Sensory Ideas- Keeping It Simple ANGELA HIRSCH

Stepping Stones Materials: Paper plates. Glue, sponges, cotton balls, foam, bubble wrap…..basically anything that would be fun to step and hop on!

Dinosaurs & Clean Dirt Clean Mud Ingredients: 3 bars of Ivory Soap, grated 1 to 2 rolls Toilet Paper Hot water (not scalding!) What To Do: Older children can help grate the soap, but even toddlers will enjoy helping tear up the toilet paper to add to this mix. Put the soap and t. paper into a large mixing bowl or dish tub. Gradually add a little hot water, and mix with the hands. Continue to add small amounts of water, until a nice "muddy" consistency is obtained. Annie notes that it should have the consistency of "Cool Whip".

Pond Sensory Bin Materials: Water beads (dollar tree), foam lilly pads (you can makes those easily enough), artificial pond flowers, water, pond animals.

Sniffing Jars Materials: Plastic jars with holes poked in the lids, spices (cinnamon, garlic, italian seasoning, etc.), fruits (lemon, lime, oranges, etc.). Anything with a strong scent. It is nice if the jars are not see through so the children can guess the smell.

Texture Eggs Materials: Plastic easter eggs, pom poms, buttons, christmas garland, feathers, pipe cleaners, gems, yarn. Be creative

Sand Play Dough Easy No-Cook Play Dough Recipe: * 1 cup of salt * 2 cups of plain flour * 2 tbsp oil * 2 tbsp cream of tartar * 1.5 cups boiling water * few drops of food colouring and/or flavouring * few drops of glycerine (for extra shine, stretch and smoothness) *I cup of real sand Add sea shells for more fun!

Oil & Ice Materials: Ice cubes colored with food coloring and a shallow container with a little bit of vegetable oil in the bottom.

Insects & Dirt Materials: Clean mud (or real dirt), plastic insects, cups, sticks and leaves. I like the idea of having a sensory bin always filled with dirt (I have shared other ideas further in the power point) that I can change easily to make learning new and exciting.

Gak Recipe Materials Needed 4 parts cornstarch (see baking supplies dept. of supermarket) 1 part water (Can add coloring.) What To Do Add water gradually to cornstarch. Stir with fingers.

Materials: Bubble wrap, tape and paint (optional). Gently tape bubble wrap around the child’s foot and let them walk around. For children that are more sensitive to this experience, just give them the bubble wrap to explore.

Calming Bottles Materials: Empty water bottles, water, glitter, food coloring, hot glue and duct tape. After we mix the food coloring, water and glitter, we always hot glue the bottles shut and add duct tape around the top to make sure there are no leaks.

4 th Of July Sensory Bin Materials: Easter grass (white), star shapes (anything you have on hand, foam pieces, cookie cutters, etc.), red, white and blue pom poms. A little glitter never hurts (fire works), plastic flags. Again, you can be creative.

Gardening Materials: Clean dirt (or real dirt). Small plastic pots, artificial flowers, gardening gloves, child sized scoops and shovels, rocks, real grass. The possibilities are endless. You could add aprons and gardening knee pads for fun.

Construction Site Another use for the dirt I like to keep on hand. We have a construction site across the street right now so this is a HUGE hit. Materials: dirt, rocks, cups, small construction type cars/trucks (the kids know the “technical” names for all of these in our classroom and they enjoy teaching us )

Cotton Ball Fun Materials: Cotton balls, tongs, ice cream scoops, small containers to scoop into (fill and dump).

Farm Materials: You guessed it, more dirt!!! This time we add farm animals, sticks, straw, etc.

Nature Indoors Materials: It always amazes me how fascinating sticks can be for children. The will build, create, peel bark, and explore forever. This one, again, is simple. A sensory bucket full of sticks and leaves, grass. Add tongs and twist ties and see what they create.

Snow Inside Materials: Keeping it simple! We bring snow in often!! Add some simple water colors and large paint brushes!

Scent Paint Materials: Washable tempera paint, spices. We can add cinnamon, garlic powder, pumpkin spice, anything to paint to make it not only an art experience but a sensory experience as well. Lemon extract is a great one too.

Slime Fall Leaf Play Materials: Fall Slime Discovery To make our fall sensory play, I mixed two boxes of cornstarch (known as cornflour in the UK) with water (in a rough ratio of 2 cups cornstarch to every cups water). Add artificial leaves (better yet, real leaves).

Good Old Water Play Materials: Water, scoops, funnels, things that float, things that sink…anything!!! Children love water play! Babies, washcloths….that’s a favorite where I work.

Sticky Table Materials: Contact paper, large plastic container (flipped upside down). Our toddlers LOVE this activity!! We have used cotton balls, foam shapes, colors, foam blocks, duplos (I don’t recommend balloons, chocking hazard).

Squishy Bag Materials: Slime, small beads, plastic baggies, duct tape, masking tape. When we make these bags to put up on the wall for play we always duct tape the edges of the bags (all the way around) to ensure that the small beads don’t leak out. If you are attaching them to a window for play, you can use masking tape to attach them after you have duct tapes them shut.

Sensory Wall Materials: Fabric sample pieces (clearance at walmart or old clothes your kids have outgrown), small embroidery hoops. I don’t think there is a good way to attach these to a wall for toddlers but would use them in free exploration.

Sponges & Water Materials: Sponges & water! It’s that simple!!! Stand back and watch what they learn