This activity came to our rescue the other day. My kids really needed something to keep them occupied, so this small world play in the sink ended up being perfect. Here's how I set it up. I sprinkled a little jello powder (for smell) and a few drops of food coloring in the sink filled with water. Then I set ocean animals and shells around the sink. I also put in some foam sheets in the water for the plastic sea creatures to float on (since they would just sink in the … [Read more...]
Ivory Soap Bar Experiment
Here's an experiment that will really WOW your child! I've seen this activity around, but we had never tried it, so I figured it was time! Here's what you need: Ivory soap bar (needs to be Ivory!) microwave bowl or plate For this activity, place soap bar in the microwave on a microwavable container. Then just microwave for 2 minutes. I asked my kids to predict what would happen. They both thought it would melt. Oh and make sure you watch while you microwave! As … [Read more...]
Colorful Sand Foam
Colorful sand foam is a fun, messy sensory activity. When I first saw this activity here, I knew we had to try it out! Instead of using regular sand, we tried it with colorful craft sand. I loved seeing the colors! Here's what you need for this activity: colorful craft sand shaving cream large container To begin, pour the sand in the container. Then spray shaving cream in. Mix with a spoon until you get the consistency you like. The mixture will be foamy and soft, and will … [Read more...]
Glue & Salt Pictures
Today I'd like to share an activity that is similar to a craft. In this activity, you create a glue and salt picture and then you drop watercolors on the salt and watch colors travel down the path. Here's what you need for this activity: glue salt food coloring or watercolors water dropper or paintbrush construction paper or card stock paper To begin, draw a design with glue onto a sheet of paper. We tried it on white card stock and black construction paper. Next, … [Read more...]
Peppermint Cocoa Cloud Dough
Cloud dough is my go-to activity. It's so easy and my kids can play with it for long chunks at a time. To make things a little bit different, we changed up the regular cloud dough recipe. We added in cocoa and peppermint extract into the recipe! It was fun and smelled great! Here's what you need for this activity: 5 cups of flour 1/2 cup of oil (I used baby oil, but vegetable oil works great!) 1/2 to 1 cup of cocoa peppermint extract or peppermint essential oils large … [Read more...]
Snow Hot Chocolate {Dramatic Play}
We've had a very "brown" winter so far. However, when had snow back in early December, my boys and I made snow hot chocolate! It actually wasn't a drink that we could drink, but it was a creation that my boys made themselves! They used imaginary play to have their own hot chocolate cafe. Here's what we used for our hot chocolate cafe: snow (or water if you don't have snow where you live!) squeeze bottles mugs or cups straws spoons cocoa cash register cafe menu … [Read more...]
Building with Grapes
I love an easy activity that leads to hours of independent play. Those kind of activities are the best! Today's activity is one of those activities and I call it building with grapes! All you need for this activity are grapes and toothpicks and you're ready to go! My kids were SO engaged in this activity! They sat down and built for at least an hour. They were so excited to build new structures or objects. I loved watching, building with them, and snacking on a few grapes! I love … [Read more...]
Snowflake Slime
One of our favorite sensory activities is playing with homemade slime. It's super easy to make and it creates hours of fun for my kids. Since it's winter, I decided to make a snowflake slime for my kiddos. They loved it! Making slime is SO easy! There's a couple ways to make it. I used to make slime using the ingredient Borax, but this time I made slime with liquid starch, called Sta-Flo. I've read that it's not safe for kids to play with Borax, which is why switched to using liquid … [Read more...]
Ice Cube Sculptures
Welcome to the first day of the 31 Days of Play series! I'm so excited to kick off the series with a fun building activity! In today's activity, I'm going to show you how we built ice cube sculptures! For this activity, we first made colored ice cubes. I just colored water with food coloring and poured it into the ice cube trays. Then I left them in the freezer overnight. Once they were frozen, I placed them all in a bowl. Next, I gave them to my 5 year old to build with it. … [Read more...]
Paper Towel Experiments for Kids
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I was paid to write this post with Walmart. My kids have been asking me to do some experiments lately. Since having a baby, I haven't been able to too many activities with them. When I picked up Viva Vantage at Walmart the other day, I thought of some experiments we could do using them. For the first experiment, I took two sections of Viva Vantage, folded it in half and we drew colored circles in a row using washable markers. Then we … [Read more...]
