Alphabet Sensory Bin

Alphabet Sensory Bin combines literacy & sensory in one. It helps kids learn to identify letters of the alphabet. Before preschoolers learn to recognize and name the letters, they have to learn how to visually discriminate the similarities and differences of each letter.

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What you need

• Storage bin (we used toy bin)
• Colored rice – click here to learn how to color rice
• Alphabet puzzle

How to

• Fill the bin with colored rice. We mixed red and yellow to make orange color rice, perfect for fall theme.
• Add in the letter pieces.
• Let your LOs find the letters and match it to the puzzle board.

This activity was perfect for Miss A(4) & Miss D(soon to be 3).. A is all about learning alphabets now. She shows more interest in finding letters that make her name, starting letters for all of our names and so on. She tries to identify letters on the t-shirt & is showing more interest in sight words ever since we started our word wall. This activity was perfect for her on all levels. She enjoyed finding and matching the letters to the puzzle board, naming them and also naming few words which started with it. 

D enjoyed scooping, pouring and digging in the rice. She matched the letters to the puzzle and everytime she made a match i asked her what letter it was. She got few right, rest i told her what it was and a simple word that starts with it – ‘O is for octopus’ and she would repeat after me.

A & D sorted the letters by colors. Named the color, counted how many letters where there in each color, which color had more and so on. Then they made an alphabet train and D counted all the letters – she found out there were 26 of them!! Yay! So much learning in such a simple activity and the best part is kids dont even realise they are learning. 😀 

Once they were done with the learning fun, they took out the measuring spoons and cups for playing with the colored rice.

Pool Noodle Boats – Water Play

My kids love playing with water. Pool noodle boats are easy to make and can be added to bath tub or water table for fun water play. I came across this activity during winter and was waiting for summer to try it out. Finally made it last Sunday.

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What you need

• Pool Noodle
• Knife
• Scissors
• Straw
• Foam sheets
• Hole punch
• Marker

How to

• Cut the pool noodle into 1-2 inch slices. These are your boats.
• Cut the foam sheets into triangles. These are your sails. Older kids can cut & decorate sails by themselves.
• Fold the sail, use holepunch to make hole for the straw.
• Cut the plastic straw and insert into the holes then into boats. You might need to make a hole using wooden dowel before you insert the straw in the boat.
• I wrote numbers on the sails for some learning fun.

Miss A(3.5) & Miss D(2.5)were very excited to play with the boats. They took the sails apart from the boat and tried to put it in all by themselves. Later, squirt guns were put into action. A tried to squirt pointing at the boats in the water.

We then took our boats to the slide. Placed one boat at a time and squirted it all the way down using squirt guns. A & D enjoyed this equally.
Then it was race time. I placed two boats on the slide, D poured a cup of water to see which boat slides down first. A used the boats as scrubs to clean the slide and get it ready for the next race. While having fun they also got to work on their number recognition skills. Everytime a boat won the race, they would say which number boat won – “boat 7 wins mummy”

This activity was so much fun. An hour of water play after which we were all wet and hungry and had to wrap up. That was one fun Sunday morning!! 😀

Birthday Cake Cloud Dough

Happy Birthday to Us!! Its been one year since this blog Diyunlimitedfun was created – one year since the first post. We celebrated it by making Birthday Cake Cloud Dough. Its an ultimate sensory play for your LOs. You can make these around your kids birthday or even set it up on a sensory table for their outdoor birthday party or just play with it anytime around the year 😀

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What you need

• 8 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup baby oil or vegetable oil
• Sprinkles

How to

• In a bin add all purpose flour & oil and mix well – the texture will be crumbly but mouldable. 
• We used baby oil – it smells really good. If your LO still puts things in the mouth, you can use vegetable oil instead.
• You could also add some vanilla essence for birthday cake smell.
• Add sprinkles, cupcake molds, candles, spoons, scoops etc. for your kids to play with.

Miss A(3.5 yrs) & Miss D(2.5 yrs) had a lot of fun playing with this. They loved making cupcakes & cakes, enjoyed baking them in their toy microwave. They decorated their cake with sprinkles and put candles on it. We even sang happy birthday to all their toy friends. 😀 They liked to feel the cloud dough with their hands, tried to mould it, crumble it, lots of filling and dumping. This kept them busy for more than an hour.

Tips: 

• Its a fun but messy play. Use a sheet to contain the mess – it is easy to clean with vaccum cleaner. Or you could take it outside. 
• Store the cloud dough in an airtight container or ziploc – it stays good for a long time if it doesn’t get wet.

Water Beads & Golf Tees – Fine Motor Activity

Who would think about waterbeads & golf tees combination. Odd right! Well someone did and luckily i came across this activity on Pinterest. This is a great activity to develop fine motor skills, concentration, patience & perseverance.

