Check out this Little Blue and Little Yellow activity to work on color mixing and sensory play with a children’s book favorite! We whipped up a batch of Kool-Aid puffy paint for a sensory play experience that has a scented aspect. Kids will love this color mixing activity, and will be sure to remember it for years to come!
Last week’s Pete the Cat snack and our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter Learning Activity have been a huge hits in our house. these are some of our most favorite and read (and re-read) books, so this preschool book club series has been a blast!
This week we’re loving another favorite book of ours with Little Blue and Little Yellow. We made Kool-Aid Puffy Paint to create our own version of color mixing to go along with the book. This was beyond cool and so much fun to create.
Little Blue and Little Yellow Painting activity
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We LOVE the book Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni. When we saw this book on the series, I knew we had to do some color mixing. This Kool-Aid paint recipe smelled so good and the creating mixtures of blue and yellow was a ton of fun.
The YELLOW paint was the same recipe, only using a packet of lemonade flavored Kool-Aid. Mix the paints up until it’s a smooth consistency and painting is ready to begin!
We made a little blue and a little yellow spot of paint and the kids guessed what color they thought we would get when they mixed. Little Guy liked to add little bits of color at a time just like in the book to mix into green.
These paints were very sensory! The texture and scent were such a fun painting experience.
The paints made a pretty green color.
After we mixed a bit of the blue and yellow together, I put the paintings into the microwave for 30 seconds. These paints puffed right up. Your microwave oven may vary, so keep a close eye on this while the paints are cooking!
We had to do a bunch more of these. Baby Girl loves her painting activities!
These puffy paints were very fun. We painted for a while making puffy blue and yellow mixtures. And loved the scents!
Be sure to stop back next week for another Preschool Book and activity. For now, check out the other awesome ideas to go along with Little Blue and Little Yellow from our Preschool Book Club buddies:
These easy sensory bins are inspiring ways to encourage creative play, movement, and skill building in kids. The features listed below are easy sensory bins for the kids to use to learn, explore, and play. So if you are looking to throw together a sensory bin or two, these are the ones for you…easy and fun!
Be sure to check out our blog post on sensory materials to add as a filler.
Sensory bins do not need to be complicated to gain all of the benefits of sensory play! A container, a sensory filler, and small items to manipulate are all you need.
You can create sensory bins for any season or holiday, like these Christmas sensory bins. There are so many ways to support skills with this versatile therapy tool!
Easy Sensory Bin ideas for kids
This In The Sky Sensory Bin from Sweet Silly Sara uses just a few materials and inspires imagination while encouraging exploration of textures.
Looking for a learning sensory bin idea? This Letter themed sensory bin from Life With Moore Babies uses items from around the house. No need to purchase anything, just go on a letter hunt and fill a bin!
For an Ocean Sensory Bin, Stir The Wonder used a water table as a sensory bin, making play easy and fun.
It is easy to encourage a little learning with this Math and Science Sensory Bins from One Time Through. Simple objects can allow for big learning of math, science, and more.
Nature inspired sensory bins are maybe the easiest way to explore textures and the great outdoors. This Sticks Sensory Bin hits the mark with fine motor play, imagination, and fun.
More easy sensory bin ideas:
These easy sensory bin ideas hit the mark when it comes to working on motor skills, sensory exploration, and creative play. Use the easy sensory bin ideas below to inspire development and movement using materials found around the home.
Sight Word Sensory Bin – Grab paper from the paper shredder and add some cut up paper pieces or flash cards. This sight word sensory bin is great for challenging tactile sensory input with all paper in a variety of textures. You can use numbers, letters, sight words, spelling words, or any other learning component with this paper sensory bin.
Rocks Sensory Play – Incorporate rocks from the garden or head to the dollar store and use craft rocks. This is a fun easy sensory bin to inspire tons of creative play, imagination, and communication or language building. Add small bug figures, play dough, or any small toy for fine motor work. The rocks offer heavy work, proprioception through the hands and fingers.
