Putting The Pretty In Preschool

Finding Beauty In Everyday Early Childhood Experiences

sensory tray

Spaghetti and Eyeball Sensory Bin

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On a recent trip to a Dollar store, I picked up a pair of skeleton arms to add to my growing supply of bony resources. In the checkout line, a man turned around, smiled, and announced “Grandma’s spaghetti scoops.” I took the comment in humor, and immediately thought it would be fun to use the skeleton props in a spaghetti and eyeball sensory bin. The sensory invitation was a hit with my little learners, and I highly recommend trying it.

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Supplies To Collect

For this ooey-gooey sensory bin, gather the following supplies:

  • saucer sled
  • large package of spaghetti noodles
  • big pot
  • orange tempera paint
  • toy eyeballs
  • pair of skeleton arms
  • two bowls
  • painting aprons

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Spaghetti and Eyeball Sensory Bin Preparation

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To prepare this slimy sensory bin, cook a large package of spaghetti noodles in a big pot.

Next, pick a bin or tray to hold the cooked noodles. A saucer sled is a good size for this sensory invitation. It is neither too small nor too large to hold this amount of noodles. A bus bin or similar-sized storage tub would work nicely too.

Then slide the noodles into your bin of choice, and spread them around.

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Afterward, mix three parts of orange tempera paint with one part of water. Pour the thinned paint over the noodles so that it looks like spaghetti sauce.

Next, add toy eyeballs to the bin to represent meatballs.

Finally, place two bowls and a pair of skeleton arms in the slippery, mushy bin. The skeleton arms will serve as spaghetti scoops.

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The Spaghetti and Eyeball Sensory Bin

In offering this noodle-based sensory bin to little learners, you’ll find out which children love to get covered in paint, and which ones prefer not to. Not everyone will want to explore the bin, but it will likely be a huge hit with most.

A saucer sled sensory bin is perfect for two children to play in at a time.

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Having participants wear a painting apron is encouraged, as well as setting up a hand washing station close by.

Washing hands in a tub after exploring the noodle bin is as fun as playing in it. The orange water and bubbles created by handwashing will delight little learners and add to the sensory experience.

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Taste-Safe Spaghetti Sensory Bin

To make this spaghetti and eyeball sensory bin taste safe, use a mildly spiced spaghetti sauce instead of tempera paint for the noodle-based sensory activity.

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More Skeleton Activities

Skeleton Preschool Theme

Glam Skeleton Sensory Bin

Skeleton and Eyeball Waterplay

Glam Skeleton Playdough Tray

Floral Decorated Skeleton

Skeleton Treasure Blocks

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Apple Playdough Tray

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Tis the season of all things apple, and here’s a tantalizing apple playdough tray to add to your rotation of fall activities. It features playdough in three different scents and colors. The aromatic apple-themed sensory activity also works well for a nutrition or fruit and vegetable theme.

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Apple-Scented Playdough Recipe

Gather the following easy-to-find supplies for this silky apple-scented playdough recipe:

  • apple-scented hair conditioner
  • cornstarch
  • large bowl
  • green food coloring
  • measuring cup
  • spoon for stirring

To make the simple no-cook recipe, first scoop 2 parts of cornstarch into a large bowl. Next, add one part apple-scented hair conditioner and mix it with the cornstarch using a stirring spoon. Then knead the scented dough ingredients together to make a smooth dough. If the dough is a bit crumbly, add a tad more hair conditioner. If it is a little slimy, add a bit more cornstarch. A playdough recipe couldn’t be any easier to make.

Apple themed playdough invitation with apple cutting board, ice cube tray, cookie cutters, leaves, and gems.

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Optional: Mix in a generous amount of green food coloring with the apple-scented hair conditioner before adding it to the cornstarch to get a light green color of playdough. You can also add the food coloring at the end. In this case, the playdough will look marbled with green at first and turn an even shade of light green after it has been used in a playdough invitation.

While you are making this recipe, it may not look like it will form a smooth playdough. Be assured that it will.

This dough becomes more mouldable as it is being handled. Round balls and other shapes are easy to form once it is warmed up a little with little human hands!

When using the dough for a second or third time, set it out and let learners add a tad more conditioner to their dough. If it gets a little mushy, have them work in a bit of cornstarch. They will love doing this.

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Apple-Scented Playdough Variations

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Since many apples come in varying combinations of red, green, and yellow hues, you can use other conditioner colors such as strawberry hair conditioner with red food coloring added to make red dough, and coconut hair conditioner with yellow food coloring added to make yellow dough.

Color mixing is a favorite activity for little learners, and they will relish the chance to mix all three colors of playdough together.

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Apple Playdough Tray

This apple playdough tray is easy to set up for little learners. Three colors of playdough are featured, but little learners would be more than happy to use only one scented playdough variety for the activity.

