sensory play

Strawberry Hot Chocolate Bin

February 19, 2022 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

A dreamy, taste-safe strawberry hot chocolate sensory bin to let your little learners explore. This activity is perfect for a party day or any day!

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This taste safe strawberry hot chocolate bin is sure to excite your little learner. It incorporates marshmallows, lollipops, and pouring with a miniature tea set, all mega-hits with young children.

For this activity I originally planned to try a classic hot chocolate sensory bin, using chocolate-flavored candies or lollipops. But I didn’t have any luck finding hard chocolate candy. So, a dreamy strawberry hot chocolate-themed bin it is.

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Follow me on Pinterest for more early learning activities.

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Supplies To Collect

Gather the following supplies for this taste safe sensory bin:

red and pink heart-shaped lollipops
mini marshmallows
miniature toy tea set
small white tub
cool water

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Introducing The Strawberry Hot Chocolate Bin

First, thoroughly sanitize the tub and toy tea set.

Note: If more than one child is participating in this activity, give them their own bin.

Then set the tea set in the bin, and add an inch of cool water. Invite your little learner to play with the cups and saucers and pot in the bin.

A dreamy, taste-safe strawberry hot chocolate sensory tub to let your little learners explore.

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Next, drop in two lollipops. Suggest that a little tasting is allowed, but that the lollipops should go back in the bin afterward. Draw attention to the gradual color change in the water: the liquid slowly changes to light pink. And observe that the lollipops shrink over time.

A lollipop and tea set sensory bin your little learner will love to explore. This sensory bin is toatally taste-safe.

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Then sprinkle a few mini marshmallows into the bin. Encourage your little learner to include the marshmallows in pouring activities.

Tip: Staggering the addition of marshmallows and lollipops extends the time the children will spend in the sensory activity.

This sensory bin is totally taste safe, and part of the experience is to be able to taste the lollipops, marshmallows, and flavored water. The colored water will likely have a light, fruity taste.

Make sure hands are washed very carefully after playing in the bin, as they will be a little sticky.

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Benefits Of This Sensory Bin

There are many benefits of this tasty sensory bin:

exercising eye-hand coordination in pouring “hot chocolate” and sipping from tiny cups.
experiencing a color change science experiment when lollipops are added to the bin.
encouraging language development by describing the look and feel of the bin and the taste of the lollipops, marshmallows and water.
discussing that sweet treats should be eaten in moderation.
experiencing joy by participating in an unexpected, new, super fun sensory activity.

This strawberry hot chocolate bin is perfect for a party day such as Valentine’s Day. It would also work wonderfully for a Mother’s Day celebration.

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Strawberry Hot Chocolate Recipes

If you would like to try or serve authentic strawberry hot chocolate, here’s a couple of blogs with delicious recipe posts:

Sprinkle Bakes features an instant strawberry hot cocoa mix.

My Heavenly Recipes showcases a strawberry hot chocolate recipe.

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Related: Candy Cane Science Experiment

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[Read more…]

Valentine’s Day Water Play

February 7, 2022 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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A Valentine’s Day water play activity is quick and easy to set up, and supplies are low cost. The activity helps create a festive ambiance on a party day or any day!

The weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day are a good time to visit stores to collect Valentine-themed supplies for all kinds of learning opportunities, including water play. No store is off-limits for gathering hands-on materials.

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Supplies To Collect

Here’s a list of supplies that work well in a Valentine-themed water table or tub. Pick the ones you have handy, or can easily and economically find in a store.

alphabet letters that spell the word “LOVE”
heart ice cube trays
red and pink buttons
heart-shaped gems
bendy heart people
red and pink ducklings
valentine erasers
pink and red rainbow erasers
styrofoam hearts
cut striped red and white straws
red coins
wiggly eye rings
heart-shaped measuring cups
treat baskets and boxes

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The Valentine’s Day Water Play Activity

Add warm water to a large water table for group sharing, or set out a small white washtub with water for each child. Throw in Valentine’s Day loose parts that you have available.

The tub below has clear water, and the colors and shapes of the supplies can be easily seen and admired in the white bin.

Valentine's Day loose parts that work well in a water play activity, or a tub with a rice or chickpea base.

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After a little while, you could add red food coloring to the water to extend interest.

A fun and friendly Valentine's Day water play activity your early learners will love to participate in. A quick and easy sensory bin to set up.

