Rainbow Bead Bracelets DIY Dress Up Accessory

Do your kids dress up in play clothes as much as mine do?  Any given day we’ve got knights, princesses, dancing stars, ninjas, superheroes, doctors, fancy ladies…the list of pretend play scenes go on and on!  And it is SO much fun to watch the scenes develop.  Oh yeah, there are fights and arguments that happen when someone wants to be the “star”.  And a lot of times the 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old are just running around in total mishmash of costumes.  (Or totally naked in the 2 year olds case!)  But it is so much fun to see what character comes up from the playroom. 

These Rainbow Bead Bracelets are the perfect dress up accessories.  They started out as our Fine Motor Rainbow Pipe Cleaner craft and easily turned into colorful bracelets.

Fine motor craft with beads and pipe cleaners to make these rainbow bracelets.

 

Rainbow Bead Bracelets

Beading on pipe cleaners is a great fine motor activity for toddlers.
Beading the bracelets is a great fine motor activity that even toddlers can do.  Love those chubby little knuckles!

When we were done with our rainbow craft and pretend play, we just pulled them out of the Styrofoam and twisted the arches into bracelets.  Done!

Bead bracelets made with rainbow colors

There’s a color for everyone!  These bracelets are coming in handy for lots of dress-up fun! 

Fine Motor Rainbow Pipe Cleaner Craft and Play Activity

If you follow this blog, you know that we love easy fine motor activities.  This bead and pipe cleaner rainbow is one of those fun, easy, and creative ways to play while developing fine motor skills.  Kids can work on so many fine motor skills and hand strength while completing crafts and activities with beads and pipe cleaners.  We pulled out our huge bin of beads and got busy with this fun Spring rainbow project.


 

Pipe Cleaner and Bead Rainbow Craft

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
We received pony beads, wooden beads, and jingle bells free from our friends at craftprojectideas.com.  They really came in handy to make our rainbow jingly, textured, and fun!
Fine Motor skills with rainbow pipe cleaners

We started with a bunch of pipe cleaners
in rainbow colors.  I bent them a little to make a little rainbow shape, but you don’t need to do that before beading.

The kids sorted through the beads to find matching beads.  Baby Girl loved adding the bells to her colors. 

How pretty are these beads?? 


RELATED READ:  Try these neat pincer grasp activities to develop fine motor skills.


Fine Motor Skills with Beading

Manipulating beads on pipe cleaners is a great fine motor activity for toddlers

Threading the beads onto pipe cleaners is a great way to reinforce fine motor skills with toddlers and preschoolers.  (Older kids love this activity too!  Big Sister came home from school later in the day and had to make a few colors of her own!)

Kids need to manipulate beads with both hands together in a coordinated manner.  Bilateral Hand Coordination is a key skill for many self-care and school-based tasks.  You couldn’t tie shoes, manage buttons and zippers, cut paper, or hold paper when writing without using both hands in a coordinated way. 

Picking up the beads uses a pincer grasp (pinching the beads between the tips of the index finger and thumb.  This is a precise grasp and picking out one bead among many in a tray really works those fine motor skills.

To thread the bead on a pipe cleaner, the child really works on their tripod grasp.  What a great way to work on pre-handwriting skills!

Rainbow pipe clearners and beads

Our rainbow is almost finished! 

To get a little more fine motor work into this activity, I pulled out a sheet of Styrofoam.  I helped the kids by poking a hole into the board  with a pencil.  Then, I showed them how to push the end of the pipe cleaners into the holes to make a rainbow.  Little Guy was my helper and engineer in this part of the activity.  He liked to tell me the order of the colors we needed and helped with bending the arches of our rainbow.


