This was a fun outdoor play activity that we did this week. It didn’t turn out like I was thinking in my mind, but it was pretty cool to explore and we did have (messy) fun with it!
We started with washable finger paints in little cups and added some sand from the sand box.
((Using a little traffic cone to pour the sand is completely optional, but according to Baby Girl, definitely necessary…we roll with it around here!))
Mix the sand into the paints until you get a nice crumbly texture. This is a great task for bilateral hand coordination. The kids use their non-dominant hand to hold the cup and their dominant hand to stir.
We poured the crumbly textured paint onto cardboard and played. This was so neat to press, roll, squeeze into a lump, squash, and crumble up again. We played with this for a long time.
So, here’s where my idea derailed…I was thinking we would let the sand dry and it would crumble up into colored sand. It did dry when we left the sand out overnight…but it was not sandy and fine. The dried mixture was sort of lumpy and hard. Still fun and neat to mix in with plain sand, but not what I had in mind.
That was when we went back to the drawing board and came up with this idea to make colored sand…it worked much better to get the sandy texture we were hoping for!
This was a fun activity that the toddlers around here loved. I put a bunch of little objects out on a tray, all in shades of blue. Different textures, shapes, and sizes were perfect for little exploring hands. Baby Girl and my niece and nephew played with these for a while.
Once they had enough of that activity, I poured the whole tray into the sandbox and we had a ball covering everything with sand, finding little things, and starting all over again.
We’ve been on a blue kick around here. It started when we filled our bird feeder and had a Blue Jay in our front yard.
We’ve been playing with blue, sorting blue, crafting blue, eating blue (berries), and even reading about blue…
Toddler Sensory Tray
((I love the little knuckle dimples in these pictures!!))
Watch this space for more BLUE play and craft activities!
We play a lot with water beads. These blue water beads were part of a 3 pack I found at Walmart. I wanted to try a calming sensory bin for a while, and the blue water bead pack was perfect!
…with three crazy kids, mom needs a little calming activity every now and then :)…
Calming Colors.
Blue is peaceful and relaxing, and produces calming chemicals in the body. Purple is a color that promotes imagination and is associated with relaxing and calm colors. It’s said that lighter shades of purple are calming, while deeper shades are stimulating as they pull in more red tones.
There is a lot of research out there telling us about how color affects mood and behavior. Blue and Greens release neurotransmitters that relax and calm the body. They lower body temperature, decrease perspiration, and suppress appetite. Reds and Yellows encourage creativity. (So, pull out those bright and stimulating color strips when you’re getting ready to paint the dramatic play/art/block area!)
Calming Scents.
The sense of smell sends information directly to the brain. Certain scents can increase our ability to learn, create, think and attend. Peppermint, basil, lemon, and cinnamon are linked to mental alertness. Lavender, chamomile, orange, and rose are linked to relaxation and calmness.
Calming Sensory Bin.
I used our blue water beads and added purple food coloring to the water. Just a few drops were needed, and the water turned a nice calming shade of purple. I added a few drops of lavender extract for a nice relaxing scent.
This really was a calming activity for the kids. They played with the water beads and let them fall between their fingers. They did go into the kitchen and grab my spatula and whisk.
((They do this every time we pull out the water beads!))
Baby Girl played for a long time with this. She loved it!
This purple sensory bin is a fun way to explore the color purple using one of our favorite sensory play materials: a water bead sensory bin! While this is a very old post on our blog (circa 2013), we still love the mesmerizing impact of a color themed sensory play activity. Plus, if you are looking for more fun ways to extend the play, check out our water bead activities!
Purple Sensory Bin
A purple themed sensory bin has many benefits beyond exploring the color purple. Of course, you could make a color themed sensory bin based around any color and gain so many benefits:
Tactile sensory experience- Targeting tactile discrimination and tactile exploration is one of the main skills that are address with a sensory bin. You can address various aspects of tactile defensiveness through engaging and motivating play.
Social Emotional Skills- Playing in a sensory bin like our purple sensory activity is an engaging activity that fosters group play (parallel play) and encouraging peer interaction by borrowing tools, working together. Engaging in a new situation is an excellent way to foster communication, cooperation, and other social emotional skills. Here are more social skills activities kids love.
