The Ultimate Guide of Sensory Play Activities from The PLAY Group


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I am excited to be sharing a fantastic new resource with you today – The P.L.A.Y Group. The P.L.A.Y Group is a group of Mums and Teachers who have joined together to provide you with a one stop resource of learning through play activities. We will be sharing wonderful ideas for play on our collaborative Pinterest board and we would love for you to join us at our Google+ Community.

So who are The P.L.A.Y Group? We are a group of Mums and Teachers from around the globe who are passionate about play. These are the fabulous blogs who make up the P.L.A.Y Group.

Growing a Jeweled Rose
Bath Activities for Kids
B-Inspired Mama
Housing a Forest
In Lieu of Preschool
Learn with Play At Home
Mess for Less
Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Nature and Play
One Perfect Day
Parent Teach Play
Rainy Day Mum
Toddler Approved
Train Up a Child

To celebrate the launch of The P.L.A.Y Group, we have put together a fabulous blog hop covering every type of play from messy play, to science, literacy and numeracy activities. I have compiled over 100 sensory play activities. I hope you have fun trying out these brilliant sensory play ideas.  At the end of this post you’ll find the links to all the other posts in this ultimate play resource blog hop. Have fun!

100+ SENSORY PLAY IDEAS

PLAY DOUGH

Easy Home Made Play Dough – Tips and Tricks
Exploring Play Dough with Kitchen Tools
Play Dough Birthday Cakes – FUN pretend sensory play
Plastic Bottle Play Dough Impressions
3 Fabulous Berry Play Doughs
Chocolate Play Dough for Imaginative Play
Valentines Hearts Chocolate Play Dough
Play Dough Fun with Christmas Cookie Cutters
Christmas Play Dough
Christmas Fun with Play Dough
Halloween Play Dough creations
Play Dough Pumpkins
No Cook Pumpkin Spice Jello Play Dough
Fine Motor Skills Practise with Play Dough
No Cook Cool Aid Play Dough
Play Dough Games – Birthday Party Play Dough
Open Ended Play Dough Fun
Birthday Cake Crafts and Activities
Chocolate Play Dough Activities
Play dough Candy Pops for Valentine’s Day
Nature Play Dough and Sensory bin
Child Led Valentine’s Play Dough
Play Dough 101

SENSORY TUBS

Getting Messy – Rainbow Spagetti Sensory Tub
Baby Play – Sensory Spagetti
Space Themed Sensory Tub
30 Creative Sensory Bins
Simple Sensory Play – Water and Pebbles
St Patrick’s Day Sensory Tub
Valentine’s Day Sensory Tub
Indoor Snow Man Snowy Sensory Box
Baby Play Spagetti Sensory Tub
Frog Pond Water Sensory Tub
Christmas sensory tub
Lorax Themed Sensory bin
DIY Sensory Rain Bottles
Homemade Sensory Bin 101
DIY Cooking Sensory Bin
Yellow Sensory Bin
Sensory Bins 101

SENSORY ART ACTIVITIES

Sensory Play and Art – Raised Salt Painting
Home-made Puffy Paint – fun math, science and sensory play in one!
Five Fun Ideas with Home-made Corn Flour Paint
Sensory Painting With Kool Aid
Painting with Seasons and Spices
Halloween Sand Prints
Marbled Heart Garland Valentine Craft
Baby Play finger Painting
Make Your Own Finger Paint
Painting with Shaving Cream
Rainbow Messes – Pudding Painting
3D Puffy Paint Project Ideas
Snow Art Sensory Fun
Mosaic Rainbow Art
Sand Paint
Homemade Glow In The Dark Paint

SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION

Building Volcanoes at the Beach – fun sensory play and science at the beach
The Smell Eraser
Ivory Soap Explosion Exploration
Mud Science
Baking Soda Vinegar Play
Glowing Rainbow Eruptions
A Fizzing Good Tea Party
Coconut Volcano Experiment
Quick and Easy Water Exploration

SENSORY PRETEND AND IMAGINATIVE PLAY

Imaginary Soup – outdoor sensory pretend play
Pretend Play Cooking
Make a Dinosaur Island Small World Play Scene – sand and water sensory play
Rice Play – Pretend Cooking
Ocean Small World Play
Potions and Mixes
Ice Cream Parlor Pretend Play
Glowing Space Ice Play
Pretend Play Sensory Tea Party
Magic Treasure Rocks
Pretend Cooking with Food Scraps

