Today is the last day of the 31 Days of Play series! It was so fun planning play activities for my kiddos and sharing them with you all. Thank you for reading and I hope these activities inspired you to play with your child at home. Today's activity is homemade silly putty! And the awesome part is you only need 2 ingredients! For the complete recipe and directions, visit here. The only modifications I made to the recipe is I kneaded the the silly putty in a little bit of corn … [Read more...]
12 Fun Play Activities with Pom Poms
There are so many uses for craft pom pom balls. You can use them for lots of learning activities, such as learning colors, counting, sorting, and more. Today, I'm exited to share with you 12 fun PLAY activities with pom poms! 1. Play with them with this pom pom drop and shoot activity. 2. Build with cardboard tubes on the wall and then drop the pom pom down the tube. Kids love watching the pom pom drop out! 3. Create polka dot slime with pom poms! Need I say more?! Looks so … [Read more...]
Preschool Play with Magnets
Magnets are so cool. They are really a blast to play with! For today's play activity, I got out some big magnets and magnetic items and let my kids explore! To set up, I put magnetic items into a bin. I put things in like nuts, bolts, pipe cleaners, magna-tiles, magnetic letters, bells, tin can lids, butterfly clip, and more. I also put in non-magnetic items. Then I poured colored rice into the bin and mixed it all up. Next, I invited the kids to explore and play with the … [Read more...]
DIY Air Fort
One of my boys' favorite thing to do is to build forts. They love it when their dad builds an awesome fort for them on the couch or on their beds. I saw this great idea for an air fort, so we decided to try it out. It was AWESOME! We made our fort a little differently than the blog we found the idea on. Instead of taping the sides down, we tucked them underneath. I'll explain in a minute. Here's what you need for an air fort: a large sheet duct tape fan The first thing we … [Read more...]
DIY Fossils
My kids love playing with dinosaurs. We like to talk about fossils when we play with dinosaurs. As a fun learning activity, we decided to make our own fossils. Before doing the activity, we talked about these facts: A special scientist, called a paleontologist, studies fossils Fossils can be more than dinosaur remains, such as plants, shells, or other animals The only direct way we have of learning about dinosaurs is by studying fossils Here's what you need to make your … [Read more...]
Chocolate Oobleck
Do you know what oobleck is? It's material that's a cross between a liquid and a solid. You can dip your hand into it, like a liquid, or you can squeeze it, like a solid! We've made some traditional oobleck to go along with a Dr. Seuss book, but today I'm sharing how we made chocolate oobleck! Here's what you need: 1/2 cup of cocoa powder 1 & 1/2 cups of corn starch 1 cup & 1 tablespoon of water (approximately) To make this, mix 1/2 cup of cocoa powder with 1.5 cups of … [Read more...]
Fun Ways to Play with Kinetic Sand
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Have you ever played with kinetic sand? It is the coolest sensory material! Kinetic sand feels so awesome that it's hard to stop playing with it. There are some homemade ways to make kinetic sand, or you can buy kinetic sand at the store (or here on Amazon.) Kinetic sand is fun to play with. It's great to touch, squeeze, and hold. Kinetic Sand is a mixture of sand and polymers and so it feels like no other sensory … [Read more...]
Plastic Straw Sensory Bin
We recently tried a new sensory bin out and it was LOADS of fun! Usually we use beans, rice, or sand for a sensory bin filler. This time we used plastic drinking straws! It was easy, cheap, and colorful. All you need for this activity are colorful plastic drinking straws and a bin. I found a HUGE bag on clearance at Target (for around $2). I also gave my preschoolers kid-friendly scissors, rope for threading, cups, and tongs. Just running your hand through the bin is fun! It feels … [Read more...]
Surprise Color Eruptions
We love all things bubbly and fizzy. We just did a fizzy hearts activity last week, but we had to try another fizzy activity. This one had a twist though. The colors in the cup were a surprise and didn't show up until it started bubbling up. So much fun! Here's what you need: baking soda colored craft sand vinegar styrofoam cups large tub To set up, place 1-2 tablespoons in a cup that is not clear. I used a styrofoam cup, but you can use whatever you have. Since this is a … [Read more...]
Post Office Dramatic Play
My kids love imagining and pretending to do grown-up jobs. We had fun with our vet clinic last week, so this week we did a post office dramatic play activity. To set up, I placed writing utensils, envelopes, printable postcards, stickers, pretend mailbox, watercolors, and a white crayon on their desk. Then I explained to the kids how to do the activity. I gave them postcards they could write on and pretend to send to friends, family members, or even their stuffed … [Read more...]