Week 4 Round Up – 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge

What another fantastic week of sensory adventures as part of our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge. From cloud dough to sensory bottles, to exploring sounds and water beads, we have had lots of fun. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky enough to have real snow – although some Adventures of Adam readers did! Only one week left of our challenge but don’t despair. Our next challenge starts a week tomorrow – more information will follow soon.

Lets recap the sensory adventures Adam has had this week:

Seven bloggers have been involved in our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge Blog Hop this week. Check out their fantastic posts:

Mihaela from Best Toys 4 Toddlers is also joining us on the sensory play challenge. Check out her brilliant sensory posts:

All Good Things Come In Threes have also joined us on the challenge. Have a look at their activities here.

 

Photographs from Adventures of Adam readers: 

 

Day 19 – Cloud Dough

“What a great activity! Joshua got stuck straight into it, despite being really fussy with sand-like textures before. I think having some of his tools arrive helped lots! He loved scooping the mixture, and stirring it. He even started to use his hands after a bit!” Monica

 

“Not sure if this strictly counts if I’m honest. We used wholemeal flour so made edible sand instead of cloud dough…However the boys LOVED it. Miles had played in it at the weekend…but it was Ivan’s first time and gosh he had a whale of a time!! He sat up in it, grabbed it, played with the toys, lay down in it and swirled it around. They were in there about a hour and a half!” Anneka

 

“Hot cocoa cloud dough…white pom poms are the mini marshmallows.” Kelly

 

“I’m pretty sure I had more fun than lo did today.” Lucy

 

“Little one made cloud dough cakes today. She moulded it into balls (her favourite) and squidged it in her hands. It smelt lovely as I used baby oil to make it, and it was very silky to touch. It was a good activity to improve hand-eye coordination as she was transferring the dough from her spoon into the cake case in her hand and then tipping it into the baking tray.” Haley

 

“Chocolate cloud dough.” Kel

 

“Never played with this before (even after 20 years in child care). She decided that today was all about exploring with her feet and cleaning up so she tipped it out of the bowl. It was great fun.” Kerrie

 

“I cheated with this and used the moon dough/ kinetic sand I got on ebay. As we were out all day this activity happened when Daddy got home which William loved. Normally he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty bit loved this stuff.” Sarah

 

Day 20 – Snow

“I don’t know whether there is more snow inside our house or outside! I used the fake snow I made a couple of weeks ago and just let William go wild. It was brilliant to see him touch it with his bare hands. He wouldn’t even have considered it at the start of the challenge. We both needed a change of clothes and I’ve vacuumed most of the downstairs so I consider this a successful if messy activity!” Sarah

 

“This was cornflour and 2 cans of shaving foam with cotton wool balls. Needless to say I won’t do this again in a hurry indoors. There was “snow” everywhere.” Kel

 

“We also talked about how how some arctic animals slide on their bellies in the snow. So we took all pillows in house and piled them up high to slide down the hill on our bellies! too cold and windy to do it in the real snow!” Kelly

 

“Our sensory bin is filled with cotton balls, Styrofoam balls, a bucket of toothpicks, little felt and fleece scarves, pom poms, little hats and other soft goodies!” Cindy

 

“At bedtime last night Miles mentioned to Daddy that we could use cotton wool to make ‘pretend snow’. I decided to roll with this and look at the fun we had! We even built a snowman (well, wool man), and turned Miles into a snowman too (I ran out of masking tape unfortunately). Ivan found it very amusing and barely stopped giggling the entire time…He especially loved watching the wool fall from my hands. Miles’ favourite activity was definitely the ‘snowball fiiiiiiiight!'” Anneka

 

“We weren’t lucky enough to get real snow, although the temperature outside was definitely cold enough for it. We were happy to stay inside and play with ‘almost as good’ play snow. It was cold too! Eldest said it was crunchy so I knew I’d made it right. They painted the snow with watered down paint and once they had finished, they made a snowman. Such an fun activity, eldest is doing it again after lunch – more chances to make snowmen that don’t get demolished.” Haley

 

“After the cloud dough success the day before, I was really looking forward to see joshua playing with the fake snow! But apparently it wasn’t as good. Caught his attention for a couple of minutes but he then had had enough. Could be because we were poorly or because he was too interested in his new tools. I loved it though, so I’ll try this again in a couple of weeks.” Monica

 

“In our Sweden cottage this weekend, forest there is covered in snow. Playing with snow continued inside.” Tilde

 

“Finally snow play.” Bazandjin

 

 

Day 21 – Discovery/Sensory Bottles

“Sensory Bottles.” Lucy

 