SHAVING FOAM, CLOUD DOUGH AND OTHER SENSORY PLAY MATERIALS

Shivery Snow – Making “snow” from Cloud Dough
Calming Lavender Cloud Dough
Fun with Cloud Dough
Snow Cloud Dough
Making Cloud Dough
Sensory Coloured Salt
Indoor Snow Day Activities
Bringing The Snow Inside
Autumn Sensory Activity
Sensory Play Round Up
Messy Shaving Foam Fun
Fun with Shaving Foam
Dancing Oobleck
Fun with Gloop
Flubber Gak Fun
Squisy Heart Sensory Valentine’s Activity
Instant Pudding and Ice
Color Mixing With Ice
Pipe Cleaner Pick Up Sticks
I Spy With Packing Peanuts
Cool Aid Sensory Bath
Bath Salts
Snow Day
Beach Bath
Make Bath Time Glow 11 Ways
Slime Basket Messy Bath Play
Fun With Sensory Bags
30 Mud Activities
Make Your Own 2 Ingredient Cloud Dough
Building with Ice Cubes
Two Ingredient Home Made Silly Putty
Glowing Ice

Here is the list of ALL the fabulous posts in this ultimate play resource blog hop. Simply click on the photo to be taken to the post.

              200+ Art Activities from The PLAY Group at B-InspiredMama.com   

 

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Fine Motor Skills Practise with Play Dough

R(3) wanted to play with our Play Dough today. We haven’t brought it out in a long time. I spend so much time looking for new and exciting activities for R to try that sometimes I forget about the more “ordinary” things like Play Dough which is a shame because we always have so much fun with it and it has so many benefits:

  • It’s a fantastic sensory play experience
  • Strengthens fingers, hands and wrists
  • Develops hand / eye co-ordination
  • It’s great for developing fine motor skills if you add elements like cutters, popsicle sticks or tooth picks
  • It is a truly open ended play experience, sparking imagination and creativity
  • It can help to develop language skills as you discuss colours, shapes, textures, the items being created etc

One day I will make my own home made play dough but today we used the store-bought variety. R received a set of 10 colours for his last birthday. After it has been used, I store it in zip lock bags and it seems to keep for ages when it has been stored like this, much longer than if it is stored in the plastic tubs that you buy it in. Consequently, we just never seem to run out of it and I haven’t had any need to make our own yet.

This is what I put out for R this morning. As you can see, we don’t really care about keeping the play dough colours separated in this house! I love that big glob of orange/red/yellow/pink. It reminds me of an Indian Sari. I laid out a tray with som googly eyes, coloured toothpicks, and some coloured pasta that I made for a previous project.

R quickly got to work, adding bits and pieces, declaring he was making a porcupine.

He was very particular about exactly where each toothpick should be placed.

R then declared that the toothpicks were candles on a birthday cake and that he had made me a special green porcupine birthday cake. I quickly grabbed a plastic knife so that he could cut our birthday cake and we could eat some! What a great opportunity for some fine motor skills development and cutting practise! R has been really keen to start cutting his own food at mealtimes but handling a fork and knife is tricky for little hands. This was great practise. He concentrated so intensley on what he was doing and was so proud of himself when he cut that first piece.

“Here’s your piece Mummy!”

After we enjoyed or pieces of cake, R rolled the play dough into logs so he could do some more cutting. (Look at those hand muscles getting a work out! So essential for the all-important pincer grip.)

Then the cutting began. Look at that concentration!

R was fascinated by the pattern on the cut pieces, created by the serrated edge of the knife.

This activity held R’s attention for longer than anything has in quite a while and he played happily for almost an hour. He learnt a new skill (cutting with a knife), developed his fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination, he added some new words to his vocabulary (serrated and serration), and used his imagination. Perhaps most importantly, his self esteem soared when he used the knife so proficiently and his smile was beaming.

What simple, back-to-basics activities do your kids love? Let’s chat in the comments.

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on our Facebook page or follow me on Pinterest. We are always sharing new ideas to play, learn, create and explore.

 

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