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Or you could add dish detergent to create bubbles, so fitting for Valentine’s Day activity.

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Benefits Of Water Play

Here are some benefits of this water play activity:

sorting shapes (math – set making; language development – color recognition)
counting shapes (math – counting)
comparing shapes to those of other children (language development; paying attention to detail)
filling and emptying treat boxes (eye-hand coordination; math/language development – empty/full)
noticing how some shapes stick to others (science)
recognizing letters of the alphabet (language development – letter recognition)
discovering beautiful themed items (creativity)

Water play is an embraced activity any day. For another time, the Valentine-themed supplies could be included in a rice or chickpea sensory tub.

Can you think of supplies to add to my list? Share in a comment below.

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New Year’s Eve Sensory Tray

December 31, 2021 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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This New Year’s Eve sensory tray is full of party vibes. It is an inviting loose parts tray to offer at a New Year’s Eve event, or on the first day of class in January. The dinner-themed play invitation is currently ready for my preschoolers to explore when they are back at school next week. I’m excited to see how they use it!

The featured tray is called a “tuff tray”, or “active world tray.” In our country (Canada) they are available to order online at Scholar’s Choice.

My active world tuff tray is a recent addition to my stock of early learning resources, and I love using it.

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Supplies To Collect

New Year's Eve sensory play tray with a party theme.

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To recreate this tray, pick a set of disposable paper New Year’s party plates. Use the colors in the plates to guide the color scheme for the loose parts in the active world tray. My plates are gold, silver, black and white, with metallic touches. I use gold and silver metallic accessories for the tray.

Loose parts to include:

round placemat
disposable cups and cutlery
gift boxes
serving bowls and spoons
tongs
star-shaped containers
strips of bead garland
buttons
play coins
small bells
large ornament bells
present ornaments
balls cut from garland
tiny trophies

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The New Year’s Eve Sensory Tray

Gather loose parts that you have available. Arrange them as a dinner invitation.

New Year's Eve tuff tray filled with dinner-themed loose parts little learners will love to party with.

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Serving containers in a variety of sizes and shapes add appeal and provide options for manipulating loose parts.

Bells are a welcome addition to any sensory activity. There are large bell ornaments and small jingling bells in the tray, offering a musical component.

The featured gift boxes are clear and contain tiny trophies and ornaments. Little learners can explore them and change up the contents. Gold or silver gift boxes would work wonderfully too.

New Year's Eve sensory tray featuring dinnerware, gift boxes, and metallic loose parts.

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Space Kitchen Activity Tray

To extend the sensory experience, switch out the New Year’s dinner plates for tin pie plate ones. The activity tray will become a space-themed play invitation!

Cut metallic bead garland and necklaces make the perfect loose parts for an outer space spaghetti pretend play meal.

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Other active world tray ideas:

Fall Sensory Play

Spider Theme Activities

Christmas Village Tuff Tray

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New Year's Eve sensory tray dinner-themed loose parts little learners will love to have a pretend party with.

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More New Year’s Activities:

New Year’s All Gold Sensory Activity

New Year’s Countdown Activities

New Year’s Crafts

New Year’s Sensory Tray

New Year’s Art and Math Activities

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New Year’s All Gold Sensory Activity

December 30, 2021 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

An inviting New Year's all gold sensory bowl filled with shiny items little learners will love to explore.

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This New Year’s all gold sensory activity is filled with … you guessed it…all gold loose parts! It’s one I’ve been wanting to put together for a while and finally did. Whether the loose parts are organized in a bin or tray, this activity is one your little learners will love to take part in.

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Gold And New Year’s

Glittery, metallic gold is a popular color for New Year’s celebrations. And it usually plays a big part in Christmas festivities too.

Gold is considered a symbol of wealth. But in addition to monetary wealth, the rich color also represents a wealth of experience, knowledge, and love. And who doesn’t wish for all these things, especially at the beginning of a new year?

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Follow me on Pinterest for more New Year’s ideas.

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Supplies To Collect

New Year's all gold sensory bin loose parts tray for little learners to explore.

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Gather the following supplies in metallic gold:

tiny trophies
small present and drum decorations
play coins
assorted buttons
miniature ornaments
bows
jingle bells
strands cut from beaded necklaces
tongs
spoons
cups

It’s easy to find these items during the holiday season. And I’m sure you will be able to think of even more things to add.

