THE SENSORY TABLE
Sensory Bins are HUGE in this family. I have such guilt about not doing this more when my oldest was a baby/toddler, but truth be told, he was in daycare for 40+ hours a week! We fully make up for this time now as he still likes to fiddle around with sensory play items for short periods of time and it can even be incorporated into his school work.
Let's talk about this table. It is a LEGO table. It was a hand-me-down from many years ago and it has worked out so well for us. The height is perfect for toddler age and then the older kiddos can kneel or sit to explore and play.
I have been rotating sensory table activities every other week since the start of 2020. We have a “blue box” that sits on the top of the lego table itself, that I put in weekly building materials (blocks, k’nex, lincoln logs, magnatiles, gears, etc.) and then underneath the lego board in the hull of the table is where all of the sensory material sits. We have designated times during the day that this is available so that little hands cannot wander at any point in time. That being said, on rainy days or days where I know there will be a lot of “down time”, I usually leave it open for business.
The kiddos are pretty good about “keeping the materials in the table.” They know that whatever ends up on the floor has to be thrown away, so they really try to keep it contained (with the exception of my 20mo old). Materials are easy to scoop out and the table is so light you can tilt it to the side to pour out any remaining materials.
Link to sensory table:
ARCTIC SNOW SENSORY PLAY
Tis' the season. We are in the thick of snow and literal arctic temperatures. While others are planning out Valentine's Day, we embrace January in all of its glory! 😂 ❄️
This is one of the messiest and most fun sensory tables! I like to jazz it up with gems, snowflake sequins and two main Arctic animals-- penguins and polar bears. I also added in a plastic igloo and an igloo one of my kid's made!
Enjoy!!
Arctic Animals: https://amzn.to/3Snr9xh
Fake Snow: https://amzn.to/3U8aCzx
Gems: https://amzn.to/48Xspxv
Igloo: https://amzn.to/3O92Txs
𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟 𝕃𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕁𝕣. 𝕊𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕠𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕪 🌎✌🏼❤️
We are human. We all make mistakes and we all judge each other, but as we grow we learn too. We are peacemakers. We are continually teaching our kiddos to be accepting, open-minded and unafraid of differences. This is hard, but we can do hard things and we are reminded that 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟 𝕃𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕁𝕣. made the ultimate sacrifice in his advocacy. I wish this day were celebrated year-round, instead of a one-day remembrance. These are goals we strive for in 2024!
This book is incredibly simple, yet opens up conversation for so much learning, open-mindedness and awareness. I read this to my 9, 6 and 4 year old initially. We spent a lot of time pointing out the differences between appearances, living situations and cultures. We then talked a lot about students in their own classrooms and how we are alike/different than others. We talked about how sometimes not knowing information about something can be uncomfortable, but we are familiar with uncomfortable and know that we tackle it head-on. And, so we discussed plainly asking someone about a difference if you are curious about it and also answering others' questions toward us if they need clarification.
I love helping them understand that all are welcome in this world. ❤️ Links below for the components of the sensory table!
Beans: red beans, kidney beans, pinto beans.
‼️Keep in mind that these are choking hazards for kids still mouthing items. Ingesting raw beans can lead to health issues.‼️
Character Cutouts: https://amzn.to/3ShVoXo
Balancing Rocks: https://amzn.to/3TUQ0uD
Book: https://amzn.to/41VDT2o
ST. PATRICK'S DAY
Here we have a few different ideas for St. Patrick’s Day sensory tables.
Colored cloud dough, gold coins, mini cauldrons.
Pluffle, leprechaun toys, gold coins, wooden rainbow and letter rocks.
CLOUD DOUGH
First, a cloud dough table. It is so messy, but lots of fun. Here is a simple recipe. I definitely needed to add more food coloring to my batches to get the intended purple, green colors, but nonetheless the kids had so much fun. They hid the coins and then collected them in their cauldrons, and eventually it all mixed together and became a construction site for the rest of the week. Below is the recipe for cloud dough!
RECIPE:
Measure 8 cups of flour into a large bowl and add 1 cup of baby oil.
Mix and squeeze the ingredients with your hands to incorporate until the dough holds together when squeezed.
If desired, mix oil based candy food coloring with the oil before mixing it into the flour.