Our rainbow is ready for playing! Little Guy pulled out our leprechaun peg dolls from our St. Patrick’s Day Small World and added them to the rainbow.  There was a little sliding under the rainbow and some leprechaun horse play between the two peg dolls.  Typical boy stuff 🙂
Looking for more rainbow activities?  Try one of these colorful ideas:
 

Creative Art Ideas for Kids

Looking for creative art ideas to add to an art planning session? We’ve shared creative painting ideas before but the ones below are more general art activities you can add to the mix. Need some creative painting activities or fun ways to incorporate out of the box art materials? These art activities are fun ways to add a bit of creativity to process art!

Creative Art Ideas

 
Is there anything more fun than creating art projects with the kids?  Using unique materials to create, creative ways to paint, and fun ways to explore textures are just fun! 
There are so many ways to learn and explore with creative art projects.  Exploring nature, gravity, textures, and science all while making unique and gorgeous art…now that is cool! 
 
Check out these ideas:


Creative Art Projects for Kids

Creative Art Ideas
 

 

Fantastic Fun and Learning  used   Yarn Stamp Art
 to paint into pretty patterns and colors.  Kids can explore patterns and textures while stamping away with their own DIY stamps.  Now that is fun art!
 
How can you get crafty with nature?  Buggy and Buddy shares a super cool way that Using Sticks in Art for Kids can make fun art.  It’s time to get outside and get crafty.
 
 
Have a car lover in your house?  Why not foster that love into a gorgeous work of art with Racing Rainbow Painting Cars from Fantastic Fun and Learning.
 
 
 Mama to 5 Blessings shows us how to make art based on the stars!  Love those Construction Paper Art projects!
 
Make your own DIY Shape Stamps with Styrofoam and stamp away with shapes, patterns…or just be creative with that stamping! 
 
For more stamping fun, try this Goop Stamp Painting.  This was seriously a fun and different way to paint.  Super sensory and very messy, but it was totally worth the mess!
 

 Sensory Creative Art for Kids!

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Recycled Artwork Spring Flower Craft

We do LOADS and loads of kid’s crafts around here.  So what do you do with all of those paintings and artwork and beautiful one-of-a-kind pictures?  You save some, give some to family, and the stacks of the rest…you can’t save it all!
Why not recycle the artwork into more fun crafts?  This Spring Flower craft uses some of those special paintings in recycled art!


Use recycled art projects to create a flower craft.

Recycled Artwork Spring Flower Craft

Baby Girl is big time into painting.  She could paint every day and be more than happy.  (And she does.  And she is.) 
We’ve got lots of paintings ready to be used for recycled art.  This Spring flower used a finger painting she made.
Spring flower craft using recycled art materials.
We started with her blue finger painting and cut it up into strips.  This would be a great scissor activity for young scissor users.  Cutting strait lines is a great way to develop accuracy with cutting lines and self-confidence with the scissors.  Draw strait lines on the backside of the painting and let your little one start snipping!  Line accuracy doesn’t matter, this flower will look great however strait (or not strait) the strips of painting.
We used a yellow egg carton section from our painted rainbow egg cartons. 
Tape strips of recycled art projects into an egg carton to create a spring flower craft.

Tape or glue the strips to the inside of the egg carton section.

Preschoolers and toddlers love to see their old art projects come to new light in a spring flower craft.

Add glue to the edge of the egg carton.  Press it onto a sheet of construction paper.  Add a little curve to the petals by rolling up the ends of the painting strips just a little.

display chidlrens' artwork along a string.
We added green strips of construction paper for a stem and leaves for our flower craft.  Hang it up and enjoy the artwork for a second time around!
Looking for more flower crafts?  These are some of our favorites:

Spring Time Egg Carton Tulip Craft
Earth Day Recycle Bin Flower Craft

St. Patrick’s Day Small World for Pretend Play

St. Patrick’s Day fun is all around!    We created a SUPER fun small world and imagination play activity and have been loving all of the rainbows, leprechauns, and pretending.
Maybe the best part of this small world was creating all of the little parts that went into it.  Our  rainbow cardboard tube craft came into play for some good imagination.    Picture overload coming up here… the fun was just too much!


