I joined a loop on Instagram with a “Prehistoric” theme. Originally, I thought it would be a small break from our pond/ Earth Day play, but when I think about it – dinosaurs fit in pretty well with Earth Day themes. What better reminder of how fragile life on the planet can be and then how quickly it can be extinguished.
For this tray, I used our felt Papoose Volcano and Olli Ella Dinos along with a variety of different sensory mixes. The grass is rice and unsweetened coconut that I dyed with food colouring. I just mixed some blue and yellow food colouring, added a splash of vinegar so it would be easier to spread around and poured it into the bowl of coconut. The coconut required more food colouring to turn green than the rice, but the smell of it is amazing and well worth the effort.
The speckled rocks are dry pinto beans, the lava is made from red lentil and the pond and stream is our felt pond piece along with some aquarium gravel. I am new to the concept of using aquarium gravel in sensory play, but i’m loving the colour variation and texture so far. I put a few white lima beans around the river as a river rock bed.
Then I added in some fake vegetation pieces, trees and rocks. I used a small amount of floral foam to hold some of the bunches together. Finally, it was time to add dinos, dino eggs, lizards and bury our Yellow Door Education dinosaur footprint stones.
To add an extra learning element to the activity, I made a Search and Count card for the kids so they could discover and count the various elements. I will include the link here if you’d like to download it.
When we read Pond by Jim LaMarche, I immediately thought it would make a fun activity for the kids. It’s about a boy who finds a former pond area and restores it with friends and family. In return, the healthy pond has a wonderful impact on the boy’s life.
To recreate the pond area, I set up our Tuff Tray and laid down the Wonderie Coral Reef Play Cloth first. Then I added grass mats, stones, sticks and vegetation and poured water over it all. Finally I added the animals, clean recycling, some bowls and scoops.
When the kids saw the tray, they dove right into pond clean-up and enjoyed playing with all the elements of the pond. They did need a little prompting to think of this activity in terms of the book. We haven’t done a lot of book sensory play, so it may be that we just need to practice that way of thinking and do book-related play more often.
The book and activity fit right into our week of pond play and was a great precursor to Earth Day.
We’ll be doing some play on the topic of ponds this week. I think it will tie in nicely with Earth Day coming up on April 22nd.
To start off, we did a pond fizzy (potion) play activity. My kids love activities involving fizzy reactions, so we do them often.
I usually make my own fizzy powder because the kids go through a lot in one activity. My 3 year old tends to dump entire containers of fizzy powder into the water. To manage this impulse, I put the powder in small containers and refill them throughout the activity.
I prefer fizzy powder recipes that use citric acid powder – so you can just add water to create a reaction. However, baking soda and vinegar will give you the same reaction. The recipe is simple and very forgiving. The measurements do not need to be exact. I will usually just eyeball the amounts of each ingredient.
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If you don’t have Bubbling Epsom Salt, but want to still create a long-lasting, bubbling mix – you can use cornstarch. I have more information on making fizzy/ potion powder with cornstarch in this post.
To add something extra to this activity, I made it look like a pond, so we could talk about creatures that live near ponds. I also included some blue and yellow water, so the kids could try some colour mixing. For fine motor work practice, I put out a variety of tools including pipettes, tweezers and scoops.
The kids had a great time with this activity. They loved the added texture of the grass under the water and of course, scooping, mixing and pouring the ingredients. It sparked a lot of conversation about the animals and creatures who live around ponds.
Other Materials
Yello Door Education Rustic Pourers (Sewing Seeds Play – save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
Lovevery colour tablets for blue and yellow water, tweezers & pipettes
My 5 year old daughter is unicorn-obsessed, so of course she wants a unicorn birthday party this year. I thought I would get a head-start on the party favours/goody bags by making some Unicorn Magic Potion kits. Since I’m a sensory mom (is that a thing? i don’t know – lol), I made them myself. Here’s how I did it.
Making potion fizzy powder is very easy. I used a slightly different recipe this time in order to increase the yield and I’m very happy with it. I have another recipe here.
DIY Potion/ Fizzy Powder
2 cups baking soda
1 cup citric acid powder
1 cup cornstarch
I mixed the baking soda and cornstarch together first. Then I added some purple gel food colouring to colour the powder purple. The food colouring step is obviously optional. I did find it difficult to spread the dye out in the powder as the dye drops got trapped in the powder. I ended up mixing it with my hands and smearing the powder between my hands to mix the dye in.
Once the dye was mixed in, I stirred in the citric acid powder. I added the citric acid last to be extra cautious the dye didn’t activate a fizzing reaction. I also added some glitter and unicorn polymer clay slice mix to the potion powder. Again, this is optional.