PLUFFLE
Second, pluffle table. Pluffle is so much fun! It has the strangest texture of almost like rubber and kinetic sand mixed together. My kids love it and here I bought three colors and mixed them all together. Then added some coins and mini leprechaun guys. Lastly, we added our wooden rainbow (which I will post about another time!) and our letter rocks.
The letter rocks I made myself and instead of being resourceful and collecting rocks from outside… I definitely bought rocks to paint and painted them myself with acrylic paint and acrylic paint markers. As a side note, if you are ever creating letters of anything that you want your child to work on spelling, make your vowels a different color than your consonants. This helps your child differentiate between the two! We have used the letter rocks a lot! Even my older two boys have loved practicing their spelling words with them and my 3 year old, spelling his name!
Link to leprechaun figures:
Link to cauldrons:
Link to gold coins:
Link to acrylic paint and paint markers: https://amzn.to/3JzbpDZ
Link to paint rocks: https://amzn.to/3FkZIhQ
Link to wooden rainbow: https://amzn.to/3LmbNaa
Link to Pluffle: https://amzn.to/3TpzTT
EASTER EGG SENSORY TABLE
We usually go for a more "bunny" themed table around this time of year, however, this year we opted to use the most adorable crate and brown eggs and cartons from Target's dollar section! These are a bit different than what I would usually do for a sensory table; usually it's more about pouring, scooping, pinching, grasping with fingers and hands.
I decided to switch it up and put in our brown Easter grass (gifted to us by my kiddos' awesome OT). I added in the brown eggs, cartons and wooden crate from Target. I then added in white wooden eggs that I had bought for decoration (before kids) and two mini wire egg baskets to promote some pretend play, and of course a rooster. Should've been a hen... but we only had a rooster haha!! The kids liked this WAY more than I initially thought they would! One of them would "hide" the eggs in the "hay nest" or "coop" and then the others would search and find. My 3yo sorted the white and brown eggs, while my 6yo and 8yo pretended to be farmers collecting breakfast. After a few rounds of hiding, sorting and collecting, this led to an entire pretend play session of "Farmers Market" where they set up pretend foods and shopped like they were at a store- cash register and all!
Mini wire egg basket https://amzn.to/3JRRjnk
Wooden eggs https://amzn.to/3ZlDfsb
SPRING SENSORY TABLES
Spring can mean many things… bugs, flowers, rain showers— endless possibilities for sensory play!
These are just some simple things that you can add to your sensory table to engage and invite creative play! I’ve also done a lot of “hiding and finding” in the sensory tables with sight word cards, letters and sounds, math problems, etc. for my big boys! Check these ideas out!
As always... these ideas are best practiced with children who are not still mouthing items! Some products can cause harm if ingested, so please be safe!
CRAWLY & FLUTTERY BUGS
Ingredients:
Black pearl rice
Pretend bugs
Rocks, grass, sticks, flowers from outside
The black rice acts as dirt and the kiddos have a blast using scissors to chop a few flowers from the yard, along with collecting a few rocks and grass pieces! They hide the bugs, but also make them crawl over the natural elements. They'll play crawly bugs for a good long while!
Black Pearl Rice
Pretend Bugs
Bug catcher and magnifying glass
FLOWER GARDEN TABLE
Ingredients For Fun:
Black beans
Flower building manipulatives
Shovels/scoops
Watering can
This table seems so simple, and it is! Scooping black beans as "dirt" and planting the flowers over and over, my kiddos love to make different designs and all kinds of combinations. Then they pretend to "pick" the flowers and make a bundle bouquet. We also talked a lot about the different parts of a flower with these manipulatives! So much fun!
Flower Garden & Watering Can
Black Beans
Shovels and Scoopers
BEE HIVE TABLE
Ingredients for Fun:
Black beans
Mini bees
Wooden scoops and pots of honey
Decorative flower pot
Icecube tray (pretend honey combs)
We actually use this table throughout summer as well. It is not unusual for at least one of my children to have a fear of bees at any certain time. This sensory table actually helps out a lot with it! We usually read a few books about bees or watch a quick YouTube video and then they get to pretend everything that they learned. This helps remove the fear of the unknown regarding why bees sting and how they are super garden helpers!!
