So the weather is getting warmer and we've been able to be outside a lot more recently. Here are two activities we've done which I'd definitely recommend doing outside - unless you're extremely brave (or foolish! Lol)
1. Box painting
So simple and yet so
fun. All you really need is a large box so wait until your next delivery from
amazon/kiddicare/whoever suckers you into doing online shopping and then away
you go...
What we used
- large cardboard
box (the larger the better!)
- paints
- cut up sponge
- chunky crayons
The first time we
tried this I think D was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of freedom (aka mess!)
he was being allowed... On a sunny day I dragged the biggest box we had into
the garden, squirted some paints on a tupperware lid, cut up a sponge into
several pieces and put Doof and the paint tray inside the box. So simple!
To start with D did
some dainty dabbing, then he progressed to being a bit smeary with his fingers
and finally he got all out swipey with the sponges :)
He painted inside
the box, then climbed out and painted the flaps, and lastly he flipped the box
over and painted the bottom. At one point he decided paints were not enough and
tipped all his crayons into the box too so he could also do some
scribbling.
This was really fun
to do as Doof was completely in charge of what he did - he did a bit of
painting, ran around the garden for 5 minutes, came back and got a bit more
messy etc. And it was the easiest clean up ever - the box just got thrown away!
******
2. Shaving foam
sensory bin
This was a super
simple version of all the bubbley/foamy sensory bins you see on Pinterest. It
is literally fun in a can :)
What we used
- shaving foam (I
used a "sensitive" one just to reduce any chance of a skin reaction
as D is prone to eczema)
- food colouring
- assorted plastic
animals/scoopers
- a tea towel
I sprayed about half
a can of shaving foam into one of Doof’s sensory bins. Next to it I laid out
some plastic scoops and a small plastic bowl with an assortment of animals. Then
I released Doof.
The first thing he
did was tip all his animals into the foam and then smoosh them all around til
they were all covered in white. Even though D hasn’t really seen snow before I
referred to it as snow (it just came naturally, I didn’t mean to!) and then he
really enjoyed burying the animals, finding them and then burying them again. He
made swirly patterns in the foam with his hands, clapped his foamy hands
together and then even took a mouthful… Out of all the sensory things we have
tried this is the first one which has not been edible – he has never tried to
eat any of the others and I can’t believe he tried to eat this one!! Anyway after
one mouthful he quickly learnt not to do that again! That is when I was very
glad I had a tea towel to hand as after a quick wipe of his face/mouth he was
good to carry on playing.
After a while I put
a few drops of blue and pink food colouring at opposite ends of the foam and
let Doof swirl it around so the colours mixed in. He got a bit cross at this
point because I wouldn’t give him the whole bottle of food colouring so next
time I will definitely pre-fill a plastic pipette with colouring so he can
squirt that in and not get distracted by the bottle!
This was such a
great simple play activity. It’s great for encouraging children to embrace
messy play if they are not that keen as it is super quick and easy to
set-up/clear-up and lets them get very messy very quickly! It is definitely one
bin we will repeat a lot :)
******
We've also tried a
few other exciting sensory activities in the last few weeks - our rainbow rice
I blogged about last week and here's a sneak preview of our first try at
Oobleck...
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