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What you need

• Water Beads
• Golf tees
• Styrofoam block
• You could find all the items in dollar store.

We did this activity almost 2 months back. A & D pushed the golf tees into the styrofoam anywhere they wanted – went on for a while – poking it in and taking it out. This was the first time they are handling golf tees & styrofoam and so they were quite excited about it. This was a great fine motor exercise for the little fingers.

Then i helped them put the golf tees in straight lines. Gave them water beads and asked to place it on the golf tees. They both did it with so much concentration. Everytime you touch the already placed water bead, few others fell down along with it – like dominoes. They got a little frustrated but kept doing it all over. They just didn’t give up until A got 90% of the beads to stay & D one straight row.

DIY Sound Boxes – Montessori Inspired

Sound Boxes are amazingly fun and very simple to make. It helps your LOs hone their auditory senses, practicing sound discrimination and improving vocabulary skills.

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What you need

• Empty containers – i used drinkable yogurt bottles.
• Pantry items
• Hot glue (optional)

How to

• I picked five bottles each with different color caps – red & blue.
• Fill the bottles with pantry items. I used rice, black eyed peas, dry penne pasta, cotton buds and dry sago.
• Fill each item in one red and one blue bottle almost 3/4th of it.
• If you don’t want kids to open the bottle, you can choose to hot glue the caps. However i skipped it – read on you’ll see why.
• Your sound boxes are now ready to use.

This activity was very interesting for Miss A(3.5 yrs). She thoroughly enjoyed it. Heres what we did.

1 – Contrasting Sounds

• I shook the ‘loudest’ box near each ear – then A repeated the same. The dry pasta was the loudest.
• I shook the ‘softest’ box near each ear – then A repeated the same. The cotton buds box was the softest.
• We discussed about loud & soft sounds.

2 – Matching Sounds

I let A do this all by herself.

• She picked one red box, shook it and observed the sound. 
• Then shook each blue box, until the pair was found. Every time she said, same or different.
• Once the pair was found, she put it aside. Repeated until all the boxes are matched.
• After all the boxes had been matched, A checked them again.
• Once she confirmed all are matched, i let her open each bottle to see which item made that sound – also checking if the boxes are matched perfectly.
• She spoke about each item, what it was, how it felt and then closed the box. – this is why i didn’t hot glue the caps.

3 – Grading Sounds

• I took red boxes, shook them to find the ‘loudest’, put it aside. A shook it to listen.
• I shook the rest to find ‘next loudest’ and put it next to the ‘loudest’. A shook them & compared the sounds.
• We continued grading until ‘softest’. 
• Grading loudest to softest – Pasta, Peas, Sago, Rice, Cotton buds. Although rice & sago, pasta & peas were too close. Just depends how much you fill in the box.
• Then, A repeated this with the blue boxes, using red as a key.

Miss D(2.5 yrs) loved to shake the box and hear the sound it made. She enjoyed opening the box, pouring the contents out then filling it in the bottle & closing it. That was a great sensory fine motor activity for her.

Marble Race with Water Beads

Water beads has become our recent favourite. My LOs enjoy playing with their Marble Race toy. They love to see how the marbles race their way down. This time when they wanted to play with it, i gave them water beads instead of the marbles – I must say this was a hit!

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We set up the marble race on a storage bin – its easy to hold the water beads. A & D set their own tracks. It was very simple and small – perfect for the water beads to race down easily. Pinching the waterbeads one at a time and dropping them was a great fine motor practice. Although they loved to dump all the water beads down the ramp and enjoyed watching it roll and pile up at the bottom.

Have you played with water beads yet? Check out how we used them in sensory play & learning activities here.

DIY Texture Balloons – Montessori Inspired

Texture Balloons is a fun tactile sensory activity for toddlers & preschoolers. These are very easy to make and a great way to work on their vocabulary – language development. This texture matching activity is perfect to explain the sense of touch.

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How to

• Use a funnel to fill the balloon with any random items(pantry items works best) and tie them close. 
• Fillers we used – Rice, Sugar, Black eyed peas & Water beads.
• We used orange and gold balloons. Filled each item in one orange and one gold. 
• Let the kids touch & feel the balloons to match the pairs. 

Miss A(3.5yrs) squeezed one orange balloon and then squeezed all the gold balloons to find which matches the orange balloon. Once she found the match she put them side by side. She repeated this until she matched all the pairs. We then spoke about how the balloons felt – soft or hard, bumpy, squishy, crunchy, etc. Each time she felt two balloons she would say if they are same or different. She matched all the balloons perfectly.

Miss D(2yrs) loved to squeeze all the balloons. She just liked to feel the different textures and talk about how they feel. We dint try to match the balloons.We then discussed about the sense of touch – how we use our hands to touch and feel things – one of our five senses.