Mini Bees
Wooden Scoops and Pots
Flower Pot
SUMMER SAND AND SEA SENSORY TABLE
My usual sensory table themes for summer include water, but here I've decided to do something a little different. I collected all loose parts for this table! Blue and brown/tan-- the colors of ocean and sand! I sprinkled some plastic sea creatures in the "ocean" and set out two plastic containers each colored for water and sand. My 3 year old instantly started sorting parts by color. My 6 year old joined in the fun and made smiley faces with loose parts! My 2 year old simply had fun using the tongs and scoopers to collect and pour. We read a few ocean books and discussed animals living in and out of water. See what you can collect to make a simple, affordable sensory play space for summer!
Link to wooden loose parts: https://amzn.to/42Ta0Pa
Link to blue sea gems: https://amzn.to/3r3MsJV
BACK TO SCHOOL SENSORY TABLE
We are back to school! This means lots of letters, numbers, counting, shapes, etc. and playing to support learning! This table has so much to offer! At first, we hid tiny magnets in the letter and number pasta and used magnet wands to search for the dots! We then collected them and counted them and placed them in the number boxes. We also used our wooden number, letter and shape boards to fill with pasta and practice the symbols! Lastly, we used our pieces from our felt busy book, hid them and placed them back in our book in their corresponding places! My 2 yo, 4yo and 6yo keep coming back to this one! Next week we will integrate some color sorting as well! Here is a list of the items used for this table!
ABC Pasta Pre-Colored: https://amzn.to/45wcp4e
Disc Magnets: https://amzn.to/44v9xmP
Montessori Scoopers and Bowls: https://amzn.to/45TqMzz
Magnet Wands: https://amzn.to/47S7koq
Felt Puzzle Book: https://amzn.to/3YZJdjF
Tongs: https://amzn.to/3qXex5Z
SEPTEMBER APPLE SENSORY TABLE
September screams คρρɭεร! 🍎🍏
From apple picking, to apple sorting, to taking favorite apple surveys at school and making applesauce and apple pie-- we love apples!
This started was a simple table of green pastini stars, dried green split peas, and white sesame seeds. I added a wooden apple sensory tray (Target dollar spot!) and red and green pompoms and beads! Kiddos used tongs to transfer pompoms and beads to their "apple picking baskets" (Amazon link below).
Then. We found this adorable wooden treehouse. We added our peg people and made it an apple tree! They made lots of elaborate stories and counted the pompoms and beads and even used the treehouse pulley to move the apples down to the ground. All in all this table was a ᕼᑌᘜᗴ success!
Apple baskets: https://amzn.to/3Ezj7La
Tongs: https://amzn.to/3LhRoSJ
Peg People: https://amzn.to/3Pye4kk
EVERYTHING AUTUMN SENSORY TABLE
Mix some pretend fall leaves, play acorns, tiny squirrels, orange and yellow rice, some wooden rakes and finally wooden disc letters! This table is so much fun to mix together or keep sorted as is. My little people love raking the leaves, counting the acorns and hiding the letters to discover amongst the leaves and rice. The wooden letters add a fun learning component— a fun way to practice those sounds!
Squirrels: https://amzn.to/3Pva8j9
Acorns, Leaves, Pumpkins:
Wooden Rakes: https://amzn.to/3Ly2xPo
CORN PLAY!
This is hands-down one of our favorite seasons of the year. There are so many options for sensory play and creativity! One of our absolute musts is 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝙽 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝚈! So, yes, a lot of pumpkin patches have huge corn pits this time of year… But when it costs an arm and a leg to pay for a family of six to attend… you sometimes just need to make your own corn set-up to last all month!!
This is super easy and honestly the hardest part is keeping critters away. We like to set up the table or bin mostly on our shaded deck and either cover it with a hard plastic lid (sometimes bungeeing it) or bring it in for the night in our playroom right off the deck.
Plastic farm animals, John Deere trucks, scoops and bowls make for the most fun items to play in the corn with. Enjoy!
Corn: https://amzn.to/3LHNzqi
Farm Animals: https://amzn.to/3PXSHZP
Trucks: https://amzn.to/3LKSBlY
ⒽⒶⓁⓁⓄⓌⒺⒺⓃ ⒷⓄⓍ
This is a super simple Amazon box Halloween fine motor play activity!! The spiders/web side has colored golf tees to accompany— very great for color matching/identification and fine motor and coordination! Another side has kiddos feeding the Jack-o-lantern some applesauce lids and/or pompoms! This is amazing for fine motor building as well!
