We had a rainy forecast today…80 percent chance of rain. I pulled out our bin of magnetic letters one morning and prepared a little play activity for later in the day.
Fine Motor with Ice!
We had a rainy forecast today…80 percent chance of rain. I pulled out our bin of magnetic letters one morning and prepared a little play activity for later in the day.
Many years ago, we made a creative ocean and beach small world play activity and it was a Summer hit! Whether you are looking for activities to keep the kids busy at home through hands-on, sensory play, OR if you need Summer occupational therapy activities to use in skill-building, a beach small world is a fun way to play!
Creating a beach small world using miniature animal forms and homemade colored sand can be a fantastic sensory activity for children.
It doesn’t take much to create a small world, and the benefits are huge:
With a bit of imagination, parents can transform a small tray or container into a mini seaside paradise.
You’ll need to first gather just a few items to make a beach small world activity:
As children manipulate the sand, feeling its texture and watching it flow through their fingers, they enhance their sensory development.
We used our DIY Colored Sand to do a little pretend play one rainy afternoon.
We used our refrigerator farm animal magnets and had fun with our pretend lake. Once you know how to make colored sand, you can use it for so many sensory bin activities!
And Big Sister helped, too. What a GREAT fine motor and bilateral hand coordination manual dexterity task! She reaaaallly had to concentrate on this. It was such a novel task for her. It was neat to see her watch me wrap the thread, follow my verbal directions and cues, and as it became easier for her…wrap that thread around faster and faster!
Thank you so much for stopping back each week to share your ideas with us. We can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to this week!
Here’s what we’ve been doing:
Our week included a lot of outside play…jumping in puddles, sprinkler play…
And, our most popular post this week was Fine Motor Table-Top Play
We went with a messy, fun, learning theme this week. With the swing in the weather and Summer fun begun, we are ready to get outside and get MESSY! These creative bloggers have SO many ideas on their blogs. Check them out and add these ideas to your summer fun Must-Do list!
Seedlings Nursery School: Baby Sensory Play: Bugs in the “Grass”
Preschool Powol Packets: Fizzing Dinosaur Eggs
Happy Hooligans: Homemade Sidewalk Paint
There’s Just One Mommy: Patriotic Sensory Play