We’ve done mermaid play, so we also needed to do some pirate play. The kids loved this activity – something about the combination of collecting treasure and putting people in jail is so much fun for kids.
I used our Tuff Tray and put in our Drewart Pirate Island and some beach sand and pasta shells sensory mix to make up our pirate island. Of course, weI also had to include many treasures!
It’s interesting to me that these pirate toys have been out for a while at our house ( they were in July’s toy rotation and they do get played with), but as soon as I put them in a tray with some sensory mixes – the kids’ imaginations exploded and they came up with all kinds of new stories. I really do believe that sensory can help bring new life to toys .
We had this play activity out in our playroom for about a week and my 3 year old son, especially, loved creating his own imaginative stories about finding treasure and imprisoning and rescuing pirates.
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.
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.
I love Peter Rabbit and Beatrix Potter’s world of adorable critters. I used to read the stories over and over again when I was a child. So, when I saw Tiny Fox Hole’s set of Peter Rabbit characters I had to get them. I wanted to give them a a world to live in where my kids could recreate parts of the books and their own imaginative stories. This play tray is what I came up with.
Supplies I used
Tuff Tray (mine is from Scholar’s Choice)
Cardboard tray insert (I made this using the box the tray came in)
Wooden characters (Tiny Fox Hole)
Grass Section
Artificial grass squares (Dollarama)
DIY Tree Burrow (see here for more info on how I made it)
Wood furniture – The Friendly Woodworker from Wonder + Kind
Miniature vegetables (Maileg)
Felt pond (Sewing Seeds Play*)
Glass beads
Grapat Mandala Coins
River rocks and artificial greenery
Grimm’s wood stacking bowls
Grapat Mandala Eggs
Resin eggs (The Creative Mix Shop)
Grapat Mandala Flowers
Woods Section
Sensory Mix (homemade)
Raduga Grez and Ostheimer wood trees
Wood mushrooms (Dollarama)
Stone and gem mushrooms (AliExpress)
Grapat Mandala Beehives
Grapat Mandala Mushrooms
Grapat Mandala Trees
Felt bee (Sewing Seeds Play*)
Mr. McGregor’s Garden
Dry black beans (Bulk Barn)
Goki My Little Garden Doll Accessories (Sewing Seeds Play*)
Felt worms, ladybug, bees, butterfly and dragonfly (Sewing Seeds Play*)
Finally, I set up our Yoto Mini with the Peter Rabbit card so the kids and I could listen to the stories we played. This tray is one of our favourites. What do you think?
If you saw my last post, then you know my 3 year old son loves his farm toys. He begged me to set up a farm activity for him. So, I used some sensory materials from my cupboard and from previous activities to make him a tray.
I used dry popcorn, green split peas for grass, and chocolate cereal for mud. I had a leftover mix from a previous activity of dry spaghetti, lentils and ground up cereal that covered the horse paddock.
Other materials
Felt pond (Sewing Seeds Play)
Wood fences (Ostheimer)
Animals (Schleich)
Chicken coop (Schleich)
Barn (Fisher-price)
My son was thrilled. I love a tray like this with dry goods because I will leave them out for a few days. Although the odd stray piece will make it out of the tray, it’s fairly easy to pick up. It’s an easy way to add a little special magic to his farm play.
Flowers are so expensive, it’s a shame to throw them out once they start declining. I had some flowers that were starting to wilt, so I froze them in a container of water and turned them into a flower ice block for sensory play.
I placed the frozen flower ice block on our Tuff Tray with a few play scarves underneath for colour and grip. Then I added my DIY Fizzy Powder, water, some bowls, scoops, pipettes, dried rose buds, soap shavings and a selection of loose parts.
I have done ice block, fizzy play before, but tried a few slight adjustments this time – and it worked better. The ice was thinner, so it was easier to separate the flowers from it and I put the ice out early on the tray so it had started to melt by the time the kids came in to play with it.
Natural add-ins (I had some dried rose buds (Sewing Seeds Play) and soap shavings that I put out)
Loose parts (the resin pieces are from Stars and Sensory and Playspiration on Instagram, the acrylic loose pieces are from Eye Spy Club)
Bowls (most from my kitchen, the eco friendly pie crust dishes are from Stars and Sensory)
Tools (pipettes, tongs, any other scoops or stirring sticks)
My Thoughts
Fun – High
The kids loved this tray. They found the frozen flowers very interesting and inviting and were very content making fizzy potions and flower soup for hours.
Engagement Time – 1 hour +
The tray stayed out for about half the day and the kids played with it on and off. I didn’t time every play session, but a conservative estimate of play time is 1 hour +.
Cost – Low
The ice flower block and DIY Fizzy Powder are inexpensive to make and you can add whatever loose parts or dried flowers you have on hand.
Effort – Medium
This activity has a fairly quick and easy set up. It doesn’t create much mess while the activity is happening – I love that about water and fizzy play. If a little water drips on the floor, it’s not a big deal. Most of the effort comes during the clean up. When the play was over, I separated all the loose parts, bowls and scoops and washed and dried them, Then I removed all the silks, rinsed them and set them aside to wash in the washing machine. Lastly, I threw the flowers in the compost and mopped up the water in the tray. All the mess stayed in the tray, so for me, the clean-up effort didn’t seem too bad.
Final Thoughts
I have discovered that ice play is great for leaving out for many hours. The ice melts and changes over time, revealing new discoveries for the kids. We left this tray out for about half the day. The kids loved tinkering with it and then being able to leave and return at will.
Fizzy Play with pipettes and tongs is always a great chance to practice fine motor skills. The pinching and squeezing is a great workout for tiny hands. By not including many ladles or tools that scoop water, it forced the kids to use the pipettes more and their skills improved throughout play.
The flowers froze beautifully and I loved being able to repurpose them into something new. I’m always a little sad when cut flowers die and this was a great way to give them a grand, final send-off. I will definitely use wilted flowers again in sensory play.
The kids had a blast playing with this winter activity last night. The set-up was pretty simple. I set the empty Tuff Tray outside on a slight angle and poured some water in. I left the tray outside overnight to freeze. The next day, I brought the tray in, mixed up some fake snow, and brought in some real snow. For the fake snow, I used Snowball Play from Zimpli Kids (Sewing Seeds Play). I filled the tray with approximately 1/3 of each material. Then I added Schleich and Terra by Battat animals, loose parts (winter resin loose parts from Little Play Lab Co., Bauspiel lucent cubes, clear snowflakes from Dollarama), scoops and bowls.
I usually stick to plastic, resin and metal add-ins for wet activities, so they are easy to wash after. Once the kids started playing, they decided to add a bowl of water to the tray for some extra washing and melting fun.
We have done snow and ice trays in past years, but I think this one was the most engaging. My guess is the variety of textures sparked the kids’ creativity and imagination. The ice was a fun slide for the penguins, other animals and frozen figures. The fake snow had a squishy, slightly sticky texture that was fun to mush and mix and the real snow was enjoyable to scoop and pack into bowls. I have a feeling they will be asking for a repeat of this one.