Then we have the Frankenstein side. The Frankie “eats” playing cards! Around here, my preschoolers like to identify the number or color on the card before feeding it to Frankenstein! Lastly, we have Mr. Ghost. Kiddos can lift the baby wipes lid on Mr. Ghost to push in paper straws! The entire project took about 15 minutes to make and dry! These awesome Chunkie Acrylic Paint Sticks make for quick decorating that dries super fast!
Paper Straws: https://amzn.to/3tCz9Bu
Paint Sticks: https://amzn.to/3Qe76kS
ROCK TABLE FUN
Bring your trucks, tractors, cups, spoons, bowls, ramps and imagination!
This is a table we leave up year round on our deck! Even in the winter, we get a bit bundled up, turn on the heaters and play away. The smooth stones leave no dust on their hands and are easy to pick up off of the deck floor when we have a spill!
Rocks: https://amzn.to/3PKmwgo
PINECONES AND LEAVES SENSORY TABLE
Super 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘 Autumn Sensory Play! Fake leaves (or real!) and pinecones! I have been hiding fun things in these trays for years for my little people to “find” and sort or collect or identify!
Pinecones: https://amzn.to/3PIDM4A
Fake Leaves: https://amzn.to/3PIOLuP
HAMMER TIME!
Flower Foam + Wooden Golf Tees + Child-Size Hammers= Hidden & Fun 🅕🅘🅝🅔 🅜🅞🅣🅞🅡 Work!
My 4 year old and 6 year old loved the classic hammering the tees into the foam and pretend to “fix” a house project! My 9 year old carved a few animals and a monster out of the foam and used the tees as legs and decorations! My 2 year old LOVED making holes in the foam with the tees and then pushing and pulling the tee out and in.
I highly recommend doing this activity in a pan or bin of some sort, like my 9 year old did! Definitely suggest as fun way to disguise building and strengthening those fine motor skills!
Hammers: https://amzn.to/3sSTjqK
Flower Foam: https://amzn.to/3ZfFv5E
Wooden Tees: https://amzn.to/3ZgYzk0
PUMPKIN SEED PLAY
Pumpkin seeds rock! We’ve had this same batch for two seasons now. We add and alter it continuously to include play pumpkins, color sorting acorns, wooden rakes, wooden counting trays, mini glass jars, and pumpkin cutouts I customize for bigger kiddos to practice school skills! What I love about this table is that there are just so many options to customize per age! We practice sight words with my first grader, counting with my four-year-old, color sorting with my two year old, and we have used the seeds to practice multiplication with my nine year old as well! Something for everyone! Enjoy!
Pumpkin Cards: https://amzn.to/48O4GR6
Play Pumpkins: https://amzn.to/3ZMG4Eg
A FALL BALL FOR ALL- FOREST FUN!
Once it is November, fall is in it's prime! This adorable book, A Fall Ball For All, by Jamie A. Swenson pairs so well with our November sensory table. Forest animals are scurrying around prepping for a long winter ahead. What better way than to have a fall harvest party? My kiddos loved reading this book, identifying all of the animals and then acting out the animals' fall party!
Sensory table contents:
Book: A Fall Ball For All https://amzn.to/3u1FiYg
Green Split Peas: https://amzn.to/46fZ3Jf
Wood Loose Parts: https://amzn.to/3smgSIy
Trees: https://amzn.to/3QLtS3V
Animals: https://amzn.to/3tXteat
Rocks: https://amzn.to/3QsfpZ4
N̠A̠T̠U̠R̠E̠ F̠E̠A̠S̠T̠
We've been reading a lot of Pilgrim and Native American books here these past few weeks! Reading books and watching shows about certain things always makes my kiddos eager to act out and play what they've learned. What better way to show what you know, than with pretend play? We take our lessons outside, where we "hunt and gather" ingredients and also "plant and harvest" delicious foods to make an amazing nature feast of pine cones, leaves, sand, sticks, rocks, dirt, berries and of course water to mix it all together!! This is messy play, friends, but it is so beneficial and healthy!
Don't throw away those old pots and pans! Don't be afraid to let them mix anything and everything! Read those books and then have your own Nature Feast! Linked below are some of our favorite books to read around Thanksgiving!
The Story of the Pilgrims: https://amzn.to/3QDPhuq
Pete the Cat
If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving
TᑌᖇKᗴY ᕼᗩIᖇᑕᑌT
Here's a quick, fun way to work on coloring, gluing and cutting during November for Thanksgiving! Start with a paper plate and some markers, crayons or paint markers (our favorite)! Have your kiddo design a face for his or her Turkey. Then, have them glue any color, design or pattern of crafting feathers on the back, top-half of the plate. Once the feathers are dry and sturdy, have your kiddo use scissors to give his or her Turkey a haircut! They can trim a little or a lot...one feather or all...make Turkey bald ir just a tiny shave.