 

Pretend Play with a St. Patrick’s Day Small World

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
Small world pretend play for St. Patrick's Day with leprechaun peg dolls.

Our cute little leprechauns were made with assorted felt sheets, attached with fabric glue.  We used peg dolls and acrylic paints that we received for free from www.craftprojectideas.com


They turned out very cute and have been part of our play for a few days now.  These cute little guys have made their way into the Little People house, into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lair, and even hung out with a few Lego guys!  They’ve been well accepted into our toy collection 😉

This St. Patrick's Day craft for kids is perfect for leprchaun small world play.
The leprechauns needed a place to call their own, so Baby Girl and I painted a few leprechaun houses.  Baby Girl is my little artist and always up for a painting project, so this was big time fun for her!  Baby Girl’s leprechaun house is perfectly rainbow-y!  I think the leprechauns are happy with their new homes.
Small world pretend play with this St. Patrick's Day sensory Bin.

 

He looks pretty pleased with his new home…

Leprechaun Sensory Small World


Adding in our rainbow cardboard tube and some rocks as a base, we had a pretty cute tray for sensory play.  This was an invitation for imagination, pretend play, and fun!

Small world for St. Patrick's Day

Little Guy got right in there and had the leprechauns visiting each other’s houses, building a rock side walk, and chatting it up!
Use a small world for imagination and pretend play
Baby Girl baaaadly wanted her leprechaun to get into his house.  She tried. Repeatedly.
The leprechauns made a few trips under the rainbow and just had good St. Patrick’s Day fun!
Play with imagination and pretend play with these leprachaun homes

Looking for more rainbow or St. Patrick’s day ideas?  Stop by and follow along on our Pinterest board:

Rainbow Cardboard Tube Craft

We love creating crafts and activities with recycled materials.  One of our favorite materials is Cardboard tubes!  Paper towel rolls, wrapping paper rolls, aluminum foil cardboard rolls…So much can be made with and from them!  We’ve done cardboard tube stamp roll painting, cardboard tube rainbow binoculars, and even a cardboard tube juice box cover with them. 
This Rainbow craft was fun to make and even more fun to play with.  We’ve been using it in all kinds of pretend play activities lately.

Cardboard Tube Rainbow Craft

This post is part of the Project Create & Recycle series and this month’s theme is cardboard tubes.  We can’t wait to see all of the fun crafts and activities linked up this month.  Check them out on the blogs and the links below.

We started with a plain paper tube and just pulled out the paints.  I didn’t get any shots of the kids painting this one, but it was fun!  Once the paint dried, I cut strait down the tube to make the rainbow arch.

Fine Motor Skills:

A little glue and one cotton ball for each side of the rainbow were all we needed to finish our rainbow.  Fine motor tip:  Pulling a cotton ball into a strand is an excellent way to practice fine motor skills.  Pulling the cotton ball into a strand without ripping the cotton requires a tripod grasp and strength of the arches of both hands.  This is a great way to strengthen those muscles need for an appropriate grasp on a writing utensil.  Pulling cotton balls into strips of cotton is a fine motor strengthening activity that we will definitely be doing again.

So, how did we play with our rainbows after they were done?  Watch this space, you’ll be seeing these rainbows again, soon!

Do you have any cardboard tube activities or crafts to share?  Tell us about them!

Spring Sensory Water Bin Play Date Activity

We are so excited to share our first Spring activity of the year!  This winter has been a loooong one! (and with it still being frigidly cold out side with inches of snow on the ground…the actual first signs of Spring seem a long way off!)
This Spring Sensory Water Bin is part of the All Things Kids bloggers Spring Sensory Play Date Activities series during the month of March.  We put this water bin together to celebrate Spring and friends.  What better way to kick off warmth and sunshine with a playdate with friends.  When you get a few toddler or preschool-aged friends together, what better way to play than with sensory play activities? 

This Spring themed activity is perfect for a play date.

