with the help of some very talented women, we recently swapped items to collectively create an awesome tub. It has 3 foam crosses, a lamb mask, a painted lamb, a cave, a felt river, doves, palm, a basket of bread and fish, a crown of thorns (made out of toothpicks, baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph peg people, a grown up Jesus peg person, and more.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of some of the items.

 

If you like this sensory tub, be sure to check out my others!

Our Dino Dig

 

My son wanted to a dino dig, so I decided to put a small one together for him. I combined sand and coffee grinds in a container and then hid some dinosaur skeletons in the mixture. I gave him a paintbrush to help dust the bones off after he found them.

 

 

He had a lot of fun digging for dinosaurs over and over again! I love when an activity that takes me minutes to throw together brings hours of fun!

Dino Fun Sensory Tub

 

We put  together our  Dinosaur Sensory tub earlier today. It is loaded with all types of dino fun! It includes river rocks for the filler, so it is definitely our heaviest sensory tub yet! There are 4 different wooden dinosaurs that I painted, different dinosaurs in three different sizes, a wooden painted volcano, a wooden painted tree and bush, a glow in the dark dinosaur skeleton, plastic shrubbery, a T-Rex hat, artifact brushes (paint brushes), dinosaur eggs, and more! We also included some Dinosaur Fossils that we made out of coffee grinds and coffee (click here to make your own),a dinsoaur bone we made (click here to make your own),  and 2 different types of dinosaur eggs that we made (click here to make some).  We had a lot of fun putting this together and making the different items to go along with this!

Swamp Play WITHOUT the Swamp!!

 

My kids had a blast playing in the swamp in their sand and water table!

It was so simple to set up and they had hours of fun with it!  All I did is prepare 2 packages of Lime Jell-O by following the directions on the box.

 

After the Jell-O was refrigerated and reached it's Jell-O consistency, I dumped it in one half of the table and added some plastic frogs and bugs.

 

 

I filled the other side of the table with water and added some plastic tadpoles, fish, and frog eggs. 

 

They had so much fun playing with the Jell-O!  

 

Lemonade Stand Sensory Tub

 

Just in time for summer, we put together a Lemonade Stand Sensory Tub. A sensory tub/tote is a tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child play with and be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning. My son is really enjoying this one!  He even made me promise him that we would make real lemonade this week! The tub contains a bunch of different lemons in a plastic produce basket, felt lemon wedges, clay lemon wedges, cups, yellow pom poms, yellow pony beads, tongs, straws, mini drink umbrellas, play money, lemon juicer, a lemonade mixer, play money, a yellow "table cloth" (I gave him a yellow microfiber towel that I picked up at the dollar store for him to use to cover his work space)  and more!

 

He cuts the lemons....

 

Squeezes and juices them too...

 

and serves them!

 

I must say,  he serves up the best pretend lemonade that I ever had!

Check out our recipe for real lemonade-- it is amazing!!

Who Wants To Play With Bugs? Our Bug Sensory Tub

 

I am not a huge fan of bugs, but my son has been begging me to put together a bug sensory tub for him. A sensory tub/tote is a tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child play with and be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning. Our bug sensory tub has a few pound of dried beans on the bottom and is covered with a variety of bugs. There are glow in the dark bugs, plastic bugs, stuffed bugs, and foam bugs-- plenty bugs to go around!! I added in a magnifying glass, plastic tweezers and a little bug carrier. My son is loving it and I am thankful that he is playing with fake bugs! 

 

 

 

Tweet Tweet-- Birds Sensory Tub

 

In order to convince my son to get out of the heat and come inside and enjoy the air conditioning, I told him that I would put together his Bird Sensory Tote. A few months ago I participated in a swap with a group of women to create the perfect bird themed sensory tub. I ended up holding off on putting this one together because we had so many set up. For those of you that do not  know what a sensory tub/tote is, it is a tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning. There are handmade birds, bird houses, a wooden cutout of a bird cage, a bird bath, owls, bird eggs, birds toob, nests, feathers, and more. My filler is colored rice because I forgot to pick up bird seed, otherwise it would have been bird seed. My son is enjoying this-- all you hear is TWEET TWEET!

Check out our spring sensory tub and our butterfly sensory tub too!

Our Magnetic Discovery Box-- Dicovering and Learning While We Play!

 

Today, we put together a Magnetic Discovery Box. We used a magnetic wand to discover what is and what isn't magnetic. I filled a plastic bin with beans, some magnetic letters, nuts and bolt, an Altoid tin, pieces of pipe cleaners, twist ties, coins, erasers, crayons, pom poms, and more. Before we started, I asked my son to make a hypothesis (he actually knows what that means thanks to Dinosaur Train on PBS) and guess which items he thought would be magnetic and which wouldn't be. Then we began to explore!

 

 

 

He stirred the mixture up to see what would stick.

 

We tested his hypothesis to see if it was correct.

We learned a lot and had fun in the process!

