Sensory Activities
Explore the colors of the forest floor with green lentils, acorns, flowers, pine cones, and more. Forests are incredible ecosystems that are teeming with life. Even if you do not live close to a forest, we encourage you to recreate this very special habitat with foraged materials. Set up Time: 5 minutes Directions Materials Safety […]
Let’s explore our sense of smell by making our own perfume with natural materials. This is the perfect activity to use an old bouquet of flowers, herbs from a child-friendly garden, and to do outside! Set up Time: 10 minutes Directions 1. Gather together flowers, cinnamon sticks, lemon peel, orange peel, rosemary, and if available, […]
Sweet nectar, yummy honey–bees have a pretty nice life full of little sweet treats! Let’s pretend to be bees and have a bee inspired picnic! We highly encourage children to wear antennae if they have them (see our Strong as an Ant! activity for a simple antenna design). Maybe you all can talk about bees […]
This is less a specific activity and more an invitation for caregivers to look to unexpected places to invite children to dig at their leisure throughout all the seasons in your backyard. Check out our tips below for designating a digging center in your backyard! If you have ever taken a walk around a neighborhood […]
We love a beautiful flower sensory bin! This is a great way for children to learn about parts of flowers, as they add them to their potions. Turn this into a game of pretend play as you make up magical concoctions that can turn you into a unicorn, or give you special powers to be […]
There are many ways to make slime, and this method has proved to be the simplest. We’ve shown here variations for white glue and clear glue so you can make sure to get the perfect slime with whatever you have on hand! Slime is a great way to talk about different colors in a super […]
The winter is a great time to talk about the temperature outside and inside, and the ways that we stay warm! Are there certain foods that children crave when they spend lots of time playing outdoors? Warm drinks are a great way to warm up our bodies after we spend time playing outdoors. Set up […]
While many people may associate the winter months with grey, dreary colors, we think that if you look carefully, there are beautiful colors all around! Some of the most beautiful trees that stay green through winter are evergreen trees. Cedar, Fir, Pine, and Hemlock trees stay green all year long and offer some much needed […]
This is our recipe for “Snow Dough” which is a taste safe sculpting dough made from Marshmallow Fluff, cornstarch, and vegetable oil. Have fun making snowmen, or any other sculptures that inspire you! Set up Time: 20 minutes Directions Materials Learning Through Play Cognitive: Connections – Talk to children about snow. Does it snow in […]
Invite children to create a winter landscape with a fun tactile sticky wall, appropriate for a range of ages. Keep it simple or add multiple pieces, see our tips below. Set up Time: 5 minutes Directions Consider adding white tissue paper, a small house and trees (cut out paper drawings) to help your child create […]
We incorporated this activity into our week of “Celebrations – Pajama Party” since all children of course love sensory play and would love to play this at a party! We wear our pajamas at night, so let’s make a magical moon dough with star sprinkles. This is like moon sand but a little bit thicker […]
It feels so special to go get your hair cut, and where appropriate, your beard trimmed! Let’s play barber as we lather up and pamper our pumpkins and gourds! Set up Time: 10 minutes Directions Gather together some of your favorite pumpkins or gourds. Hot glue some googly eyes on them. Gather shaving cream and […]