I don’t think the measurements in this recipe need to be exact. Baking soda and citric acid powder mixed together will make a fizzing reaction when water is added. The cornstarch just prolongs the fizzing. I only had 2 cups of baking soda left, so the cornstarch also allowed me to make more potion powder. For reference, this amount of powder made 20 party favours (with 4 spoonfuls in each small bag).
Part of the fun of making potions is mixing magical objects into the fizzing substance. For potion add-ins I included some purple crushed decorative filler, sequins, resin unicorn and rainbow trinkets and acrylic gems.
I put everything into a bag and added a pipette (for adding water to the powder) and a thank you note with the potion instructions. I will link the thank you note here if you’d like to download it.
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A quick note on AliExpress: You can get the items I bought on AliExpress on Amazon, I just chose to buy them on AliExpress because it’s less expensive and part of the reason for doing a DIY was to save a bit of money.
Everything is packaged and ready to go. Now I just have to organize the rest of the party. lol. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment!
The Solar Eclipse 2024 was a big event for us. I set up a special space invitation to play in the morning for the kids (3 and 5). The kids were so excited about the upcoming eclipse and the space themed toys allowed them to explore their curiosity about space and eclipses.
I put our new Wonderie Space The Solar System Play Cloth on our Tuff Tray and laid out some of our space-themed toys. The regular size Wonder play cloths fit perfectly in the Tuff Tray. I added in the Grapat Dear Universe Set, Sewing Seeds Play’s Space felt Friends, our resin and felt stars and an Astronaut Gem Block made by Tommy Tran.
For a little added sensory fun, I made a cardboard tray/ sensory puzzle rocket ship and added our Pinecone Tray from AW and Co., turned upside down, for the rocket fire. The rocket ship sensory puzzle was very easy to make. I am becoming a little addicted to making these, because you can make anything your imagination can come up with to the exact proportions you need – and it’s free.
I simply cut a rocket ship shape out of cardboard and 3 strips. I hot glued the strips along the 3 sides and made a circle that I glued in the middle for the window. You could remove the top layer of one side of cardboard if you like. It will make the cardboard more pliable. However, I didn’t do that step for this puzzle – I didn’t find it was necessary. And that’s it. The whole thing took me 5 minutes.
In the afternoon, we traveled south about an hour so we could observe the total eclipse. The traffic was very heavy as everyone had the same idea, so we didn’t make it to our intended destination. Once we were inside the path of totality and about 10 minutes before the total eclipse, people started pulling over on the highway. We did the same and ended up having a great view of the eclipse.
The kids had a phenomenal experience. I was a little surprised at how much they enjoyed it. For me, I think the best part was seeing how people reacted to it. Just about everyone on the highway pulled over, got out of their cars and looked up at the sky. There was a feeling of excitement in the air and a connection from sharing the experience.
I also paid more attention to my surroundings than I have during previous eclipses. As the moon covered the sun, the mosquitoes came out and it got very cold. I had to go get a sweatshirt for my daughter. As the sun emerged from behind the moon, the birds started singing their morning songs and it warmed up again. It was a wonderful experience and I’m glad we made the short trip to experience it fully.
We live very close to the solar eclipse path of totality, so Monday will be a big event. The kids (3 and 5) have been talking about the eclipse at their schools, but I wanted to do something a little special at home as well.
I used items we had around the house to make an eclipse trofast insert for our IKEA Flisat table and then added a tray of sensory material.
The eclipse trofast bin insert was made with cardboard. I traced an existing insert we had, cut it out, used a bowl to trace a circle in the middle and then cut that out too. Then I painted it all black. I taped one of our magnetic tile base plates on the back of the insert and placed a puck light in the bin before fitting the insert on top. It’s simple, but I liked that we could move the moon piece over top of the “sun” circle to block out the light.
I took a couple books out of the library, so we could learn about how the eclipse will work while the kids played with the insert. I ended up reading the books to them while they played.
For some added sensory fun, I also put out a tray of material intended to represent the moon. I had some epsom salts that I had tried to dye purple for another activity and it hadn’t resulted in the colour I wanted. However, I thought the grey colour it ended up being looked perfect for some moon dust. I put the epsom salt in the tray and added a few dabs of grey decorative gravel to give it a moon effect. For some added space fun, I added in some glow-in-the-dark meteor rocks and resin stars, bowls and scoops.
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This activity worked out great. it was the perfect catalyst for talking about the solar eclipse with my young kids. We are excited for Monday. Will you observe the solar eclipse?
Even though the ground is covered in snow outside, we are ready to think about all things spring. One of our favourite spring activities is our Pretend Play Flower Shop. The kids (3 and 5 years old) love all the different elements to it and it makes the playroom feel cheery.