 

 

Glowing Rainbow Rice



Lately, we are all about anything that glows! We LOVE our blacklight and put it to good use! We also enjoy Glow-in-the-dark play. We have made tons of colored rice for play, but today we made Glow Rice! The colors are very vibrant and it takes the rice sensory play to a whole new level! Glow Rice is simple to make and you can find almost everything you need in the dollar store. You have two options with this: If you use glow-in-the-dark paint, your rice will glow in the dark. Or, you can use neon/fluorescent paint and your rice will GLOW under a blacklight.  The paints can be found in Walmart and craft stores. We picked our blacklight up at Walmart for under $11.00.

You will need:
Rice

zip-lock bags

Neon/Fluorescent or glow in the dark paint

 Rubbing alcohol

Place the desired amount of rice for each color in a Ziploc bag.  Add about a tablespoon of the glowing paint of your choice and about one tablespoon of rubbing alcohol. The rubbing alcohol helps coat the rice, watering down the paint so you need less and helps the rice dry faster.  Seal the bag and then shake, knead, and mix until the rice is evenly coated.  Then lay the rice out to dry on a cookie sheet. I periodically "mix" the rice up to help it dry completely.  When the rice is dry and it is dark, get ready for some GLOWING fun!!

We added some glow in the dark stars for play.

The colors are so vibrant and pretty under the black light.

 

My son insisted we add the neon blue rice we made the other day to the rest of the rainbow glow rice. It looks awesome, huh?

 

 

 

Music Fun Sensory Tub

 

Our music sensory tub is set up and the house is anything but quiet!! It contains a bunch of different homemade instruments, including a popsicle stick harmonica, a straw flute, and a few egg shakers. There are some wooden instruments that I found in Target's Dollar Section, an inflatable microphone, a recorder and a tambourine.  I used beans for a filler. This tote is a fun and noisy one! LOL

A Rainy Day Band with Homemade Musical Instruments!!

We gathered all of our homemade musical instruments today and had a rainy day band! Our band was loud to say the least and was made up by a variety of musical instruments.

We had a popsicle stick harmonica, bells on a ring, straw flute, and egg shakers. We also had a set of wooden cymbals, some shakers, a drum, a den-den daiko drum (like the one from the Karate Kid) and a giaro (a Spanish instrument). All of these instruments are sure to end up in our Music Sensory Tub that we will be setting up in the next day or two.

Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus Peg Family

 

 

We are working on creating a New Testament Sensory tub. Peg Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus are the newest addition to our tote. I plan on making the Three Wise Men, the Shepard, and possibly an angel as well. I will be sure to post the completed project.

Colored Rice for Fun Sensory Play!

My kids love to play with colored rice, especially on a rainy day like today. It makes for the perfect indoor "sandbox!" It is a great filler for Sensory Tub too!

The best part is, it is super easy to make!

All you need is food coloring or acrylic paint and rubbing alcohol. Put your rice in a gallon size Ziploc bag and add equal parts of paint or food coloring. Close the bag and mix it all up. Add more paint/food coloring and alcohol until you achieve the color desired. Dump the rice onto a baking sheet and let it air dry.

 

My son loves to play with it in his sensory tubs, but his favorite way to play with it is in a container with his men! He loves to pretend that the rice is quick sand and bury his men in it! 

Blast Off-- Our Space Sensory Tub

5-4-3-2-1 Blast Off!

That's all you heard this morning after we set up our Space Sensory tub. My son has been begging for a space sensory tote-- well, he finally got it! I used black aquarium rocks for the filler. The tote has a felt Earth and spaceship, aliens, alien fingers, glow in the dark stars, shooting stars, astronauts, flying saucers, space beads, star beads, alien peg people, and so much more! After my son started playing with it, he added his own contribution-- Buzz Lightyear! As I come up with more ideas, we definitely continue to add to it. 

 

 

For those of you that do not know what a sensory tub/tote is, it is a tub or a bin that you fill up with various items to let your child be hands-on. Sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue of learning.

Sensory Fun with Ivory Soap

Today, my oldest went hiking with his Boy Scout Troop. My youngest was heartbroken, I had to find something to put a smile on his face. A bar of Ivory Soap did it. That .33 cents I spent to buy the bar of soap gave my son over 2 hours of enjoyment and play! This was an awesome little "experiment," not only was my 4 year old amused and amazed, but I was too!

 

 

All you need is a bar of Ivory soap.

 

Unwrap it and cut it into 4 pieces.

 

Microwave one piece at a time on a microwave safe plate for 30 seconds and watch it grow. Scrape the soap fluff into a container or sink for play.

Repeat with the remaining pieces.

 

 

Let them play and take notice of the different textures of the soap and how quickly it changes.

 

First, it is almost like a dough...

 

 

As it cools, it gets very powdery.

 

My son added some men to play with for added fun.

 

After awhile, I added 2 cups of water to the bin. The water was filled with bubbles, which he thought was great.

 

As time went by, the soapy water turned into a paste.

 

It is crazy how many different textures and consistencies you can get from a simple bar of soap!