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In the tray are:

  • red, green, and yellow playdough
  • apple cookie cutters
  • alphabet letter wood stamps
  • leaf pie edgers
  • red, green, and yellow acrylic apple gems
  • green, red, and yellow apple counters
  • yellow, green, and red beads
  • brown pipe cleaners
  • drinking straws

Scented hair conditioner is an effortless ingredient to use in playdough, especially when only one or two other ingredients are required. Checking for it at dollar stores is an economical alternative.

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Having a bulk container of cornstarch ensures that there will be enough of this ingredient to make the playdough for a group of students. Using one cup of cornstarch to one-half cup of conditioner makes a recipe big enough for one or two children to share.

Loose parts such as yellow, green, and red apple counters, acrylic gems, and beads add interest to the tray.

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Pipe cleaners cut in half and wrapped around a pencil make curly caterpillars. Cut straws can be used to poke holes in the playdough and represent how caterpillars dig holes in apples and burrow inside.

Lowercase alphabet letter wood stamps offer an opportunity to spell the word apple.

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More Apple Activities

For more apple-themed activities, check out the following blog posts:

Apple Theme Activities

Watercolor Apples With Markers

Apple Print Activities

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Starry Sky Sensory Bin

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Just as vegetables that come in a variety of colors are always a happy find, so are interestingly colored flowers. These award-winning, starry sky petunias are a new discovery for me, and they caught my attention at a hardware store! Their varying color patterns and space-themed name make them perfect for a starry sky sensory bin.

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Starry Sky Petunias were introduced about eight years ago, and their spectacular speckled white and purple flowers are a reminder of the cosmos. Each individual flower varies in shade of color and placement of white dots and splotches. The super pretty petunia plant is also named Night Sky Petunia and Galaxy Petunia.

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Supplies To Collect

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This flower-inspired starry sky sensory bin contains the following loose part supplies:

  • starry sky petunia flowers
  • astronaut figurines
  • toy planets
  • glow in the dark moon and stars
  • toy spaceships in varying designs
  • pink and purple buttons
  • large and small marbles
  • purple and pink tumbled stones
  • turquoise, pink, and purple acrylic gems
  • silver spray painted rocks
  • agate slices

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The Starry Sky Sensory Bin

The supplies in the starry sky sensory bin are offered in two different containers.

This first bin for the sensory play loose parts is a food bus tub. It is super user-friendly and can be set up anywhere. Two or three little learners can play in the tub at the same time.

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Water with a little fluorescent purple food coloring added is the base for the bin. Breathtaking, other-worldly Starry Sky Petunias are the “stars” of the sensory play invitation.

Space-themed toys such as astronaut figurines, spaceships in varying sizes, glow-in-the-dark moon and stars, and toy planets complement the petunias.

Marbles in varying sizes are space rocks or pretend planets.

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Loose parts such as silver spray-painted rocks, agate slices, pink and purple tumbled stones, and acrylic gems add beauty to the bin.

Complementary-colored buttons are a welcome addition to any sensory bin.

This next water-based bin is a round, edged serving tray. It can also be offered anywhere and is suitable for one or two little ones to use at a time. The water level is a little lower, allowing for a large toy spaceship to stand upright in the bin.

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Petunia flowers in any color provide beautiful, cascading blooms all growing season long. Solid pink, purple, or white petunia flowers would also work wonderfully in this starry sky sensory bin.

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“Go Fishing” Sensory Tray

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Use toy fishing rods and accessories for a super fun "Go Fishing" active world tray. Add ocean-themed loose parts to extend play.

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This easy-to-set-up “Go Fishing” sensory tray allows your little learners to have a blast catching and transferring fish, and exploring related ocean-themed loose parts. And there are plenty of opportunities for learning in this hands-on, play-based activity.

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Follow me on Pinterest for more early learning ideas.

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Supplies To Collect

An ocean-themed loose part collection for a super fun "Go Fishing" active world tray. your early learners will love.

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To give your little charges a super fun, ocean-themed sensory experience, gather the following:

  • water table or active world tray
  • toy fishing sets
  • sea jelly dive toys
  • miniature ocean creatures
  • fish-themed fillable eggs
  • bowl with marbles
  • four hot dog baskets
  • strainer
  • shells
  • punch bowl

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The “Go Fishing” Sensory Tray

Fishing sets and ocean-themed loose parts are featured in this super fun "Go Fishing" active world tray your early learners will love.

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To set up this inviting, sea creature-filled sensory tray, start out by setting a non-breakable punch bowl in the center of an active world tray. Fill the bowl with water.

Then set fish from a few inexpensive toy fishing sets in a basket, and spread a few others around the punch bowl.

Tip: Dollar stores are a great place to find many of the supplies in this post.

