{Playing Through Autumn Day 20} Ziploc Bag Painting

We absolutely ADORE painting activities in our house, and more often than not painting activities turn into sensory activities, with L slathering paint on every available surface of skin she can find. Generally this isn't a problem, but when I'm trying out ideas for my classroom on my beloved tot, I have to be a bit more clever in the mess department. Recently I tried a color mixing/painting activity with my kiddos at school (originally designed for a child with some sensory issues, who loves art but hates to be messy) inside a Ziploc bag. They turned out so great that I decided to give it a try at home with L. I wasn't sure how she'd like this one, sans mess and all, but she really enjoyed the whole process and the paintings turned out really cool.

I slid a piece of paper into a Ziploc bag and squeezed in a bit of red and a bit of yellow. Autumn colors, yes, and also primary colors that ended up mixing to create another lovely autumn hue - orange!

At first, L wasn't really sure what to make of this sandwich bag glob of paint in front of her. Once she touched that amazing squishy texture, however, she was won over in an instant!

She had us laughing so hard, as she kept looking at her hands for the mess! She definitely missed the opportunity to cover her body in paint, but she enjoyed herself all the same.

It was such fun to watch the yellow and red blend together to create orange. The leaves are finally starting to change in our area, so these colors have been a hot topic of conversation for us lately. Once she was finished, I very gently peeled the bag away from the paper and laid it out to dry. As a delightful bonus, the inside of the bag was a lovely work of art in itself, and it will look fantastic hanging in our front room window! Two for the price of one and nothing to clean up besides!

{Playing Through Autumn Day 18} Autumn Discovery Basket

Discovery baskets (or bins) are fantastic for open-ended play: just fill up a basket with any number of materials and present them to a child - she'll take it from there! I have been having a lot of fun presenting L with various discovery bins over the past several months, and of course I couldn't let autumn pass me by without letting her get her hands on some of the best things the season has to offer: in this case, miniature pumpkins, gourds, and fabulous red Indian corn.

I decided to put the items in a wicker basket rather than a plastic bin (which I typically use) to carry on the natural feel of the gourds and corn. Actually, L had helped me pick these things out at the market a couple of days before we did this activity, and she was so surprised and happy to see everything again!

She especially loved the corn - we talked about the bumpy texture and the crinkly stalk. She even tickled my nose with it!

After the initial exploration, L took emptying and refilling the basket with all of the items. She has been very into counting lately, so I used the opportunity to work on counting with her, using one-to-one correspondence.

As the activity began to wind down, we also learned something new about gourds: if you drop them, they bounce!

We both loved this activity! It was so simple and yet presented us with so many opportunities for language, math concepts, and sensory experiences. 

Have your kiddos had a chance to experience some of these fall items? What else would you add to your own discovery basket?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 16} Halloween Rainbow Rice

Happy October! This is my absolute favorite month of the year (so I feel really lucky to have been born within it!). It's just such a feast for the senses. If you've ever happened to find yourself reading this blog, you know how much we love sensory activities in this house! L has been making the most of autumn rainbow rice, sensory bottles, and cinnamon play dough, among other things, which has made our house just full of autumn-themed play opportunities. Now that we've entered October, I wanted to present her with a sensory activity with a Halloween twist, and so I give you Halloween Rainbow Rice.

I made up two huge batches of rice, one in black and one in orange. (For the method, click here.) I was so excited to come across black food coloring - I'd never seen it before, so I snatched up a bunch! You never know when you might need to color something black.  After the rice dried, I mixed it together and tossed it into L's sensory tub.

For added fun, I included some miniature jack-o-lantern buckets and some small plastic spiders. (They're hard to see in this photo, but trust me, they're there! They have managed to startle me a time or two since we started this tub!) L loves scooping the rice into the pumpkins and pouring it out - such a fun and simple activity!

Has Halloween play started yet in your house? What kind of fun Halloween activities are you doing?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 10} Cinnamon Play Dough

There is just nothing like home made play dough - it's softer than store bought, it smells divine, you can personalize it in almost any way, and it can be made with things you most likely already have in your house. I love the stuff. So when I came upon a recipe for cinnamon play dough in an old resource binder, I knew I couldn't let autumn pass us by without making it.

Cinnamon Spice Play Dough

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 tsp cream of tartar or alum

5 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 cups water

2 Tbsp oil

Combine dry ingredients in a saucepan. Add the water and oil and mix well. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken and form a stiff ball. Remove from heat and knead when cool enough to handle. Store in a Ziploc bag when cooled to keep from drying out.

This stuff smells amazing and will get your whole kitchen smelling of tasty cinnamon! And the really great thing is, it falls right out of a no-stick pan. I plopped mine onto a plate to cool, then kneaded it as soon as I could touch it.

Play dough is such a multifaceted material: it's a great sensory experience, it's fantastic for fine motor and dexterity skill development, it's creatively open-ended. I presented the finished product to L with pumpkin and leaf cookie cutters for that added autumn flair. We were both engaged with this stuff for nearly an hour!