Calming Water Bead Sensory Bin – Have you used water beads? They are a fun tactile sensory play experience! Just add water and have fun with the senses.
Sensory Letter Play for Kids – A foam letter puzzle from the dollar store is a great addition to sensory play and can be used in so many ways. Try these ideas to get you started.
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.
This sensory letter activity is a totally easy way to play and explore senses while learning a little along the way.
Baby Girl and I get some one-on-one time while Little Guy is at school a few days a week. She is all about fun ideas and willing to go along with all of my crazy play ideas. We have so much fun together! We had fun with foam letters and an easy sensory bin one day and she’s been wanting to play with these things over and over again.
Sensory play activities are big in our house, but we try to make them easy, with simple set-up, and on the cheap. This sensory letter rock bin was no exception!
sensory letter activities
I started with a bag of pebbles you can find at your local dollar store. These guys are meant for vase filler, but make an excellent fine motor and sensory play item. We pulled out our foam letter puzzle and added the letters to the bunch. Time to play!
Don’t you want to get in there and play?
There are more ways to use these rocks in sensory letter activities.
Just punching those letters out was fun enough, but exploring the colors, letter names, and checking out the different rocks was an added bonus. Baby Girl likes to play with these little rocks and pick out her favorites. She has a few “cute little rocks” that are extra special.
We went through the bin and pulled the letters out and put them back into the puzzle one at a time. This was a fun way to play and learn…the easy way!
Note: As always, please use your judgment with any activity that you see on this blog. Activities like this one should be supervised. If your child tends to put items in their mouth, put this activity away and try again in a few months. Have a fun and safe time playing!
Have a play date on the calendar this spring? These are the ideas for you! We’re featuring our favorites from the All Things Kids Spring sensory play date series from March with a round up of great play date ideas, sure to provide sensory input, multi-sensorial experiences, language development, imagination, learning; The benefits of sensory play go on and on! So get that list of play date friends ready, this is going to be a fun play date!
(or just do a few of these fun ideas at home without the crowd. It’s sure to be fun!)
How to plan a Spring Play date:
Get the kids messy and dirty in the mud with a sensory gardening activity (Lemon Lime Adventures). You could provide containers, seeds, and a big bag of potting soil. SO many sensory benefits occur with a good gardening activity. This play date idea is sure to be a hit all summer as the seeds sprout and the children keep watch over their crops!
Sensory painting with a group of friends sounds like a great way to play. Crayon Box Chronicles shares their melting insect painting activity. Be sure to ask parents to dress the kiddos in their play clothes, because they might get messy with this one. But, don’t stress the mess, there is a ton of sensory input happening with this creative artwork!
All kids love water play, right? This spring sensory water bin that we created touched on a few of the senses and would be a great way for friends to play and interact. The language that comes out with a sensory bin can be astonishing. A small group of friends at a play group will love to explore in a water bin. It would be fun to set up a few bins and let the kids go crazy with sensory play. This Spring soap foam sensory play (House of Burke) is so much fun! If it’s warm where you live, these water bins would be perfect outdoors.
Planning an outdoor play date this spring? This invitation to explore flowers from Buggy and Buddy would be a fin activity for an outdoor play date. The kids could even gather their flowers first while on a spring sensory outdoor excursion (All Done Monkey) and then explore nature’s textures, scents, and sights with a sensory flower activity.
Once you’ve got those fresh flowers collected, you could also set up a flower garden play dough (Fantastic Fun and Learning) play date. Invite your friends to a flower themed play dough play date and you probably won’t have many “no” rsvps!
If you’re planning a play date this spring, a sensory bin themed play date sounds like a sure winner! Set up a birds nest small world (Craftulate) or an insect sensory bin (Stir the Wonder) for guaranteed sensory-based learning and play.
An art-themed sensory play date sounds fabulous! Fun-A-Day shared this scented shaving cream art activity that would be a hit at a play date! Throw down a dollar store table cloth on the floor or take the art process outside. I love that this art work is scented and sensory!