“I made new bottles today to coincide with our ever changing weather by the sea. In the last week we have had icy, windy, sunny, rain and cloudy so this activity was very fitting. LO found them fascinating and loved it when they were swirling around. I couldn’t take photos that did them justice. There is definitely room for improvement though, I do intend to hot glue the lids and maybe change some of the fillings in time. Lots of conversation from playing with these and right now, it’s raining!” Haley

 

“We made a glitter jar for the sensory challenge today. Miles enjoyed pouring the water in and adding the glitter too. I put the tape round so the lid can’t come off. Miles seems to really like it. Ivan’s asleep so I can’t comment on his thoughts yet!” Anneka

 

“After buying the stuff months ago I’ve finally got around to doing a glow in the dark bottle. Clear hair gel, blue glitter paint, glow in the dark paint, glow in the dark beads & stars. All mixed together with a bit of hot water.” Julie

 

“I made four different bottles: coloured water with dishwashing liquid, twisted pipe cleaners, oil and coloured water with glitter, and tin foil. Put them in Joshua’s kitchen drawer and let him discover them. Lots of ‘oohs’ from his part!!! He loved shaking one bottle to make bubbles and the other one to see the glitter. Sensory bottles don’t hold his attention for long but they’re ones he keeps going back to.” Monica

 

“Pudding rice, food colouring, glitter and one 4 year old to shake it all!” Jennie

 

“I made a few simple bottles for William including a rice shaker which is my favourite. Turns out William only needs one bottle. An empty bubble bottle with stick. He spent ages using hand eye coordination to get the wand into the bottle! I had great fun playing with the others!” Sarah

 

“Some of our finished sensory bottles, I used rainbow duck tape to seal the lids on.” Aimee

 

“We managed to make some bottles yesterday. Alfie liked testing each one by giving it a good shake!” Lorena

 

Day 22 – Beans/Lentils

“I made a Lentil Station last night, I’m keeping it and will add more to it over time. There’s a Rainstick on the left and a Lentil Drop at the back. They bounce off the cake tray at the bottom. I only included recyclable materials to use as tools and scoops. When we get more in our lentil collection, I’ll get the underbed storage out and I want pipes.” Haley

 

“We used a mixture of green and red (‘they’re not red, they’re ORANGE! Silly Mommy!’ – Miles) lentils. I also added some sultanas and cashew nuts to the tub. Miles enjoyed snacking on these while he played. He really liked scooping the lentils into different pots and handing them out as snacks. Ivan loved the feel of the lentils and kept putting his hands in the box and bowls. While we were doing this activity the Health Visitor arrived to weigh Ivan, she was very impressed at how occupied Miles was and how much he was enjoying the activity. I also gave Miles a pizza tray, the red lentils fell through the holes whereas the green ones stayed on top. Miles thought this was fab!” Anneka

 

“I don’t have any lentils so we mixed up some pasta, beans and rice crispies. William had great fun sorting the different types of food back into the correct tub. It’s amazing that he is already trying to ‘match’ things up. In future I will definitely soak the beans before we play. William never tries to eat anything but of course he decided the dry beans looked edible. I quickly whisked them away and offered the rice crispies as an alternative snack!” Sarah

 

“I set up a dinosaur play tray for when he came home from school (that had been augmented by an extra ‘dinosaur’ by the time we got home!).” Jennie

 

 

Day 23 – Sounds

“Exploring sounds for the sensory challenge. I placed some objects in pots first of all; macaroni, rice, lentils, cotton wool and bells. Miles then chose his favourite sounds and poured them from the pots into cups. I then placed another cup on top and taped them together to make rattles. He chose rice, lentils and bells. We then shook these for a while then we went out for a walk. During our walk we discussed the sounds we could hear: sirens, the thump of our feet, the crunch of the frosty grass and leaves, etc… During our French lesson with Lingotot we also played with instruments.” Anneka

 

“We painted rice crispies with spray paint made up in water spray bottles. Little one needed help to hold and spray at the time as they were quite heavy. On spraying the first colour, we stopped and listened for the ‘crackling’. She put her hands in and ‘crunched’ a few handfuls. Once she had sprayed as many colours as she could, she got in and stomped them down – I called this ‘crushing’. As you can see at the end, she fell over – I thought ‘whooshing’ was a good description for the sound it made.” Haley

 

“We got out William’s instruments but he was more interested in watching the beads move in the rattle than making sound. He did like playing the drums with an old lid off some chocolates! Instead I opted for the Frozen soundtrack and dancing like a loon.” Sarah

 

“Making sound shakers using the leftover popcorn and lentils from yesterday.” Lucy