Feathers: https://amzn.to/47t9MRd
Scissors for Kids: https://amzn.to/3QPHMC4
Paint Markers: https://amzn.to/40ydG9j
𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙴𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜
When warm weather is winding down and fall is creeping in, vegetables start to stop growing and gardens start to become bare. This is the perfect time to gather up the remainder of the "harvest" foods and let your kiddos explore-- peel apart the skin, open up the fruit and count the seeds, texture and smell. This is an amazing opportunity to discuss the parts of a vegetable or fruit or pumpkin as well. Kids love to pretend play, experiment and become more familiar with the foods they often are not encouraged or allowed to play with at the dinner table! So let loose and allow them this chance!
Harvest Tools: https://amzn.to/3u6Pm2f
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🅓🅞🅣 🅣🅤🅡🅚🅔🅨
Grab your extra paper plates and get some dot stickers! This is one of the ᴇᴀsɪᴇsᴛ Turkey projects ever! My kiddos really enjoyed making their own, unique Turkey face! Then, I added the multi-colored feathers. An older kiddo could easily cut these out and glue, tape or staple them on to the plate. Once the head and feathers were on, I had my little people peel their own sheet of colored dot stickers and stick them on the corresponding feather! We even chose a number of stickers we wanted to put on the feathers, and then practiced counting them!
Dot Stickers: https://amzn.to/3QIoHS6
🅃🅄🅁🄺🄴🅈 🄵🄴🄰🅃🄷🄴🅁 🄵🅄🄽
Sometimes all you need are some feathers to have some fun! I've had this pasta strainer for years now and originally colored some of the outer holes with permanent marker. We use it throughout the year to feed pipe cleaners through for color matching, identification, and fine motor practice. Who is to say you can't do the same thing with colored crafting feathers? I made two eyeballs and an orange beak from paper and taped them on the front of our strainer to make our Turkey. The kiddos loved adding the feathers and even making patterns! We also added a few color-coordinating bottles to store the feathers in or sort them into as another activity!
🅛🅞🅞🅢🅔 🅟🅐🅡🅣🅢 🅟🅛🅐🅨🅓🅞🅤🅖🅗 🅣🅤🅡🅚🅔🅨
Gather all of your loose parts (small items you might call knickknacks) and playdough! Make a ball or smoosh it flat to create your Turkey body. I took bingo chips and drew sharpie eyeballs on them to make the turkey's eyes, but you can literally use anything! We used some left-over wiki stix as the beak, but again-- you can use anything! Buying a big bag of crafting feathers was the best choice for the month of November, as we were able to use the feathers over and over for so many fun activities! My kiddos loved making different patterns with the feathers and also adding beads and some of the loose parts listed below!
Some Common Loose Part Items:
Beads https://amzn.to/40NLZJW
Pebbles/rocks https://amzn.to/47THQXh
Nuts and bolts https://amzn.to/3G2wlRf
Sticks https://amzn.to/47xmOxh
Sea shells https://amzn.to/46h5wDA
Fish tank gems https://amzn.to/3MNPnOZ
Corks https://amzn.to/47Brouw
Twine https://amzn.to/47A6f3J
Wooden rings https://amzn.to/40HPH7N
Buttons https://amzn.to/49HGIr9
🔎 𝙸 𝚂𝚙𝚢 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚖𝚊𝚜 𝚃𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 🔍
This season, we have some novice readers in our house here! So, I've been trying to pair our sensory tables with some Early Reader books and this "I Spy Santa Claus" book was the perfect fit for our newest Christmas Table. I sat with my 4 and 6 year old and read through the book first, having them identify sight words and sound out words that they tried reading independently, while answering the riddles. Then... we made our own "I Spy" game! I would mix up a few items in the table and give them a quick riddle. i.e. "I Spy something round, shiny, and red." I made a few harder ones for my 6 year old-- i.e. "I Spy something living, but it doesn't breathe." They had so much fun with this! Then of course, my 2 year old joined in and loved sorting and scooping all of the loose parts and pinching the clothespins and collecting the Santas! Overall, this table is a huge win in my book!
