All this rain we’ve had in RVA lately has left me scrambling to find fun, indoor things to do with my three kids, especially the littlest one who needs a lot of help staying out of trouble. Sensory play is a great indoor activity for kids of all ages, even my eight year old can’t get enough of playdough and slime. However, it’s especially beneficial for little ones because it keeps them busy while also promoting their growth and development.
Three Main Benefits of Sensory Play
- It promotes the development of many skills including: oral language skills, fine and gross motor skills, memory skills and problem solving skills.
- It helps to relax anxious children.
- It teaches children to use sensory characteristics (sticky, gooey, dry, cold).
Here are five of my favorite taste-safe sensory play activities:
- 1/4 cup instant pudding mix
- 1 cup corn starch
- 1/3 cup warm water
- Add instant pudding mix and half of your cornstarch to a mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup water and stir until slime begins to form (it will be pretty sticky at this point)
- Slowly add the rest of your cornstarch, stirring as you go. When slime thickens and is hard to stir with a spoon, finish kneading by hand.
- Making slime isn’t an exact science, and sometimes I need to add a bit more water if the slime is dry, or a bit more corn starch if it is sticky. I’d compare it to making bread: sometimes you need to keep working in flour until you have the perfect consistency.
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 Tbsp. oil (any kind)
- 1 Tbsp. corn syrup.
If it runs a touch on the drier side add a touch more oil in your next recipe.
From Surviving a Teacher’s Salary
- Canned Pumpkin
- Cornstarch
- Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Take your pumpkin and stir it until it’s smooth.
- Add enough pumpkin pie spice that it smells delicious.
- Slowly add cornstarch and stir. Once the dough starts drying out, you’ll want to switch to kneading. You want the dough to roll into a ball, but it should not stick to your hands.
- If it is sticking to your hands add a bit more cornstarch; if it is so dry that it won’t form a ball and is crumbling instead, add a small amount of water.
∗The amounts of cornstarch will vary depending on the brand and quantity of canned pumpkin you use. The dough will keep for 2-3 days sealed in the fridge.
- Corn starch
- Yogurt- Make sure it’s a yogurt without chunks of fruit.
- Mix together 1 cup of yogurt and 3/4 cups of corn starch
- When the mixture is no longer sticky, pick it up and roll the putty into a ball (to further mix the yogurt and corn starch)
- If it’s too sticky, sprinkle in additional corn starch. If it’s too dry, add a bit more yogurt
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups of Corn Starch
- 1 Cup of Water
- 10 Drops of Food Coloring (optional)
1. In a shallow bowl, combine the corn starch and water. The mixture will be thick and hard to stir, so mix the ingredients by hand.
2. Add the food coloring and mix well. We used green food coloring to look like the Oobleck in the Dr. Seuss book, but you can pick any color.
From ABC’s of Literacy
Other great things to use for baby sensory play:
Rice Crispies/Cheerios or other cereal that isn’t a choking hazard
Boxed Mashed Potato Flakes
Ice
Colored Rice
Tapioca Pearls
Gelatin
Sensory play is so much fun for the whole family, and many of the items I used above you probably already have in your pantry. Summer is a great time to experiment and get messy with sensory because, when you’re done, you can throw them in a baby pool in the backyard for easy cleanup. If you try any of the recipes, please let me know how it goes. Let’s get messy!
♥ Erin