Spring Sensory Water Bin

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}

RELATED READ: Simple Spring Sensory
Play date activity with a sensory and fine motor Spring theme.
We are big fans of water bins for play and this one was no different!  We started with a bin of water scented with Pomegranate Body Scrub.  Just a little bit of the bath salts were all we needed to scent the water with a nice Spring fresh scent.  Any scented bath salts (or body wash/bubble bath) would work.  We just wanted to get a fresh scent and the rose colored water. 
You’ll want to watch smaller children who are playing with this water bin very closely.  You don’t want any tastes of the scented water, and especially if salts are being used!  Use your best judgment and if there is a concern, eliminate the scented portion of this activity.  Regular water would work fin, or even a few drops of food coloring, if you want to achieve the colored part of the water bin.
Tulip and butterfly water bin for a Spring play date.
I added a few foam butterfly crafting sheets
and foam tulip crafting sheets to the water bin and a handful of
foam Spring stickers.  When these foam sheets and stickers get wet, they can stick to the foam and plastic plates very easily.  They can be removed and placed again and again without difficulty.
This is a perfect activity for a Spring play date.

Placing these foam stickers on the large foam sheets is a great way to practice tip to tip grasp and fine motor skills.  baby Girl had a hard time understanding that the sticker’s backs would not peel off once they were wet, but she got the hang of just placing the foam shapes in different places once I showed her.

Kids love to explore senses in water play. This Spring themed sesnory activity is great for a play date.

Scooping up the floating shapes from the scented water was so much fun and a great way to practice visual scanning and eye-hand coordination, too.  We didn’t add any scoops to this activity, but a few kitchen utensils like large spoons or an ice cream scoop would be a fun way to further extend this sensory water bin.

Toddlers will love this Spring-themed water bin.

Baby Girl just enjoyed getting her hands in the water and grabbing up the shapes.  Sensory play at it’s finest!

Sensory and fine motor play perfect for Spring!
We used our plastic plates
to sort and play with the foam stickers.  The wet stickers stuck nicely to the plastic plates, too.
Scented water adds a sensory component to a Spring water bin.
What is water play without a little scooping and transferring?  A couple of small bowls and a turkey baster were perfect for more fine motor play in our Spring water bin. 
Using the turkey baster to transfer scented water not only stimulates the senses, but works on gross hand grasp.  What a great fine motor strengthening tool the turkey baster is! 
Hopefully this is inspiration for your next play date.  If you’re worried about the mess, you could set this up in a small baby pool or in a bath tub.  If you’re in warmer climates than we are, take it outside.  I know we will be re-doing this activity once the weather turns and we can get outside!
Let us know if you do this Spring Sensory Water bin or something like it.  We would love to hear about it or see pictures.  Just stop by our Facebook page and share your fun with us!
Be sure to catch all of the other Spring Sensory Play Date Activities being posted this week over at our bloggy friend’s sites:
Do you have a Spring Sensory activity to share?  Link it up all month long below.  we will be pinning to the All Things Kids Pinterest board and creating a round-up of fun Spring Sensory Play Date Activities at the end of the month.  We would love to feature YOU!

Sensory play activity with rocks

We are huge fans of sensory play around here.  This super simple rock activity kept the kids occupied for a long time one day.  It doesn’t take much to keep a couple of toddlers and preschoolers busy when you give them a bin of soapy water and something to clean!  Sensory play and fine motor play go hand in hand with this rock activity.


Sensory play with rocks

 

Sensory play with rocks

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
sensory and fine motor fun with rocks
We started with a bin of river rocks
that we’ve had for ages.  These little rocks were a little dusty from spending the winter outside.  before we could play with them, they needed a scrub down.  
A bin of warm soapy water, a colander, and clean water and we all we needed  to set up this easy activity.  Throw in a scrub brush and sponge and we were ready to go.
sensory activity for kids using rocks and soapy water.
Little Guy loved this activity.  He scrubbed the rocks clean!  Using the scrub brush is a great way to work on bilateral land coordination to hold the brush and the rock…and tripod grasp to hold the little rocks.

playing with rocks and a soapy bin of water is a great fine motor and sensory activity for kids.
Baby Girl got in on this soapy fun too.  This sensory activity was so neat to play with the suds and find the rocks at the bottom of the bin.

squeezing a sponge is a great fine motor exersice for kids.

