We love the book Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin. My kids like the idea of bugs living together in a cozy hotel so much that we thought we’d try building our own.
For the “hotel”, I used a cardboard box with 2 bamboo utsenil box inserts from Dollarama. Then I placed a number of materials in the tray that the kids could put in the hotel for different insect habitats. The Bug Hotel book provides the perfect guidance for this activity. Our habitat materials were mostly gathered from around the house and outside. We used mini stumps, pine needles, sticks, pinecones, scrunched paper filler, seed heads, moss, egg carton, bamboo pieces, toilet paper rolls. I also cut some slits in pieces of cardboard to use for butterfly habitats. Everything was easy to collect, with the exception of the bamboo pieces. I bought the bamboo pole from Dollarama and had to use some muscle to cut it into 2-3 inch pieces with a saw.
Other Materials Used in the Activity:
Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin – Amazon
Bugs in the Garden Dirt Scented Sensory Bin in a Bag – Readymade Play Canada (code PLAY10) (note: I used 2 bags of dirt scented filler here)
Felt ladybug, bees, butterfly & Safari Ltd. life cycle figures – Sewing Seeds Play (code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
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My kids really enjoyed this activity and used the book as a reference for creating various habitats for the different insects. There were a number of textures to explore as well as an exploration of containment as they tried to fill the open spaces with different materials. The small assembled Bug Hotel went outside immediately so that real bugs could move in as soon as possible.
The kids have been loving the book, Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by Sam Swope about the monarch butterfly life cycle and migration.
I thought it might be fun to show the kids a map of how far the monarchs travel, so they could get a better sense of their amazing journey. I put the map over our Lite Brite trofast insert and used the lights to plot the migration path from central Canada to Mexico. Along with the map, I included the Safari Ltd. monarch life cycle figures, a Folkmanis Monarch Butterfly finger puppet and a bin of sensory filler for the caterpillars and butterflies to play in. I also decided to make an easy monarch themed jar for scooping rice into. I used some paper butterflies from Dollarama and secured them to the jar with Mod Podge.
The kids loved this activity and have enjoyed acting out the life cycle and journey of the monarch butterfly. And of course, we have read the book many, many times. They now know very well that monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico!
If you saw our toy rotation post for this month, then you know the Folkmanis Bird Finger Puppets and the Backyard Bird Songs book are currently in our toy rotation. The kids have been fascinated by learning about the birds and they especially want to know what the birds eat. So, I thought a sensory/ small world/ learning tray might be fun activity for them.
I used the Bugs in the Garden kit from Readymade Play Canada to make this tray. The kit includes dirt scented sensory filler that really smells like dirt and makes the scene seem so much more realistic. Then I added in our paper maché tree from a previous play, our large resin pondscape, some moss and some scrunched paper filler to fill up the tray. It was the perfect scene for our little birds and their food sources.
The kids dove right into this activity and wanted to explore all the different types of bird food available (worms, insects, seeds, berries). The artificial worms, in particular, were a big hit. They are very stretchy and added an extra interesting sensory texture to the tray.
My 3 year old son spent a lot of time acting out little scenes with the birds. One of his favourites was bringing all the birds and insects inside the tree because it was raining.
It was a great way to extend our play with the Folkmanis finger puppet birds and add a sensory element to our learning about what birds eat.
A little after-school sensory play is sometimes just what we need. While my daughter was dipping her hands in slime she said, “this makes me feel so calm… it just feels so good!”
Olive Eve and Co.’s Large Pondscape is definitely the star of the show here! How gorgeous is this resin piece? It arrived at our house and was in a play setup within an hour. I couldn’t wait to use it. Once my kids are past the sensory play stage, this will be going on a display shelf in my house. It is art.
The green slime is from Zimpli Kids. It was so easy to make, just mix the powder with water and wait 15 minutes. It made for such an easy sensory setup that delighted my kids. I also found the slime easy to clean up with a little soap and water. That’s a win in my book!
Last week, I attended a Scholar’s Choice free webinar hosted by Teresa Hadley (Instagram handle @joys.of.learning) called “Small Worlds, Big Stories: Inspiring Storytelling and Writing Play”. Teresa showed many inspiring small world play ideas, but the one I was drawn to the most was a open-ended type of small world play where the young learners could choose what kind of stories they want to tell.
If you know me, then you know I love an epic setup – and I think there is a place for it. Both my kids and I enjoy it and it probably provides some good modelling for them. However, sometimes I worry I’m doing too much of the creative thinking up front and complicating the activity more than I need to.
So, when I saw Teresa’s simple, pared down approach to a small world play invitation – I wanted to try it and see what my kids did with it.
What is Small World Play?
Small World Play is using imagination and small props to create miniature or scaled-down scenes where stories can take place. A common example would be using blocks and figures to create stories about a family living in a house. Kids will often start by acting out stories they are familiar with (e.g., eating dinner, taking a bath and brushing their teeth) and then will expand into more imaginative and fantastical stories as they get older.