 

“Couldn’t get much simpler but oh the fun we have had!!” Zoe

 

“We opened the cupboards together and he chose items that could make noises for a band. We played along to lively Disney songs (I wanna be like you was fab). Even Daddy joined in.” Jennie

 

“For the sensory bottle and sound play we did some musical bottles. We used pasta, spaghetti, baking beads, rice and coctail sticks. I liked the way they were all simular colours so that it was about the noise they made rather than the colours. We sang lots of songs using the bottles as percussion and spoke about the difference in the loudness of the sound.” Kerrie

 

Day 23 – Sensory Bags

“Finally got round to doing my sensory pouches we have hair mousse and straws, blue water and sequins, pink cornflour and water, 2 different paints, pink paint and flour and shower gel glitter and sequins.” Beth

 

“Colour, number, shapes and letter for us today and my first time making sensory bags. I went with two wet (conditioner/letters and hair gel/feathers) and two dry (rice/shapes and flour/numbers) I need to put duct tape around them as little one loves zips! Eldest picked out lots of letters and little one improved her knowledge of shapes.” Haley

 

“The snowman one is a science experiment. We put snow in it and made a face with buttons and going to watch it melt. we made some in baggies and on the floor is laminating sheets.” Kelly

 

“We made two sensory bags for the challenge today. One was filled with shaving foam and letters, the other with glow in the dark paint and googly eyes. Miles quite enjoyed squishing both of these and lived the glowing one!” Anneka

 

“I only made two simple bags as I know from previous experience that William isn’t too keen. True to form he decided the best approach was to throw them, run after them, pick them up, throw them…. I think you get the picture.” Sarah

 

“We made an underwater scene – Josh thought it was great! He kept going back to it… Even tried exploring if with his head!” Monica

 

“Joseph chose the paints – blue, green and red glitter. I squirted a bit of each into the bag & with Daddy’s help stuck it to the window. First he drew lines, then spots, then hit it. We used magnetic numbers to make marks and when he was finally getting bored he added stickers.” Julie

 

“I was very surprised that Alfie played with the sensory bags longer than 5 minutes! I thought he was just going to throw them around…which he did! But with some modelling I got his attention and he enjoyed feeling the objects inside the bags. I was very impressed and proud when after showing Alfie the letters in his name he repeated what I had done by pointing and making a sound at each letter. He amazes us every day!” Lorena

 

“Alfie liked the under the sea sensory bag the most l. He was very excited to show his daddy the fish. He kept pointing at the fish and saying “fshhhh” when the fish would slide down out of view he would shrug is shoulders and say “all” which means “all gone”.” Lorena

 

“Sensory bags one with shower gel and some foam insects in. We moved them around to match them (well I did) she was just confused why her hands were not getting sticky.” Kerrie

 

Day 25 – Water beads

“He absolutely loved these, as do I. Homemade light box, plus we explored the fact the clear ones disappear in water and did lots of scooping and pouring throughout the day. We’re coming back to them for the bath too. Definitely a hit!” Jennie

 

“I didn’t have any water beads so cooked up some giant cous cous. William loved it and spent ages transferring it to various containers with his tools. I did NOT enjoy the cleanup. It was seriously sticky and got everywhere. Seriously this was worse than all the paint yesterday.” Sarah

 

“One of our favourite ways to play with water beads is using little one’s beloved marble run. She loved rolling the beads down the tubes and as they bounce well, she thinks it’s hilarious. We plan on using glowsticks with them before bed tonight as they have been soaked in lavender water which helps to relax little one ready for sleep.” Haley

 

“Today we played with water beads but because she puts everything in her mouth I also put them into a sensory bag. She spent ages trying to squash them.” Kerrie

 

“We ‘borrowed’ someone elses idea & used our marble drop. Wow they are bouncy! We practised some fine motor skills with a spoon & pushing them through a funnel. Then there was a bit of blending. There are quite a few that have been squished by being stood on or sat on.” Julie

 

Looking forwards to Week 5:

Here are 3 activity ideas for each day to get your creative juices flowing. The activities are either taken from our Adventures of Adam blog or provided by our blogging friends. Click on each picture to find out more information about each individual sensory play activity. These ideas are given as a guide. You can follow these ideas exactly, adapt them in some way or think of your own – it is completely up to you.

Day 26 – Pipe Cleaners

Day 27 – Edible Play

Day 28 – Masking Tape

Day 29 – Balloon Play

Day 30 – Cereal Sensory Bin

Day 31 – Straws 

To find out more about our 31 Day Sensory Play Challenge click here.