ɭ๏๏รЄ ᎮคГՇร NATURE CHRISTMAS TREE
We came up with this on a whim while hiking one December day! Before beginning our walk/hike we set a purpose. we explained to our kiddos that they would be collecting nature treasures to make a Christmas tree. We talked about all the colors in a tree and what types of things we should or could look out for to put into our treasure bags! We let the kids lead the way and stop when desired to collect, explore and discuss. We saw a huge hawk, lots of squirrels, bugs, and a few deer! Once we got home, I drew an outline of a Christmas Tree on cardstock and it was time to load on the glue! My oldest wanted to make a forest scene and everyone else worked together to glue on pine needles, ivy leaves, twigs and berries! Once dried, we hung them up for all to see!
𝓝𝓾𝓽𝓬𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓮𝓻 SENSORY PLAY
My kiddos LOVE watching "The Nutcracker Sweet" on Amazon Prime Video. It is a cute animated version of "The Nutcracker" and involves the evil Mouse King, lots of mice soldiers, and nutcracker battling around castles of candy. I decided to theme one of our Christmas sensory tables around this movie and "The Nutcracker" in general! The boys all helped me construct a block castle out of wooden blocks we already had. I hot-glued them together and then we used some acrylic paint to paint a red and black castle. I found these AWESOME Nutcracker wooden peg people on Amazon, and they helped me paint them as well! Lastly, we added some artificial snow (a bit messy!) and although 100% of the time I needed to sweep after they played, it was so much fun for them! They spent a long time recreating the movie scenes and battles!
Nutcracker Peg People: https://amzn.to/47Vli8i
Artificial Snow: https://amzn.to/47H7Ox9
MAILBOX CARD SORT 📫
If you're anything like our family, we get gifted a ton of Amazon, Target, and restaurant gift cards each Christmas or holiday season. Obviously, we love it! But what to do with all of the spent gift cards? Don't get rid of those spent gift cards just yet! My little people love to play with old ID cards, gift cards, etc. I decided it would be fun to turn our old Melissa and Doug Mailbox into a card sort! This is especially fun for Mr. Two Year Old who has a hard time sorting the wooden envelopes that come with the Melissa and Doug set. I simply got some painters tape and drew shapes on pieces to put next to the card slots. Then, I took all of our old gift cards and cut up some tiny cardstock pieces (for extra cards) and drew matching shapes on them. My preschooler pretended that they were Christmas mail and gifts that hadn't been delivered yet! Super simple, quick way to recycle those cards and still allow your kiddo to flex his or her sorting and fine motor skills!! Don't stress if you don't have this mailbox! A simple shoebox with slots cut out or an old Amazon box will do as well!
BRING IN THE S⃨N⃨O⃨W⃨ ❄️
Sometimes it snows and a few things keep you from bringing kiddos outside to play... someone's under the weather, a baby is napping, the temperature is just too frigid, or Mama needs some coffee before tackling the task of getting multiple children geared up for snow play!! Whatever the reason, just know that snow is just as fun indoors as it is outdoors! Gather up a trash bag, huge sheet or anything that will cover a large space and that you don't mind getting wet! Bring in buckets of snow and let kiddos have a blast! We've used "army guys" to battle in the snow, colored water to dye the snow, and just good old spoons, scoopers and bowls to play and create! This is a great way for little ones to experience the cold touch of snow without being fully immersed in it! Often times, my toddler loves doing this just as much as rolling around in a snow mound!
ⒶⒻⓉⒺⓇ ⒽⓄⓁⒾⒹⒶⓎ ⓈⒺⓃⓈⓄⓇⓎ ⓅⓁⒶⓎ
Save your extra scraps and bows! Anything shiny, anything with texture... ribbon, paper, twine! These items are so much fun for kids to play with and explore, especially toddlers. Babies and toddlers love textures, whether it's scratchy, smooth, shiny, rough or soft. Holiday wrapping and decorative items are the perfect place to start with texture. I personally have had the same items in our ⓐⓕⓣⓔⓡ ⓗⓞⓛⓘⓓⓐⓨ ⓢⓔⓝⓢⓞⓡⓨ ⓣⓐⓑⓛⓔ for many years. Each year I will add a few items and maybe discard a few that are on their last leg. But, overall this is a simple way to reuse some of the scraps and leftovers you have from wrapping and decorating while also toddlers and babies explore!