This rainbow salt writing tray (Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails) would be a great way to explore pre-handwriting or letter formation skills with a spring sensory theme. A group of friends would make this activity extra special!
I hope you were able to find a few fun ideas to make a spring play date super fun!
This bug small world is a rock sensory bin that builds fine motor skills through play. Let’s break down how we made this sensory bin activity.
Bug Sensory Bin
This is all about sensory bins! Each blogger is featuring a different sensory bin filler. So WHAT is a sensory bin filler you ask?? You know the stuff that makes up the base of the sensory bin. Sand, shredded paper, or any other textural item might be the base of your sensory bin and part of the sensory experience.
We decided to make our sensory bin with a rock filler. We filled a bin with rocks and added a bug small world for play and exploration. What fun!
Bug Sensory Bin
This bug sensory bin was a fun way to explore bugs and insects while developing fine motor skills.
We started with a bin of river rock and added some touches to make a bug small world. These bugs, a few fake flowers, and strands of floral filler made a pretty fun small world.
We were ready to play!
These bugs are too cute and just right for some pretend play.
Baby Girl used a magnifying glass to examine the bugs. Love that squashed up nose!
We had a ton of fun pretending these little bugs were a family and building a house with rocks.
You’ve got to examine the rocks with the magnifying glass, of course.
Manipulating the rocks, bugs, and pieces to our sensory bin provided great fine motor play, language development, sensory exploration, and just plain fun!
Looking for more sensory ideas using rocks? Try some of these:
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?
Spring Sensory Water Bin
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Baby Girl just enjoyed getting her hands in the water and grabbing up the shapes. Sensory play at it’s finest!
We used our plastic plates
to sort and play with the foam stickers. The wet stickers stuck nicely to the plastic plates, too.
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!
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
{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 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.
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.
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 way to work on gross grasp of the hands. Little Guy said, “this is the best fun, Mom!” …success!
Our rocks were nice and scrubbed clean and ready for play. And now to get them doing dishes…
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:
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.
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!
Valentine’s Day activities are all around! If you are looking for a few Valentine’s Day activities to add to your OT line-up, I’ve got you covered with activities that pack a developmental punch. Have you been cutting any hearts yet? Covered a box in paper for a Valentine’s exchange? Bought cards for the kids to give out at school? We’ve done a few activities…there was this Valentine’s Day Painting and even a Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin that you may have seen.
Painting noodles is such a fun creative painting activity that you can use to make bracelets and necklaces while building fine motor skills.
This Noodle Painting activity started out as a fine motor activity for Baby Girl and turned into a pretty Valentine’s Day craft and decoration.
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Fine Motor Activity for Toddlers
Baby Girl (age 2) LOVES to paint. She will ask to paint almost every day. One day I decided to bring out something besides paper for her to cover with paint. I pulled out a small handful of different dried pastas and put them into a divided dish. In the center was our spill roof paint cup
with red paint.
Baby Girl got busy painting. She explored each noodle and had fun painting! Manipulating the little pastas was a great fine motor dexterity task…and very sensory too, as she covered her fingers with paint.
We let the painted pasta dry and ended up using it another day to make our Valentine’s day craft.
Valentine’s Day Noodle Garland craft
I cut some hearts from red construction paper and gave Baby Girl glue. She squeezed the glue all over the hearts…however she liked!
Squeezing glue is a good way to encourage hand strengthening in children. Squeezing the glue bottle requires a gross grasp on the bottle. A gross grasp is using the whole hand in a squeezing manner and really strengthens the muscles of the hand.
She put the painted noodles in the glue with a tip to tip (pincer grasp). Picking up small objects with just the tips of the fingers requires precision and dexterity.
The hearts dried and we strung them along a strand of yarn in our dining room. They make a pretty Valentine’s Day decoration!
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.
, by Leo Lionni. When we saw this book on the series, I knew we had to do some color mixing. This Kool-Aid paint recipe smelled so good and the creating mixtures of blue and yellow was a ton of fun.
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, a few fake flowers, and strands of floral filler made a pretty fun small world.
. 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. 
. 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.