New Year's all gold sensory activity loose parts tray.

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“All Gold” Sensory Bin

A large clear plastic salad bowl makes a good bin for this sensory setup. But a plastic square or rectangular container works fine too.

A rich New Year's all gold sensory activity featuring shiny metallic loose parts for little learners to explore.

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No base ingredient is needed for this eye-appealing activity. Just throw a mix of metallic gold loose parts in your container of choice. Then set it out on a table with golden cups, tongs, and spoons for your little learners to explore.

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All Gold Sensory Tray

If you only have a small supply of golden items, why not use a serving tray. Your little charges will be happy to dive in and investigate the shiny “treasures” in the tray.

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New Year's metallic gold sensory bin loose parts tray.

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Aside from being associated with New Year’s events, gold is an alluring color all in itself. And this is my primary reason for putting together this glamourous play invitation.

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What would you add to this sensory activity? Share in a comment below.

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More New Year’s Activities

New Year’s Eve Sensory Tray

New Year’s Countdown Activities

New Year’s Crafts

New Year’s Sensory Tray

New Year’s Art and Math Activities

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[Read more…]

Lemon -scented Christmas Playdough

December 19, 2021 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

Christmas playdough infused with cut lemon cypress sprigs and cut silk poinsettia leaves and bracts.

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This lemon-scented Christmas playdough activity incorporates lemon cypress branches and cuttings from silk poinsettias. The plant-themed playdough experience evolved from not being able to go on a well-loved field trip this Christmas season.

Most December months our preschool visits a local greenhouse. The children view a vast poinsettia display, smell a lemon cypress tree, participate in a scavenger hunt among cut Christmas trees, and go on a hayride. Then they plant a paperwhite bulb. The trip is always a highlight for preschool families.

This year the field trip wasn’t possible, so I decided to bring a small, feathery needled lemon cypress tree to preschool for the children to view, smell, and use in playdough activities. I wanted to include other seasonal plants as well but realized that most popular Christmas plants are somewhat toxic or poisonous to humans.

Chartreuse green lemon cypress trees for sale during the Christmas season.

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My preschoolers loved this playdough invitation and your children will enjoy it too.

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Playdough Recipes

To offer this lemon-scented Christmas playdough invitation, start by making a favorite playdough recipe. Or use my go-to basic recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups water
3 tablespoons oil

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Add the first three ingredients to a sturdy pot and mix them together.

Stir two tablespoons of oil into two cups of water.

Add the water and oil to the dry ingredients and combine.

Heat on the stove on medium heat.

Stirring frequently, cook until the mixture is no longer glossy and the dough forms a ball.

Place the dough on a cutting board.

Knead when cool, adding in one more tablespoon of oil.

Store the playdough in a sealed plastic bag.

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A lemon jello playdough works beautifully too. Substitute lemon jello for cherry jello in the recipe.

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The Lemon-scented Christmas Playdough Invitation

For this scented playdough invitation, start by showing little learners a potted dwarf lemon cypress tree. This small, fine-textured evergreen is hand-trimmed to have a Christmas tree shape and is sold in pots at Christmas time.

Next, have your little charges rub a branch and experience the resulting lemon fragrance.

Give each child a lump of playdough, a few lemon cypress branches, and a pair of scissors.

Offer lemon cypress sprigs with scissors, cookie cutters, and erasers in a fragrant Christmas playdough activity.

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Have them cut the bright yellow-green sprigs into pieces and add them to their playdough. Using the scissors to cut the playdough is fine for them to do too, as it strengthens their little fingers.

Then give little ones a few silk poinsettia leaves and bracts to cut and blend in.

Scissor Invitation with playdough and silk poinsettia leaves and bracts.

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Offer additional supplies such as rolling pins, plastic pie cutters, wooden sticks, and Christmas-themed cookie cutters and erasers.

Lemon cypress scented holiday playdough invitation with cut silk poinsettia leaves and bracts.

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When blended, the plant parts add pops of seasonal color to the playdough and give it a Christmassy look.

Offer this lemon cypress scented playdough invitation with cut silk poinsettia leaves and bracts.

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Tip: A coleus plant can be substituted for silk poinsettia leaves and bracts, as it isn’t poisonous. I plan to take one indoors to save for this activity next fall.

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