Our Experience with this Open-Ended Small World Play Activity
My kids do a lot of small world play; however, this type of small world play invitation was a bit new for them. Of course, they are used to using toys and other loose parts to create their own small worlds in an “open-ended” manner, but they haven’t been presented with that type of play in an activity tray. They were a bit hesitant at first.
The progression of play was
1. They coloured the wood peg people as representations of themselves (of course they did, my kids love to colour natural wood! lol)
2. They started experimenting with the materials and threaded some branches through bead holes.
3. Then the play kind of stalled, and they left the activity.
4. The next morning I tried modelling what they might do with the materials – I drew a road and put out a basic foundation for a house… and then the play exploded.
5. They drew more roads, they each built their own house across the street from each other and put a sidewalk in between. They veered into some STEM building with their houses, which was great! They made gardens, deserts where lizards could live, and stacked cups on top of each other for a “hideout” at each house.
So, in the end, this turned out super fun and I loved watching their creativity. We will be trying more of this type of invitation, now that the kids have a taste for it. I think it adds some wonderful variety into the type of activities we do and encourages the kids to use their imagination and creativity in new ways.
We love the Stick and Stone books by Beth Ferry. My 3 year old son, especially, is a huge fan of these characters and their tales of friendship.
I thought it would be fun to try a book play activity with the kids. We are new to book play and I don’t know if we’re really doing it “right”. However, my philosophy when doing any of these activities for my kids, is to keep it fun and that’s the same focus I applied to this activity.
Both kids know this book well, so I kept it very relaxed, provided no instruction or prompts and let the kids decide where they wanted to take the play. First, they spent some time exploring the different trees with Stick and Stone (in the book, the characters are on a quest to find Stick’s family tree). Then they wanted to read the book and finally they dug into some sensory play.
This was the first time this year we were able to take our sensory play table outside and it felt so good to enjoy a nice evening with a relaxing activity for the kids in the fresh air.
Who wants some lemonade? I set up a pretend play or dramatic play activity each month and this month we are playing Lemonade Stand.
I started by setting up some of our play foam as a counter and constructing the LoveveryEasy Connect Fort set over it with a playsilk so it would look like a store canopy. I used a tablecloth to cover the counter and arranged all the accessories on top.
I wanted something that could act like a real drink dispenser for our Lemonade scented rice and pasta sensory mix from Readymade Play Canada. I thought a cereal dispenser would be a fun substitute for a drink dispenser. I found a cereal dispenser that would allow the rice and pasta pieces to flow through and set it up inside a tray, because there was guaranteed to be some spillage and overflow.
The other fun gadget I added was the Juicer that spins as you crank the wheel. Some of the rice falls through the strainer holes as you crank, giving it a very realistic feel.
Then I put some felt and acrylic fruit slices, resin ice cubes and wood fruit pieces in bowls and containers. All that was left was to add cups, pitchers and a wood container for a “honey pot”.
The finishing touches were from Paper Plane Educational Resources. I printed their Lemonade Stand bundle and used the banner, menus, illustrations, sequencing activity for how to make lemonade and the sales tracker. The illustrations are cute and straightforward and the activities are the perfect balance of education and fun for us.
The kids were thrilled to find this when they got home from school!! There was lots of screaming and excitement. They had a wonderful time making lemonade with the cereal dispenser, although I will warn that it was messy. I had to scoop rice off the floor a few times. I’m pretty comfortable with sensory mess now so it didn’t bother me, but if you’re concerned about the mess – I would recommend using a larger tray under the cereal dispenser.
Overall, this activity was a hug success for us. The kids have been very inspired by this play and now want to try a real Lemonade Stand this summer. 🍋☀️
Materials
Lemonade SCENTED sensory mix – Readymade Play Canada. Note: this mix is from last year and I stretched it by adding a bag of pink painted rice to it. It still smells Heavenly!!
We don’t have a fancy mud kitchen (although I would love one), but I still wanted to give my kids the mud kitchen experience. Mud kitchens have to be up there with sandboxes for one of the original sensory experiences.
I put together this mud kitchen very inexpensively. I found some old milk crates and a piece of plywood in the garage for the counter. Then I went through our pots, pans, utensils and bath toys in our house and pulled out anything that wasn’t being used anymore or looked like fun. The soil is left over from a Christmas planter arrangement and the only things I really needed to buy were the drink dispenser water jug and food stones.
We’ve been using this setup for a few years now and while it isn’t fancy, it works great and the kids love it. I’d also easy to put away and store in the garage when we’re not using it.
You only really need dirt and water to have some mud kitchen fun, but there are a few accessories that we find add some extra excitement to our play.
Favourite Mud Kitchen Accessories
1. Drink Dispenser filled with water. Ours is a glass one from Canadian Tire. I thought glass would be easier to keep clean, but there are acrylic options if you’re concerned about it breaking.
2. Green Toys Tea Set and Stacking Cups. Green Toys makes such great toys for the outdoors. These things are indestructible.
3. Squeeze Bottles from Dollarama. I have ended up with a bunch of these because when friends come over, everyone wants one of these squeeze bottles. The plastic has the perfect flexibility for little hands to squeeze.