We have been playing with this dough for the better part of a week now, and it has yet to lose its luster. It still smells fantastic and we have yet to run out of new ways to play with it. Play dough is seriously awesome!

Do your kids enjoy play dough? What other open-ended activities do your kiddos enjoy?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 9} Autumn Elements Sensory Bin

It is no secret that I absolutely ADORE sensory bins and I have been giddily anticipating the coming of fall for all of the magnificent sensory bins I have planned. Our first bin of the season, filled with autumn rainbow rice, has been a huge hit in our house. I was a little reluctant to swap it out, but I knew L would be a big fan of what I had in store for her with our second bin of the season, the autumn elements bin.

This bin was really easy to put together, and I have to say it looked so beautiful when it was finished.

First I layered in two different types of silk leaves: smaller, smoother ones and larger, rougher ones.

Next I sprinkled in some craft feathers in fall colors. This I did especially for L, because she loves things that tickle and I knew the feathers wouldn't let her down!

Finally I added in a few decorative gourds and pumpkins. I chose to go with faux stuff for this bin, because I can save it from year to year, but I am planning on doing a bin with the real deal later in the season.

How are your kiddos experiencing this beautiful season so far?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 4} Autumn Sensory Bottles

For anyone who has spent any time on this blog, it's no secret that I am a huge fan of sensory play. I love it in bins, bathtubs, wherever I can find a space for it. I'm also especially fond of portable sensory experiences, so I frequently find myself creating sensory bottles both for L and for the students in my class. I can't let September pass me by without making some fall themed sensory bottles, and this year I felt they turned out beautifully!

Bottle 1 (left): For the first bottle, I used white rice. I filled it with buttons, small figures, and embellishments in fall colors and shapes. When you give the bottle a turn, you find all sort of pumpkins, scarecrows, and squirrels peeking out at you. I found all of the small pieces in the button section at Hobby Lobby.

Bottle 2 (center): For the second bottle, I simply filled it with clear water and autumn leaf party confetti (also found at Hobby Lobby). The confetti swirls beautifully in the water and the reflection of all those different pieces creates the effect of gorgeous, golden water.

Bottle 3 (right): For the final bottle, I used small silk leaves along with miniature pumpkins, gourds, and pine cones. This one is a treat for both the eyes and the ears!

I chose these three bottles in particular because I wanted to present L with a variety of different fall objects and textures. Other great ideas for autumn sensory bottle fillers include acorns, sunflower seeds, small sticks, unpopped popcorn, bird seed, and straw. What would you add to the list?

New Series: Playing Through Autumn + Autumn Rainbow Rice

Autumn is my absolute FAVORITE season. It is such a feast for the senses - all the beautiful colors, the rich scents and flavors, the crisp air and the crunch of leaves. I am absolutely ecstatic to share all the wonders of the season with L this year (hard to believe she was barely walking at this time last year!). So I bring to you (with an abundance of pride and enthusiasm) our new series, Playing Through Autumn. Packed full of activities and experiences for really sharing the joys of autumn with all the wee ones in your life, it promises to be a pumpkin-flavored, orange-tinted, crisp breeze-filled adventure! Join us, won't you?

Playing Through Autumn {Day 1}: Rainbow Rice with an Autumn Flair!

For anyone who has been reading our adventures here, you know that I am a huge fan of sensory activities. One of L's favorite sensory materials is rainbow rice, which is super easy to make and so much fun! You simply put uncooked rice into a small Ziploc bag, add a glug or two of rubbing alcohol (it makes the colors really vibrant and helps the rice to dry quickly) and enough food coloring to get the color and brightness you desire and voila - instant sensory material! Just shake the bag to coat the rice evenly in the color and lay on waxed paper to dry.

For our autumn tub, I decided to go with orange, yellow, and red rice. Although most of the trees in our area are still green, I have begun hinting to L at the changes that will soon be upon us. 

For this particular sensory tub, I decided to add bowls, cups, and measuring cups - perfect for scooping and pouring. Now I can easily engage L in some conversation about all of the beautiful colors we'll soon be seeing, while she is happily engaged in one of her favorite activities.

There's more to come! Stick with us for many more engaging and creative autumn activities in the coming days and weeks!

Flower Power: Garden Sensory Tub

This post is from my personal archives, back when the air was under 110 degrees in the morning and the grass in our yard was still green. 

L and I are very lucky to attend/work for a preschool where gardening is part of the curriculum. The children and teachers are responsible for maintaining a garden where we grow food that we then eat as part of our meals and snacks. It's really quite amazing. As you can guess, this makes L very interested in things that grow, and even more so in DIRT. So I put together this sensory tub for exploring dirt and flowers, and it was a huge hit.

For this tub, I threw in a bag of soil and added silk flowers, a bucket, garden tools, and gardening gloves. L loved scooping and pouring the dirt, and she really surprised me by spending a good amount of time sniffing the earthy scent. Perhaps I have a future gardener on my hands?!