I’ve reused things we already had to make the shop structure. I emptied one of our toy shelves to be the store front and set up our Arches Magoo Slippery Wedges beside it with a table cloth overtop to act as a counter. Foam takes up a lot of space in our little playroom so it needs to work pretty hard. The Slippery Wedges definitely fit that bill.
Then I used the Easy Connect Fort Set (from the Lovevery Storyteller Play Kit) to make a canopy over the shop. A Sarah’s Silks play silk is clipped to the top. Making shop canopies is probably what we use the Easy Connect Fort Set for the most. I love that it gives a bit of a play stand feel, without taking up too much space. Plus, I can take it apart and store it away when we’re finished with this play scene. I wrapped a few lights around the front for a little extra special touch and then added in the flowers.
Most of the flowers are from Dollarama. I cut the plastic bouquets into individual stems and put them in tin pots (also from Dollarama). Some of them have floral foam in the bottom to help the stems stand up. However, if you have small children, I recommend getting some styrofoam or craft foam instead. I plan to switch mine out soon. My kids have in the past taken the green floral foam out of the pots and it makes a huge green, smeared mess everywhere.
The felt lily flowers on the back ledge are from Lovevery and the tulips in the felt pot are from Sewing Seeds Play. I made some simple picture labels for each pot and the price, in case the kids were feeling in the mood to do some math.
For accessories, I included our Goki cash register and a clipboard with some Order Forms. I just drew and hand wrote the form myself, but you are welcome to download it here if you’d like. I put out some pencils, extra pots, and ribbons and paper for wrapping up flower arrangements. My daughter added some self inking stamps so she could “approve” payments and the grass on top of the counter.
To add a little extra sensory element to the play, I put out some dry black beans in the IKEA Bastua side table along with a few pots and garden tools. I’m experimenting with leaving sensory material in the Bastua. So far the kids have been good about keeping the material in the tray; however, pots filled with beans have tipped over a few times by accident. Luckily, beans are pretty easy to scoop up off the floor so it hasn’t bothered me too much… yet.
And finally, the most popular element of this play activity – the delivery truck. By far, this is the thing my kids enjoy most about the shop. They love to take orders by phone, prepare them and then deliver them. The delivery truck is a Hape toddler bike that we’ve had for years with a basket strapped to the front. It’s too small for both kids now, but they don’t seem to mind.
We’ll be playing with this shop all month. It has so many fun learning opportunities: vocabulary, colours, counting, fine motor skills, writing, math, etc. I don’t push any of these learning concepts and follow what my kids are interested in at the time. If my daughter becomes interested in the math aspect of the activity I may develop that a bit more, but I will wait to see how it goes. My main goal is for them to have fun!
Materials
Canopy – Lovevery Easy Connect Fort Set and Sarah’s Silks play silk
We’ve been having fun with all kinds of Easter play activities this past week. Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Easter Bunny Express – Easter Train Track
For this activity, the kids help the Easter bunny dig up the eggs and deliver them to the correct houses on the Easter Bunny Express train.
My 3 year old son loves his wooden train tracks and my daughter wanted an Easter themed activity so we did an Easter, construction, counting mash-up. I added in some learning elements that I thought would appeal to my 5 year old daughter. Honestly, my son would have been content driving the train around the track for hours, he didn’t need any extras
I made 21 cardboard eggs and 6 cardboard cup baskets. The kids could work on 1-1 correspondence (there are enough eggs for 1 to go to house number 1, 2 for house 2, etc.) and for a little extra challenge for my 5 year old, I added dots to the backs of the eggs for matching with the correct number.
I also intentionally left the egg design uncoloured so my daughter could colour them. She likes to add colour to anything neutral.
Materials
Train Tracks & trains – Brio
Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
Felt Easter bunny – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code: HOUSEOFPLAY10)
Grimm’s Rainbow & Semi Circles
Grapat Spring Nins & Fancy Nins – Nest.ca
Grapat tools & felt pond – Sewing Seeds Plau
Wood bunnies and flowers – Tiny Fox Hole
2. Easter Play Dough
Play dough is always a winner for us. I ordered some new, super squishy and enticingly scented play dough from Readymade Play Canada . I have become a fast fan of this dough. I do sometimes make my own, but it doesn’t compare to the very soft and silky texture of this dough. And we loved the unique scents – dirt, fresh cut grass, lavender & rain!
I brought out the rest of our Easter play dough trinkets and accessories for some perfect Easter and spring play. Only the little Play-doh bunny stamp roller is new.
Materials
Easter trinkets and add ins – The Creative Mix Shop (from previous Tinker Tubs)
Acrylic flowers – Eye Spy Club
“Basket” tray (Cauldron/ Pot of Gold Tray)- AW and Co. (save with code: HOUSEOFPLAY10)
Easter resin paintables – Playspiration
Wood letters – Birch and Bark Natural Wood
Wood stamps – DIY
The kids love to make cakes, small world scenes and whatever else they can think of. I will leave this playdough activity out in our Art Center area until Easter so they kids can continue to create.