Next, fill the other baskets with sea jelly dive toys, miniature ocean creatures, and sea creature-themed fillable eggs.

Note: Hot dog baskets are a perfect size for the activity.

Lastly, add toy fishing rods along with a bowl with marbles and a strainer with shells.

Setting up a sensory tray couldn’t be any easier. And I’m sure your little learners will dive right in.

Use toy fishing rods and accessories for a super fun "Go Fishing" active world tray. Add ocean-themed loose parts to extend play.

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Variations Of This Sensory Activity

If you have access to a water table, fill it with water and drop in all the supplies. Your little charges can transfer fish to baskets and explore the fillable eggs, sea jelly dive toys, miniature ocean creatures, marbles, and shells.

And adding mini fishing nets would be great for scooping up toy sea jellies. Including more strainers would be nice too.

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Benefits Of The “Go Fishing” Sensory Tray

Aside from being just plain fun, this fishing game sensory tray allows young children to:

  • develop eye-hand coordination
  • practice transferring objects from one place to another
  • sort fish and sea jelly dive toys by color
  • count all the fish they catch
  • label and discuss many different ocean creatures
  • learn that fish hatch from eggs

Can you think of anything to add to this sensory activity? Share in a comment below.

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Related:

Ocean Playdough Tray

Octopus Theme Activities

Sea Star Activities

Saving Green Sea Turtles

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Petunia Flower Sensory Tray

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Purple-hued flowers are the stars of the show in this petunia flower sensory tray your little learners will love to explore.

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A few weeks ago, a coworker brought me a beautiful bouquet of irises, which I thought would be perfect for a flowery sensory tray. After getting out supplies to coordinate with the purple and white color scheme, I realized I’d forgotten one really important thing… to check if irises are toxic. It was super disappointing to discover that every part of them is, so the irises couldn’t be used for sensory play.

Since all my accompanying supplies were ready to go, I decided to hunt for a child-friendly flowering plant. Luckily, on a shopping trip soon after I discovered a totally non-toxic, bountiful pot of purple-hued petunias. The pot was overflowing with leggy petunia shoots begging for a trim. The cuttings are featured in this petunia flower sensory tray.

This showy starry sky petunia plant is the perfect addition to your patio. Trimmed sprigs are repurposed in a petunia flower sensory tray.

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Petunia Flower Sensory Tray Supplies

A nature-based sensory tray with petunia flower sprigs and pretty purple and white loose parts for tactile exploration.

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A few simple supplies bring this sensory tray to life. In addition to petunia sprigs, there are:

  • metal bowls and tablespoons
  • non-breakable measuring cups, jars, and dessert cups
  • violet craft foam insects
  • metallic purple pom poms
  • purple necklace strips
  • pearl beads
  • large white buttons
  • pebble-shaped acrylic gems
  • scissors

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Pretty purple and white loose parts are the perfect addition to a petunia flower sensory tray your little learners will love to explore.

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Preparing The Petunia Flower Sensory Tray

The bin for this tray is a green active world tray. It is large enough for four or more children to play in at a time.

A nature-based sensory tray with petunia flower sprigs and pretty purple and white loose parts for tactile exploration.

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To set up this flower-themed sensory activity, cover a large, round table with a water-resistant tablecloth and place the tray on it.

Then set up four stations, each with a metal bowl, serving spoon, dessert cup, pair of scissors, and petunia sprig.

Next, fill the measuring cups with water and drop a little neon purple food coloring into each one.

Afterward, set a few jars with water in the tray.

Place a bouquet of petunias in a container in the middle.

Purple and white loose parts and similar colored petunias are the highlights of this petunia flower active world tray sensory play invitation.

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To complete the activity center, arrange bowls with loose parts such as craft foam insects, sparkly pom poms, necklace strips, buttons, pebble-shaped acrylic gems, and pearl beads around the vase.

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The Petunia Flower Sensory Tray

Your little learners will love to explore this petunia flower sensory tray. They’ll be excited to make flower and loose part soup, and to layer a jar with flowers and treasures. Scissor skill practice is a bonus in this play invitation.

Oh-so-fun sensory play with petunia flowers and pretty purple and white loose parts. A nature-based sensory activity.

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Oh-so-fun sensory play with petunia flowers and pretty purple and white loose parts. A nature-based sensory activity.

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Petunias are plentiful in garden centers in spring and summer and come in many different colors and patterns. It is easy to snag a pot for a good price at this time of year. Picking a pot overflowing with petunias ensures that you can cut off sprigs for sensory play and still have the pot of flowers to enjoy afterward. And it is a relief to know that all parts of petunia flowers are safe for children to touch.

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Purple-hued flowers are the stars of the show in this petunia flower sensory tray your little learners will love to explore.

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Related:

White Lilacs And Black Playdough

Flower Theme Activities

Floral Decorated Skeleton

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