The water beads balloons were my LOs favourite pick. They simply loved squeezing it. Everytime they squeezed it, the water beads popped out. It was so irresistible, i had to try. We all loved squeezing & squishing the beads. It felt so therapeutic- much like a stress reliever.

Note: If you dont use good quality balloons there are chances, the balloons might tear when you do this activity – the party balloons from walmart seemed to work fine. With a lot of squeezing and throwing, our balloons are still in good shape. We will be adding more textures to this activity.

Oobleck – Sensory Science Play

What is Oobleck?

Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid; it has properties of both liquids and solids. Its pressure dependent – You can slowly dip your hand into it like a liquid, but if you squeeze the oobleck or punch it, it will feel solid. 

The name oobleck comes from the Dr. Seuss book, “Bartholomew and the Oobleck.” In the story, oobleck, a gooey green substance, fell from the sky and wreaked havoc in the kingdom.

Oobleck makes a great science project or simply have fun playing with it, like us. 😀

What you need

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups cornstarch
• Green food coloring (optional)

How to

• Add few drops of food coloring to water. Mix well.
• Add cornstarch in to a storage bin or bowl and add colored water a bit at a time.
• Keep stirring until it has a gooey consistency. You may want to use your hands.
• Oobleck is now ready to play with.

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Miss A(3yrs) & Miss D(2yrs) had so much fun playing with it. I underestimated this activity – didn’t expect it to be this awesome. We all enjoyed it! (Even hubby!!). It was an amazing experience. My kids were playing with it for more than an hour. They did get themselves and the place messy but cleaning was easy – just clean using water 😀 Plus all those laughing is so much worth the mess. 

You could also make huge quantities of oobleck – in kids water pool and enjoy it outdoors. If you make enough, you can even walk on it. Something i want to try in summer.

Here’s what we did with the Oobleck

• Grab a handful and squeeze it – it oozes through your fingers.
• Make a puddle and quickly drag your fingers through it. My LOs tried to cut it using playdough knife.
• Roll some oobleck into a ball. It becomes solid, but when you stop moving it, it will melt back into your hand.

Water Beads & Shaving Cream – Sensory Play

I was trying to find ways to play with the Water beads before it gets too small. Came across this activity on Pinterest and thought I’d give it a try. 

I got to say- it was an ultimate sensory experience. Shaving cream by itself is a great sensory play and when you add water beads to it, its so much fun for kids.

This activity is so easy to set up. Just take a bin and add shaving cream & water beads to it -(Assuming the water beads are ready to use). Use a sheet to hold the mess.

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Miss A(3yrs) & Miss D(2yrs) really enjoyed this snesory play. They scooped it up to make icecreams, cones, transferring into measuring cups and also loved to touch and feel with their hands. Pinching the water beads in the shaving cream and picking up was a great fine motor activity. Plus it smells so good!! 😀😀

If you haven’t tried this yet, give it a try! 👍

Water Beads – Sensory Play

Water Beads are squishy, slippery and fun to play with. It’s a great sensory experience for all. (Yes! For all 😀) Your LOs will have so much fun with them. Although they are intended to be used for floral arrangements, its safe to be played with but not edible. So it may not suit kids who still put things in mouth. Preferably monitor your kids when playing with it.

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What you need

• Water Beads – you could get them at any craft store or dollar store from floral section.
• Water
• Storage bin – we used toy storage bin

How to

• Empty the water beads into the container.
• Pour water – 1 tsp beads needs 6 cups of water. It grows almost 50 times in size. 
• Soak them overnight. Our pack said 8-10 hrs.
• Once big, rinse & drain. Transfer the water beads into a storage bin. 
• Add any tools to it. We used heart cookie cutters, muffin pans, ice cube tray, acrylic hearts and silicone heart mould, tongs along with some cups and spoons.
• Now, your all set to play and have fun.

Miss A(3yrs) & Miss D(2yrs) had an amazing experience with these. They had so much fun playing with it all evening. I couldn’t resist – had to join in the fun and should say it was soothing & relaxing. 😀 They loved it so much, they played with it the next morning too..

D was all about scooping, pouring, filling the ice cube tray. She liked to touch, pick and squish- even broke a few. She did enjoy picking the bin and shaking it to see what sound it makes and how the bead moves.

A filled all the cups with beads. She did like to separate the acrylic hearts from beads and arranged the hearts on the silicone mold. That was some patterning right there. Also she filled each cookie cutter with beads to see which can hold more beads ( learning about measurement) and tried to form hearts with it. She also filled the muffin pans with beads and hearts. 1 bead and 1 heart, then 2 beads and 1 heart, then 2 beads and 2 hearts. I spoke to her about ratios 1:1, 1:2 and how 2:2 =1:1. Although she small for that now – just introduced the concept to her.

I like how kids learn so much while playing even without realizing. That makes learning more fun. Don’t you think?

We will be exploring more ways to play with the water beads soon. 😀

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