How to set up a purple sensory bin
In our colorful sensory bin, we gathered just a few items from around the home:
Add a few spoons, cups, and manipulative items, and you are ready to go!
This was a fun and easy little sensory bin to put together. Someone (cough, Big Sister, cough) threw some bath water colors into the bin of blue water beads we had out. They absorbed the color reeeeally fast. And are VERY vivid in their new purple hue.
I found a few purple bracelets and cookie cutters, and a few other purple things, and voila!
Purple Sensory Bin fun!
I’m not sure why, but every time we do water bead or corn bin sensory play, Little Guy goes into the kitchen and grabs my whisk and whatever other utensils look right. So, now Baby Girl does the same thing. I guess it’s just fun to mix and stir when you’re playing with a sensory bin!
We have a bin of magnetic letters that we’ve been playing with for years. Packs of these magnetic alphabets are everywhere; You can find them at the dollar store and so many other stores. I have pulled this bin out so many times for play. Each child has loved to sort, dump the bin out, place all over the fridge, and more. The big kids are spelling their name and words. We’ve used these letters in all kinds of sensory bins…even molded into Jello for messy sensory play!
Last week, we took the bin of letters outside and found the BIGGEST magnetic board EVER!
Big Sister is learning to spell and read some words and found the letters for a few words she knows. Little Guy is a big fan of spelling “stop” at every stop sign we come to on the road. So, he found the letters to that word.
((He also has the recent …funny…habit of spelling “YES” or “NO” instead of saying the actual word when you ask him a yes/no question.)) SO funny, and SO him!
Movement and Learning in Letter Identification and Spelling
There is a lot of research out there showing that incorporating movement into learning helps with so many aspects of cognition. Kathryn at Movement and Learning shares a great collection of research.
We played a little game to sort out the letters to a word that both of them knew really well. I wanted to encourage self-confidence by starting with a word they know. I put one of each of the letters of “stop” in different areas of the garage. Little Guy (who is learning letter identification) looked in the pile of letters on the ground and found an “S” and put it with the rest of the “S’s”. Then he found a “T” and put it with the rest of the “T’s”. He found each of the letters in order and went through the word “stop” three times.
Big Sister is learning to read beginner words. I wrote some “-ar” words on the driveway in chalk (car, jar, far, star) and she would walk from the word to copy the words in magnets on the garage.
Cross Lateral Movement and Learning
I had them try another game to put the letters back into the bin. I asked them to put the letters away one by one, using alternating hands to reach across their midline to grab the letter.
What is the midline?? Imagine a line going down the middle of your body from the middle of your forehead, and strait down, dividing your body into two symmetrical halves. Your right and left sides are divided by your midline.
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body. Crossing midline forces the two halves of the brain to work together.
It was a little difficult to get them to reach for letters with their non-dominant hand. It required more verbal cues, physical prompts, and visual cues. Why was this so tricky? Because the brain was being asked to do something novel. Both Big Sister and Little Guy needed the extra prompts and cues to reach across their midline, all the while recalling the letter in order to spell the word.
Pretty Cool!
So, is crossing midline difficult for your child? Try these play activities:
Crawling in a tunnel, finger painting with both hands, digging in sand to find objects, Pat-a-Cake hand and rhythm games, Simon Says games, playing with ribbon wands or scarves.
Brown and Blue Play Dough, sand, rocks, palm tree food picks, and a bowl of beachy manipulatives were put on a tray for Big Sister and Little Guy. They played with this in our basement in a baby pool we have going on down there right now.
I love how Little Guy put the dolphin in the blue play dough like it was leaping into the water 🙂
What are we learning through play?
Imagination Play
Pretend Play
Fine Motor Dexterity
Tripod Grasp to pinch and sprinkle the sand
Index Isolation and Tripod Grasp to press the little items into the play dough
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 Spring sensory activity doubles as a fine motor activity and visual perceptual skills activity too. We used some materials we had around the house to create an “I Spy” sensory bag that kids can use to work on essential skills for reading and learning.
To make a Spring seek and find sensory bag, you need just a few materials:
gallon sized baggie
gel
food coloring
Paper
Stickers- we used Spring stickers
This is a really simple sensory bag to make:
Today we used some spring flowers that we had and stuck them inside a plastic bag.
