Sensory Shapes

Adeline learns so much more when she is active and interacting with the learning materials.  Today we are playing with shapes in muck.  I made a corn starch mixture using water and corn starch.  I pour the starch in and slowly add a little water at a time mixing with my hands.  I don't want it to be thin but not to thick ether. It is important to pour slowly and mix.  I then added the shapes.

This sensory learning activity could be done with many different items, such as numbers, colors, and letters. 

Playing in Cloud Dough

Today we made cloud dough.  I have heard a few people talk about it recently so I googled for a recipe and I found one over at The Imagination Tree.  I really loved this project because it was simple.  The recipe calls for flour and oil.  I used 4 cups of flour to a half a cup of oil.  I just used some canola oil.

This dough feels like a soft loose dough and little different then the typical dough you would work with.  Adeline played with it a little while but she was not that interested, but Ian loved it.

 We added some glitter to it.

 Adeline did a little scooping and she was gone.  Not to interested in this one.

 Ian found his army guys and set up camp.  The dough worked great to make hills and trenches.

 When we were finished I put our dough in a zip lock bag and put it in the refrigerator.  I figure it will stay good for a little bit. 

Bugs in the Grass

It is summer and we have been having a lot of fun putting together some fun sensory activities.  I have seen many great blogs using pasta for a sensory tub so I thought it would make some fun grass for our bugs.

Today we played with bugs in the grass.  We used spoons and prongs for awhile but Adeline had more fun using her hands and putting it into a bucket of water.

Lots of vocabulary with this projects.  We talked about bugs, butterflies, grass, frogs and sticky.  We had a great time.

Recycled Materials Sensory Tub

You may have seen our sensory tub in a previous post.  I have been adding a few recycled items in it, and we have been having fun with them.  Children enjoy interacting with different size boxes and tubs and many concepts can be taught with them.  I have been adding different tubs, boxes and lids.

What we have in our sensory box right now:

paper tubes
toothpastes boxes
milk lids
peanut butter lids
yogurt lids
pom pom balls
colored popsicle sticks
ice cream cups
baggie box

I need to add some of our snakes and frogs.
  

Exploring Cold

We have been exploring adjectives lately, so today we talked about "cold".  Last night I stuck some trays of water into the freezer and today they are "cold".  This was an exciting sensory activity.

First, we felt the ice and talked about it, then we started to sprinkle some salt.  The ice started to crackle and pop.  Next, we added some color and we talked about all the different colors.

  
We really enjoyed this activity, next time I might use squirt bottles and spray the colors on.  

Finger Fun

 Today we painted with pudding!  OHHHH so much fun.  I was a little lazy and had some pudding cups left from when Adeline had her tonsils out, so we spread it on the table and added some color.  At first Adeline was upset because we weren't eating it but then she caught on.

Adeline thought it was a lot of fun and then she tasted it!

 And Ian, he just had to put his head in it!

 

 This was fun and a bit messy.