World's Easiest Sensory Tub

I'm all about ease of execution when it comes to play, because generally I'm so excited to play right alongside my kid and/or students that I don't want to waste a bunch of time prepping. So without further ado, I present to you world's easiest sensory bin: poms and bowls!

What could be easier? I just opened the huge bag of poms I bought at Hobby Lobby, tossed in a couple of bowls and spoons and - voila! Instant sensory fun with literally no planning or prepping involved! L had friends over recently and this tub was a hit with all of them and bonus - stupendously easy clean up! This may just be my new favorite sensory material!

What Playing Hooky Looks Like

Being a mom poses all sorts of challenges, and being a teacher poses an entirely different set of challenges. Recently I had had my fair share of both, so L and I played hooky from school (don't worry, it was legit!) and spent the entire day together, just us girls. It was magical to have some down time with my girl, and I wanted to make it as fun as possible. What's more fun than a bath tub full of shaving cream? Not much!

Love that slippery, slimy girl - who could resist a face like that?!

Bubbly Baby Bath Time Fun

This has been a summer for the record books in terms of heat, and although I do try to get L outside as much as possible before the hot afternoon sun brings its wrath, it's not always possible and sometimes I have to come up with a backup plan.  This was recently the case, when I found myself wondering what on earth to do with an antsy toddler cooped up in the house. What's the best way to combat a hot day? Water play, of course! And though we decided on this particular day to stay indoors, we managed to have fun all the same. Without further ado, baby bath pretend play!

To get our bath started, we gathered a big bowl for a tub, some soft baby wash cloths, L's baby, and one of those tiny bottles of baby wash (which was great, because I seem to have about a zillion of them in various nooks and crannies in my house) and set up shop on a big towel on the kitchen floor.

L got busy squeezing some soap into the tub, then she was ready to get that baby clean!

This activity was fantastically fun, and it offered a lot of opportunity for talking about gentle touches, how we take care of each other, our own bath time rituals, and why we need to take baths to get clean. It was such a soft, soothing, and quiet activity - and it lasted for a good long stint.

Even Dad got in on the action by blowing some soap bubbles! It was a great time for the entire family.  When the baby was nice and clean, L toweled him off, wrapped him up, and promptly carried him away to find a diaper. It's like she's done this bath thing a time or two herself!

Imaginative Play with Sensory Bins: Pretend Food

At this point it should be very clear that I LOVE sensory bins. Love, love, love 'em! They are like magic - fill them up with even the simplest of materials and you can get kids engaged and playing for hours. Recently L has been very interested in dramatic play, particularly in pretend food and dishes, so I decided to make a new sensory bin inspired by this love. And it was so easy, which is just my style!

I filled up our bin with uncooked, uncolored pasta, in keeping with the food theme. (If you are more inclined to colored pasta, you can find the method here.) Then I added in some of L's pretend food and voila! Instant sensory bin full of something of interest and just right for prompting lots of pretend play.

L got to work exploring immediately and was soon busy "cooking" up food in her new bin. She even grabbed her play dishes (but of course!) and before long I was in for a feast!

The best thing about this particular sensory bin was really that it took about two minutes to put together and incorporated something that is already on L's radar - which made it the perfect activity for engaging my busy little gal.

What areas of play are your kids digging these days?

Gross Motor Sensory Play: Sticky Feet!

Any activity that gets a body moving is the perfect activity for a toddler! L is a big fan of moving and grooving, so she was delighted when I presented her with this sticky feet sensory activity!

I laid out about two feet of contact paper, sticky side up, and taped it to the floor. I encouraged L to walk, run, jump, and dance on the paper (as if she needed any encouragement!) and feel the lovely stick of the paper on her little feet. It was a roaring success!

L had a blast walking on, crawling over, and slapping that sticky paper! Her dad and I got in on the action too, because frankly it was just too hard to resist! I just love a good sensory activity, but this one was beyond awesome!



Small World Play: Bug Garden

I've loved the idea of small world play for a while now, and I've anxiously been waiting for L to get old enough to really appreciate it for what it is (and frankly, for me not to have to fear that she might choke on something in front of her). Now that she is knocking on the door of twenty months, I just couldn't wait any longer. So I put together this bug garden small world play, and just as I'd hoped, it was a huge (and tiny!) hit.

To set the stage for our bug garden, I layered a small plastic tub with a section of beans and some coffee sand (for the coffee sand recipe, click here). Then I added some silk flowers (I would have preferred to use the real deal, but it's been so dry here that everything is dead, and anyway, the silk ones will last forever) and some plastic bugs. L's eyes widened to the size of saucers at her first glimpse - it was bug love at first sight!

It didn't take L long to get those bugs buzzing and humming all over that little bin! She really loved this activity, and I loved the fact that she got to use her imagination and got a great sensory experience to boot! I'm positively giddy that we'll be able to add small world play into our repertoire!