We filled it with aloe gel and some food coloring.
There were matching stickers on a piece of paper so the kids had to seek and find the match.
Looking back and forth to find the matches is great for visual scanning and visual memory.
Pushing the gel around to find the sticker below helps with fine motor strength, including index finger isolation.
This was Baby Girl’s version of fun:
…we did not tape the bag to seal it closed, but you may want to. It would also be fun to tape the bag to a window like we did in the linked activity. The gel bag is fun for practicing letter and number formation too.
Why make a Spring Seek and Find Sensory Bag?
Spring is a great time to get outside and explore the natural world with your senses. You can create your own spring sensory bags by filling them with different materials that will stimulate your senses, such as flower petals, leaves, or even some freshly cut grass.
These sensory bags can be a great way to encourage children to explore their surroundings and discover new things. You could also create a seek and find spring activity, where children have to search for certain items using their senses.
If you have a child who is a sensory seeker, creating a spring sensory bag could be a great way to provide them with the tactile and visual sensory input they crave.
The different textures of the materials inside the bag can help to regulate their sensory system and provide a calming effect. Pressing the bag through the fingers offers calming proprioceptive input through the joints of the hands.
Additionally, creating a spring look and find activity could be a fun way to engage them and provide them with an opportunity to explore their surroundings in a meaningful way.
Spring Sensory Bags
For an I spy sensory bag activity, you could fill a bag with various small objects, such as buttons or beads, and have children search for specific items using their senses.
This activity can be a fun way to develop children’s sensory skills and provide them with a fun and engaging learning experience.
Whether you’re looking to engage your senses or seek out new spring adventures, there are plenty of creative ways to make the most of this vibrant season. So why not grab a seek bag and get started today?
Spring Fine Motor Kit
Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!
Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, 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.
Kids LOVE rainbow sensory bins! These rainbow sensory bin ideas are some of our absolute favorite sensory bins, and they are the perfect addition to our rainbow activities, rainbow crafts, and a rainbow theme in therapy. Be sure to use our rainbow breathing exercise, too. Let’s talk rainbow sensory play!
Rainbow sensory bins
A sensory bin is a container filled with materials that are designed to engage children’s senses and encourage exploration and play. They can be as easy or as complicated as you like, but the concept is the same- sensory based, tactile play with a theme or play idea with items to manipulate and explore as the user explores their tactile sensory system.
These materials can include a wide range of sensory inputs such as sand, rice, beans, water, or small objects like toys, beads, and stones. Here are many sensory bin base ideas to get you started.
The goal of a sensory bin is to provide children with an opportunity to explore their senses through play. As they play with the materials, they can feel the different textures, see the different colors, and hear the different sounds they make. This can help to promote their sensory development and stimulate their curiosity and creativity.
Sensory bins are often used in early childhood education and therapy settings as a tool for sensory integration therapy, which aims to help children develop and organize their sensory systems. They can also be used at home as a fun and engaging activity for children to play and explore.
We’ve been playing with a rainbow theme alllll week around here. These are three rainbow sensory bins that we have been exploring.
Any time that I pull out the corn bin, everyone gets very excited. I added ribbons in different colors and some “gold coins” (aka yellow Connect Four game pieces!)
Another little sensory bin that we’ve been playing with is a simple bowl of these Fuse ‘M Beads.
I added a couple of pairs of tweezers and an ice cube tray and let them go at it!
This was a fun fine motor activity, but mostly they just loved running their hands through the beads.
Baby Girl loved exploring these little beads.
((These are really little, so if you play with these…or any little parts…keep an eye on your little ones if they tend to put things in their mouths. Baby Girl does pretty well and won’t put things like this in her mouth.))
This last sensory bin used the Fuse ‘M Beads again. The next day, I put the beads and some cotton balls (clouds) into a big ol’ bowl and added a melon baller and kitchen tongs.
More fine motor skills and sensory play combined into one colorful activity!
We hope you get some good ideas from these sensory bins. have you done any fun sensory bins recently?
If you are setting up a rainbow sensory bin, be sure to grab a copy of our colors handwriting kit. There are many items in the printable kit that can be used in a sensory bin to challenge letter writing. It’s a great colorful addition to rainbow play!
Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:
Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
Colors Roll & Write Page
Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.
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.
