5 senses
We live so far south that we very rarely get to experience actual snow. When we do get snow, it’s often not enough to make a snow man. Even so, there are lots of holiday songs and stories about snowmen, so I thought I’d show my son how snowmen are made with a little play doh.
I used black and white play doh for this activity.
I went ahead and rolled all of the pieces in advance. My son has a lot of sensory issues, so he’s not a big fan of play doh. I still run him through the motion of rolling the big pieces, but if he had to do it all himself, we’d have a meltdown before we finished. 
So, we took each white ball, rolled it once or twice in his palm, and then stacked them. He was extremely resistant to the play doh with his left hand, so we switched it up and used his right–much better!
We then took the smaller black balls and helped him use his pointer finger to press them into the snowman creating eyes, a nose, and some buttons. We’ve worked on using pointer finger before, so this is a good way to reinforce that skill. Overall, using one finger was much better than using his whole hand. 
When you’re finished, you have a snowman guaranteed not to melt.
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Katy is a mom of one who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
We love sensory tubs! Digging, scooping and my son’s favorite… pretending! Yes these fun tubs filled with dry goods aren’t just for sensory development they are awesome for the imagination too. I really love this one not just because it was a big hit with my son, but because it combines so many different textures as well as sounds as you play.
- Gather your materials. For this festive themed tub we are using split peas, white beans, green matte garland , red and silver shiny garland, scoops, tongs and a plastic container. My son also grabbed a Christmas tin to fill up.
- Start by cutting the garland into the tub. Have your kids help if they want.
- Pour in the split peas.
- And the beans .
- As soon as he did the hands dove in to explore. The shiny garland was smooth, the beans were hard, the green garland was crunchy and the split peas were sharp. A wide range of textures for such a simple tub.
- Add the tools and enjoy.
- My son used the tongs to sort the garland into the tin.
- And the scoop for the beans.
- Eventually he got all the bunches of garland out.
Books
Merry Christmas, Mouse! (If You Give…)
A Small Christmas
This is an extremely simple activity that helps children address two important areas of development: fine motor and sensory.
You will need a plain sheet of paper, a piece of card stock, a hole puncher, and a green crayon or marker.
Punch as many holes as you can in the card stock.
Place the card stock on top of your white sheet of paper.
Take red finger paint and guide your child to work it into each hole.
Help your child isolate their pointed finger as they do this. The slippery/slimy texture of the paint is one that often poses a problem for kids with sensory issues, so don’t be surprised if they resist. Try to finish the activity, though. While we were doing the activity, Charlie, who often strongly resists finger painting, took such an interest in those little holes that he seemed to forget that he was touching his nemesis: finger paint. 
Lift the card stock and wait for all your circles to dry.
Once the paint is dry, allow your child to draw green stems with the crayon/marker. Let them do it alone if they can, guide them if they are unable.
I you do have to help your child draw the stems, be sure to guide them in the most natural way possible. Show them a downward stroke even though it might feel strange depending on where you are standing while you help them.
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Katy is a mom of one who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
To tell you the truth I didn’t plan this activity, I saw the fishing net , wanted to do something with it and didn’t have much for my son to catch so instead I made some ice. To make it more fun we colored the ice, then to make it more educational we made them red and yellow to create orange ! It was a big hit and not as big a mess as I feared .
- Gather your materials. You will need a bin or tub, a ice cube tray , food coloring , a fish net ( or soup ladle) and water. You will also need plain ice for the second part.
- Start by putting a few drops of food coloring in your ice tray – half one color, half the other.
- Add water and freeze.
- Fill your tub with water – ours was too warm, the ice melted so quickly the color mixing was fast. When I do it again I will use cold water so it’s a slower mix.
- When ice firm
, show it to your child and tell them you are going to put it in the water. Ask them to make a prediction about what will happen to the ice when it is in the water, what will happen to the water ? Pop it in!
- Mix and catch with net.
- Pop in more plain ice to “fish” – my son had fun with the color mixing but the extension of the activity was the real fun.
This sensory tub was such a huge hit that I had to sneak it away after he went to bed. He loved using the tongs to pick up all the skeletons and then dump them down. As an adult watching it was rather morbid but he was having a blast. If you use larger containers or smaller skeletons you can label the containers with the colors of the skeletons and add a sorting game to it too. I prefer to let him use his imagination with the sensory tubs , although some students I have had needed more direction so if your child is just kinda like ” Um now what? ” play with them and make up games to get them started.
- Gather your materials. You will need a plastic tub or extra large pan, some black beans, some great northern beans, pumpkin containers, tongs and skeleton toys ( ours are the stretchy ones ).
- Pour your black beans in , my tub used 2 small packages.
- Pour in the great northern beans, I only put in about half the package.
- Pop in the skeletons and pumpkins.
- Invite your child to the table ( or if you are smart out to the porch or backyard) and play.
- My son adored making big morbid piles of skeletons, not sure if I should be concerned or not…
Last Year’s Halloween Sensory Tub 
Last year we used orange lentils,pasta, and black beans. Check it out.
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