Valentine’s Day Goop Painting

 
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.  We don’t normally do holiday crafts and activities this far ahead, but our Valentine’s Day Goop Painting came about from a previous material…and it was so much fun, that I was excited to share, haha! This Valentine’s Day activity is perfect to add to occupational therapy plans this time of year.
 
Sensory Play is so much fun.  We do a ton of sensory activities, crafts, and play every day.  Whether the kids are messing around in the sink, exploring textures in a bin of toys and “stuff”, or crawling under blankets and cushions…sensory play happens ALL the time in a child’s daily play.  Inviting a child to try new experiences like with this goopy Valentine’s day play activity is just another way to learn through play.
 

 

 
Valentine's Day Goop Painting

Valentine’s Day Goop Painting

You may have seen our Candy Cane Scented Moon Dough post back around Christmas-time.  That post turned into this Valentine’s Day Goop activity (and sensory-tastic painting fun!).   When we finished up that activity back in December, I saved the red and white (turned pink once we were done playing!) moon dough in a gallon sized baggie.  This was the perfect shade of pink for a Valentine’s’ Day themed sensory activity!

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Valentine’s Day Sensory Activity

The powdered left-overs from our Candy Cane Moon Dough and a little water were all that we needed to make this goopy fun.  We had about 2 cups of the powdered material…Check out the post here to see how we made it.  I added a half cup of water and got a nice goopy, messy, sensory texture to play with.  The peppermint scent was still really strong and when we were playing, Baby Girl said it “smells like candy canes, Mom”! 

I threw in a few heart cookie cutters
and Baby Girl got to playing.  She liked to have a wet washcloth right next to her to wipe her hands off every once in a while.  This was some messy stuff!

We had paper and a felly roll pan next to the bin of goop and did some goop painting by stamping the cookie cutters onto the paper.  It was so meant to paint like this!  Baby Girl sat there for a LONG time stamping, and stamping, and stamping some more. 

(seriously…we had 14 pages filled with hearts!!)

Messy, sensory, goopy fun!
 
 
The goop made the heart stamps a big lumpy texture.  So much fun to stamp!  I joined Baby Girl and stamped a bunch of hearts too…
 

When the hearts dried, they were a pretty stamp.  However, this is not something that can be saved to decorate cards or hung on the wall.  The hearts flaked away if you touched them.  Maybe a little glue added would help to preserve these pretty hearts?  We’ll try that next time!

Let us know if you try this activity.  We would love to see your play in action!

 

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.

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