4. Empty Spice Containers – save your empty spice containers! They are so fun for filling with dirt, water, old spices, anything. They give the kids a sense of real cooking.
5. Spice Box. This is new to us this year and the kids have been loving it. You can fill it with spices, potion powder, Oobleck, dried leaves, flowers, anything you can think of. It’s very durable and cleans easily, although I do store it inside because I want to use it for indoor play as well.
6. Yellow Door Stones – the one splurge in our Mud Kitchen and they are totally worth it. We have the Fruits, Pizza Toppings, Breads of the world and Sensory Sound Eggs and they are all wonderful. We leave them outside all year and they still look new. Mine are from Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10) and Scholars Choice.
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I’d love to know, what are your favourite mud kitchen accessories??
The kit included playdough, a few blueberries, a rice and pasta mix, a frying pan and spatula, and some wood butter and maple syrup pieces. I decided to add a few extra accessories from our play kitchen – so the kids would have everything they needed to mix up pancake batter, cook the pancakes and serve them.
I also thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about the ingredients in pancakes and their food sources while we played. Eric Carle’s book, Pancakes, Pancakes provided the perfect segue between pancakes and food sources. I found some free resources on Teach Nutrition that I printed and made into a simple matching game. The kids matched the food to its food source – all of them from farms of course.
The kids really adored this activity. It stayed out all weekend and was consistently played with. My 5 year old daughter asked if we could keep it out forever – lol. When I asked why, she said, “because it smells SOOO good!”
Farm and farm animals are a year-round theme at our house. My 3 year old son loves all things farm, so we do a lot of farm-related activities. Today, I’m sharing a few of our favourites.
1. Small World Farm Sensory Tray
One of our favourite farm activities is to make a big small world tray. My son likes watching YouTube videos of people setting up farm dioramas and they usually use sand as the base. He kept asking for sand so I thought I’d try it. I didn’t have enough Kinetic Sand to fill the whole tray, so I paired it with some plastic grass mats (very easy to rinse off) and some dry corn.
Although it was very messy, the kids also really loved it so I felt the mess was worth it. I had to spend some time at the end straining the corn out of the kinetic sand, but otherwise everything cleaned-up pretty easily.
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2. Farm Sensory Tray – Version 2
We’ve also done another version of a farm small world with a variety of different dry goods. This one had lots of different textures to explore and was less messy.
This tray was very good at representing different areas of a farm and lots of space to make up stories and scenes with the animals.
Dry Goods: Cereal, corn, split peas, ground up cereal, lentils and spaghetti
Grimm’s wood stacking bowls
3. Little Blue Truck Play
The Little Blue Truck series is a favourite in our house. We have many of the books, so I thought it would be fun to set up a little farm landscape where the kids could act out scenes from the book or make up their own stories with their favourite characters. The kids know these books well, so it was fairly easy for them to translate the book into play.
Materials
Great Outdoors Storyboard Starter Pack, Storyboard Trofast Insert, Farm Animal Play Pieces (Eye Spy Club)
Oobleck is one of our favourite messy substances. If you’ve never tried it, you really need to. It’s a suspension, so when you compress it in your hand – it firms up and when you release pressure on it – it drips back into a liquid form. Pretty magical. It’s made of cornstarch and water (so also very easy to make and economical), but if you add some cocoa powder, it looks like mud. You don’t need many accessories for this activity – just some animals to get muddy and a bowl of soapy water to clean them. You can also include sponges, brushes and other tools for scooping and squirting. My 3 year old son’s favourite thing about this activity was the turkey baster. He found sucking up and squirting the water to be hilarious.
One of the best parts of Oobleck is after it dries you, you can use it again. Just add water and it will turn back into mud.
MuddyOobleck Recipe
2 cups cornstarch
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1+ cup of water (I usually have to add a bit more water)
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5. Farm Themed Bath – Washing Vegetables and Fruit
And finally, we love a farm-themed bath. I wanted to try something a bit different, so I decided to use our Yellow Door Education fruits and vegetable stones and cover them in bath paint to make them look dirty. I wasn’t 100% sure how this activity would go, but it turned out fantastic! The kids scrubbed the food clean, painted it again, and repeated on an endless loop. And then the best part – they got so into cleaning that they cleaned the entire bath and surrounding walls! Needless to say, we’ll be doing this again next time the bath needs a clean.
Materials
Yellow Door Education Sensory Sound Eggs, Fruit and Pizza Toppings (Sewing Seeds Play – save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10 and Scholar’s Choice)
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BONUS ACTIVITY: Rainbow Barns Colour Sort & Count
My go-to combination for a very easy sensory activity setup is to take one of our toys and pair it with a sensory mix. The kids love it because it gives the toy a new and fresh feel.
The Guidecraft Barnyard Activity Boxes are a favourite in our house. They are so fun for colour sorting and counting. I set them out with some coloured pasta (from Bulk Barn) and tweezers to make searching for the farm pieces a little more challenging and fun. Of course, the tractor had to join in on the fun. It’s such an easy set up that promotes fine motor skills, colour sorting and counting.