Squeezing a sponge is a great way to work on gross grasp of the hands.  Little Guy said, “this is the best fun, Mom!” …success!

washing rocks is a great fine motor and sensory activity for kids.

Our rocks were nice and scrubbed clean and ready for play.  And now to get them doing dishes…

Spring Sensory Play Date Activities from All Things Kids

Signs of spring are on their way!  Use the sensory activities listed below to create a sensory playdate filled with everything Spring. It’s the perfect time of year to meet up with friends and play through the senses!

Spring Sensory Play Date Activities!

We wanted to put together fun activities and ideas for Spring sensory-themed play dates.  Invite a few friends over, pull out the old sheet, and get ready for some sensory based play this season.  These would be great ideas for preschool classroom activities, too.  Sensory play is so important for children.  There is so much learning that happens when kids get messy and explore textures.  They are learning new concepts such as cause and effect while developing language and self-confidence.  Sensory play can be based on anything!  These Spring-themed sensory play ideas will keep you and the kids occupied and having fun this month while the weather turns.  Don’t stress the mess and have fun!

The bloggers below present a fun and sensory-tastic Spring activity that covers each day of the week, and are perfect for creating a Spring playdate that covers all things sensory. 

These are the sensory activities you won’t want to miss this Spring:

Monday: Crayon Box Chronicles brings us Melting Insect Sensory Painting
Tuesday: The OT Toolbox (that’s us!) shares Spring Sensory Water bin
Wednesday: All Done Monkey shows how to have a Spring Sensory Outdoor Activity
Thursday: House of Burke created a soapy color-mixing sensory bin. How fun! 
Saturday:  Fun-A-Day

How to incorporate sensory play into playing outside

Sensory diet activities can be specific to sensory system like these vestibular sensory diet activities. Sensory activities can be prescribed according to need along with environment in order to maximize sensory input within a child’s day such as within the school day. Using authentic sensory input within the child’s environment plays into the whole child that we must understand when focusing on any goal toward improved functional independence. 

Many sensory diet activities can naturally be found outdoors. In fact, outdoor sensory diet activities are a fun way to encourage sensory input in a child’s environment and without fancy therapy equipment or tools. 

It’s a fact that kids are spending less time playing outdoors. From after-school schedules to two working parents, to unsafe conditions, to increased digital screen time, to less outdoor recess time…kids just get less natural play in the outdoors. Some therapists have connected the dots between less outdoor play and increased sensory struggles and attention difficulties in learning. 

Knowing this, it can be powerful to have a list of outdoor sensory diet activities that can be recommended as therapy home programing and family activities that meet underlying needs.

That’s where the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and Sensory Challenge Cards come into play.

They are a FREE printable resource that encourages sensory diet strategies in the outdoors. In the printable packet, there are 90 outdoor sensory diet activities, 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities, 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards. They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.

Here’s a little more information about the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards
  • 90 outdoor sensory diet activities
  • 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities
  • 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards
  • They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input. 
  • Research tells us that outdoor play improves attention and provides an ideal environment for a calm and alert state, perfect for integration of sensory input.
  • Outdoor play provides input from all the senses, allows for movement in all planes, and provides a variety of strengthening components including eccentric, concentric, and isometric muscle contractions. 
  • Great tool for parents, teachers, AND therapists!


Be sure to grab the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and use them with a child (or adult) with sensory processing needs!

Outdoor sensory diet activity cards for parents, teachers, and therapists of children with sensory processing needs.