3. Fill an Easter Basket
In this activity, the kids could pretend they’re the Easter Bunny and fill a basket!
I love this activity – we do it every year. It’s so easy, it gives a purpose to the Easter trinkets you’ve collected over the years and it’s a fun sensory and pretend play invitation. This year I used my new Grapat Tinker Tray to organize all the trinkets, but in previous years I used a basket and filled it with whatever Easter stuff we had. The kids love to make up their own little Easter baskets and deliver them around the house. My 3 year old also thought it was fun to hide things in the crinkle paper and pick them out with tongs.
Materials
Felt carrots, chick, bunny feet, Boho Easter Bunny, felt balls – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code: HOUSEOFPLAY10)
Folkmanis puppets – Nurtured.ca
Resin bunnies – The Creative Mix Shop
Acrylic flowers – Eye Spy Club
Grapat mandala – The Bohemian Collective
Bunny bag – handmade gift
Everything else is from the dollar store or Michaels.
4. Easter Bath Surprise
We’ve also been having a little Easter fun in the bath. I added some giant pom poms, plastic eggs, silicone moulds, tongs, egg cups, straws and a strainer into a bubble bath. The kids hopped right in the bath and enjoyed all kinds of festive fun scooping and playing. Anything that helps gets the kids in the bath quicker is good for all of us, so I try to do special baths sometimes.
Materials
Everything is from Dollarama. I will add our Glo Pals light up cubes in the eggs once the kids get them on Sunday.
5. Easter Chick and Sensory Egg Puzzle
I won a beautiful sensory rice mix from Kidfolk & Co. in a giveway and wanted to think of a fun way we could use it. Since it’s bright yellow, it made me think of Easter chicks.
I used our peg board from Eye Spy Club and wove a yellow pipe cleaner through it to make the outline of a chick. The chick needed an egg and since I don’t have a cracked egg tray (although I would like one-lol) I made one out of cardboard.
I added the beautiful mix to another trofast bin along with some yellow flowers, included scoops and a nesting wood egg set. The kids can post the feathers through the peg board to make a fluffy chick, fill the cardboard egg tray with sensory mix and experiment with the materials and wooden egg containers. It will be a bright and cheery activity to leave out for the weekend.
Materials
Easter Sensory Rice Bin Filler – Kidfolk & Co.
Wood Peg Board – Eye Spy Club
Feathers, pipe cleaners – Michaels
Felt chick – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code: HOUSEOFPLAY10)
We have the Kinetic Sand Ice Cream set and it is a big favourite here. So, when I saw Eye Spy Club’s new Ice Cream Play Kit, I thought it would be the perfect compliment to what we have. I added in a few other supplies we already had: toppings, bowls, a cake tray, and a few Easter eggs to make it festive.
I put everything in our Tuff Tray. I only do Kinetic Sand in the Tuff Tray now. The sand doesn’t stick to it, there are no crevices for sand to get stuck in and there’s lots of space for the kids to make their creations IN the tray.
My kids loved this soooo much!! My son cried last night because he thought I had put the activity away (I didn’t). We will certainly be bringing out this activity again.
I made some simple and inexpensive DIY trofast bin covers for my IKEA flisat table. I wanted to make a fun Easter sensory activity for my kids, without a big price tag. I ended up making a garden where they could harvest flowers and arrange them in an Eater basket, harvest carrots, and even plant new seeds in the carrot holes or in the pots.
Here’s how I made the cardboard covers:
I cut the covers from cardboard and for the first one, simple cut x’s in the cardboard so a carrot could either be “planted” or “harvested”.
I also wanted to make an Easter basket cover that the kids could post fake flowers in, but since my drawing skills are not the best – I used a felt Easter basket from the dollar store. I simply cut the basket in half, removed the bottom and handle and then reapplied the handle to the two corners at the top of the basket. Then I glued the felt basket piece to the cardboard and poked a few holes around the top of the basket (some larger to accommodate the larger stems) .
On the other side of the table I filled a bin with dry black beans for “soil”. Black beans have to be one of the most versatile sensory materials you can use. I cut some fake flowers with wire cutters, separated them into individual stems and “planted” them in the black beans.
Finally I put out some small garden hand tools, some pots and a small bowl of felt balls for “seeds” in case the kids wanted to do some planting.
The kids can harvest flowers and carrots, make Easter basket arrangements and even plant new seeds. Lots to do! It’s a fun, easy and budget-friendly sensory bin.
Everything except the felt balls (Sewing Seeds Play) and the carrots (AliExpress) are from the Dollar Store (Dollarama).
