Sensory bags

As I'm currently overdue with baby number 2 I've been looking for slightly more sedate activities to do with Doofy. So this week we've made a few sensory bags - easy to make and very non-messy (as long as they don't burst…!!).

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1. Gel bag

Gel bag ingredients and final result

 

 What we used:

2 tubes of hair gel (meant to get clear gel but bought blue by mistake - it didn't matter though)

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

Selection of different shaped buttons, sequins and glitter 

Details from inside bag

This is the first one Doof played with and he was quite fascinated by it. He patted it, squished it and scrumpled it up into a ball. I then showed him some of the different objects inside and he loved trying to find new things - we were both very excited when he managed to find the star button that was hidden in a particularly deep pocket of gel!

Doof enjoying his first play with the bag

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2. Foam bag

Foam bag ingredients and final result

What we used:

Shaving foam

Red and blue food colouring

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

Small silver baubles (used in cooking) 

Initial squidging of the foam - before it turned to grey mush!

This was the least successful bag. I filled it with foam and then made 2 small pockets of food colouring – the thought was that Doof could then squidge them all together and create coloured foam inside the bag. However I think my mistake was adding the silver baubles as when Doof played with it (it was the next day so maybe that was another problem?) the foam instantly turned to a greyish mush and the quite quickly lost its original “bounciness” that had made it feel so nice when first made. So if I make this one again I will definitely leave out the baubles and might also try it with a single colour first. Or maybe make coloured shaving foam outside the bag and then add it to the bag after…

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3. Paint bag

Paint bag ingredients and final product

What we used:

Different coloured paints

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

I only had 3 colours to hand when I made this bag (all our cool neon ones were in Doof’s room and he was asleep so I wasn’t chancing waking him!) so it’s not the most exciting colourwise but Doof still enjoyed squishing the colours together and they made quite a nice orangey/green after mixing. I also added a few of the silver baubles to add a bit more texture to the bag.

Doof especially enjoyed stamping on the paint bag!

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How each bag looked after it had been played with - you can see the middle foam one was definitely the least successful!

So there you go - three non-messy bags which toddlers can enjoy playing with time and time again (although the mixing will obviously happen mostly during the first play). Doof’s favourite is definitely the hair gel one – I think because it is the most “full” and so feels very soft and squidgy, like a gel cushion. It also feels really cool which is great in this weather!

Have you made any sensory bags with your kids? Or I’d love to hear any other ideas we could try?