This is part 2 of a two-part outdoor messy play activity. If you missed part one, Sensory Paint Play(Part1) was very fun…Check it out! We left the bubble wrap/blue paint dry right in the bins overnight.
The next day was another super hot and sunny day. Add a bin of water and some empty plastic bottles, and let the fun begin.
Sensory Play
The paint-y, texture-y, messy play returned when the water was added.
Plus, it’s just fun to pour water from bottles.
And put the bottles on your head, of course.
What a fun sensory play experience!
Fine Motor Play
Baby Girl thought it would be pretty fun to drop the gems and beads into the plastic bottles. She did this for a LONG time. That little ‘bonk’ sound was pretty cool!
and, such a great fine motor task.
{{LOVE this picture!}}
Colors
When all of the water was added, we had a blast on this 85 degree day in our BLUE water bin!
This sensory paint activity used bubble wrap for a wonderful tactile experience. We loved to feel the bubble wrap sensory activity. Kids can use this as a way to work on sensory touch and tactile defensiveness, or just for fun, creative painting!
Sensory Paint
This sensory paint idea is easy. You’ll need just a couple of items:
Paint
Bubble wrap
Paper to press onto the bubble wrap
How to do this bubble wrap sensory play
When you get a package in the mail that has bubble wrap, it’s a special day! After some jumping and a little popping, we used the bubble wrap in a fun sensory play activity.
Finger paint, and a handful of beads, and glass gems made this extra special.
This sensory painting activity is a great activity for sensory exploration. Add it, along with this rubber duck painting activity to your painting ideas!
This was SO much fun! Perfect outdoor play for a hot day.
Don’t you just want to get messy and play with this???
It was such a neat sensory experience…and very BLUE. After we were done playing, we squirted the kids off with the hose. I left the blue bubble wrap, beads, and everything right in the bin until the next day. I had plans…
*stop back tomorrow to see what we did the next day after the whole mess dried!*
UPDATE: Here is the post for the next part of this two-day sensory play activity…PERFECT for a hot, sunny, outdoor messy play day! Fine Motor/Sensory/Water Play (Part 2)
We did use a little of that wet blue paint for some face painting. Big Sister gave me a nice smiley face on my foot 🙂
The weather this week has been SO cold. Sunny, yes. But Freezing!
We went out to ride bikes for a little while, ran around the yard one day…but couldn’t stay out long.
This little play activity was perfect for warm, inside, table-top play.
Spring Play Dough: Exploring Imprints
We gathered up a few fun colors of play dough and some spring-y objects to explore the imprints they would make in the play dough.
Fun with textures, fine motor dexterity, and resistive play… (pressing little objects into the play dough is perfect for providing a little proprioceptive input to the little joints of the hand.)…this was a fun one for Big Sister, Little Guy, Baby Girl, and my niece and nephew.
Pre-Handwriting Exercise
An easy play activity like this would be great to do before something that requires the child to work their hands with fine motor dexterity and adjustments in pressure/manipulation (Handwriting!)
It’s a fun exercise like this one wakes up the hands before they have to get to work on forming letters and pencil control.
Little Guy liked the footprints that the chick made. He really had fun guessing what made each one of the imprints after I took them out of the play dough.
Try this one with any little objects you have around the house…everyone will love it 🙂
This was an easy and fun way to spend an afternoon. And when Baby Girl woke up from her nap, she loved it too.
I put out six colors of play dough and a little bin of colored beads, paper clips, and other little things.
Fine Motor Strengthening for kids
They had so much fun matching up the colors. Baby Girl just loved pushing the little beads and things into the Play Dough.
I love her little knuckle dimples 🙂
Pushing the little objects into the dough is resistive and an excellent fine motor strengthening exercise for little hands. They are also working on their tripod grasp when they push the beads into the Dough.
Big Sister said we needed to wash all of the little objects after we were done. We put all of them into a bin of water and everyone had fun swishing them around.
Drain them into a colander and you are good to go 🙂
I have seen these Discovery Bottles all over the place. Do a search on Google images and you will find a ton of ideas and ways to make these. I knew the babies would love this and we had to try them…it was a success!
I super glued the lids shut for little ones who like to use their teeth to open bottles…
I know a few who do that in our house 🙂
Baby Girl was super excited when she saw these. She had a blast checking them all out.
So easy and lots of fun! Definitely try this one if you have toddlers/babies in your house. They will love it!
Are you looking for more information on Sensory Processing or any of the body’s sensory systems and how they affect functional skills and behavior? This book, Sensory Lifestyle Handbook, will explain it all. Activities and Resources are included. Get it today and never struggle to understand or explain Sensory processing and sensory diets again.
This was super easy to make, considering we used the Scented Snowman Play Doughthat we already had in the house…I do have to say though, that since somebody (cough, Little Guy, cough) put the bag of Dough into the freezer…it was a liiiitle dry after thawing out. Not too badly, though…nothing a tablespoon of vegetable oil didn’t fix!
I split the dough into halves and made a little well with my finger in one of the halves. After putting some red food dye in, and mixing up a bit, it started to look pretty neat!
A tip: Use a plastic shopping bag to mix the food coloring in. Unless you want reeeeally red hands!
Getting there:
Getting closer:
This is how I had it set up for the kids this morning. They were so excited to play with the Peppermint Dough! Oh, and also, mixing the dough around so much makes the scent pretty much non-existent. The scent just gets mixed in the more it is used. I do think it would be pretty cool to add some peppermint extract to this for an added sensory experience!
It has been so much fun coming up with fun play ideas and sharing them with our readers. We are truly having a blast with this! Thank you, readers, for all of your kind words and encouragement with this blog that has so far, been really fun and rewarding to do. We love knowing that our ideas have inspired you!
Looking for done-for you therapy activities this holiday season?
This print-and-go Christmas Therapy Kit includes no-prep, fine motor, gross motor, self-regulation, visual perceptual activities…and much more… to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, Christmas-themed, motor activities so you can help children develop the skills they need.
This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. You’ll find Christmas-themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
