Sensory Tubs
Not everyone gets snow. Not everyone that gets it likes to take their kids out in it. I came across a neat recipe for “snow” on Pinterest. {By the way, if you are not on Pinterest you should be! Allie’s stuff is all over the place around there, too. 
} You can find the original post about it here on Flights of Whimsy. She calls it cloud dough, I call it snow.
I made half of the recommended amount she posted. So for my version you will need:
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of baby oil
Yes, baby oil. Your room is going to fill with the sweetest little smell and take you back to milk breath (without the sleepless nights, of course).
You and your child can count out the scoops it takes to equal 4 cups. Go ahead and let them dump it in.
Now measure out 1/2 cup of baby oil. Your child can easily pour this right on the mountain of flour.
First my daughter stirred with a spatula. Then she mixed it with her hands because it will clump a little. It is very easy to break up and continue mixing, though.
The texture is so nice. If your children have played with Moon Dough, it is very similar. It is light and fluffy. The scent is very relaxing. This is a fantastic sensory project. We mixed ours in a bowl, but moved it to a bin to play.
It molds easily. We used small bundt cake pans to make mounds and igloos. But the favorite was snowballs, which we threw into the mixing bowl to watch them shatter.
The dust from this does initially stick to your hands, but it brushes off remarkably easy.
Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
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Sensory experiences for kids don’t have to be a show stopping three ring circus. I like making elaborate sensory tubs especially for my son since he is getting older and needs ones with specific tasks ( like finding letters, words or sorting objects in them) but a true basic sensory bin is an amazing educational tool. My toddler is just getting to the perfect age for this at 16 months. Exploring the small hard filler, using a spoon and scoop to transfer the grains from one spot to the next and practicing things like sharing with me as we play. Please don’t feel like you need to have all the bells and whistles because for toddlers it’s best to keep it simple and let them discover.
- Gather your materials. For this tub I bought some popcorn, barley and dried beans. Total cost for the grains was $2.34. The pumpkins were bought at a patch for $1 for 2 and the spoons and scoop are from my kitchen. The tub was under $2 and I reuse it by putting the filler from previous tubs into ziplocks and storing to re-use.
We had a canning funnel to play with but all she wasnted to do was this which was cute but we moved it to the side so we could get down to digging. 
- A tip when doing a sensory bin with small grains and a small child. Do it on carpet, if a spill does happen it won’t scatter. You can easily vacuum it up.
- Also I am asked all the time how I deal with my daughter putting the beans and grains in her mouth. She doesn’t generally but that is why I use such small grains , they will taste gross if she tried to chew them but they are so small they pose a very small risk of being a chocking hazard. Still stay within arms reach at all times. I used our coffee table ( which is technically a bench) and sat on the opposite side the while time the tub was within her reach. If your child is not ready for these try this one we made last year
- Practice scooping , pouring, talk about the colors of the spoons. Today I think we may have learnt which spoon is yellow and which is orange … I think. I do know we practiced sharing the spoons back and forth accross the table.
- I found this interesting, she is cleaning up some of the grains that spilled out. Not something her brother was interested in at her age.
We played with this simple sensory tub for much of the time we had between lunch and picking her brother up from school. Simple, fun and educational.
I noticed on Pinterest a comment on a pin of my Sensory Tub from Halloween 2010. The commentor noted that I use the same container ( usually yes) and just store the contents in ziplocks ( yes again I have close to 20 bags). That comment sparked this post. My son had been asking for a Halloween sensory tub since we bought the bouncy ball eyeballs a few weeks ago. My goal was to make one that both he and his baby sister ( 15 months) could use. This is what we did.
- Gather your materials. I grabbed my Halloween Sensory Tub contents from 2009 and 2010 – which included black beans, white beans, orange lentils for the fill. Then sticky skelletons, plastic spiders and other bugs, bouncy ball eyeballs , a few pumpkin containers , a scoop and some tongs. Do not feel like you need to have all of this! My main goal is to show that you can mix two old ones to make a new one.
- For the toddler version I started by putting in the dried beans and lentils. Then chose only the large plastic bugs and pumpkin containers.
- You may notice she is on a small rug. If you are doing this on the floor a carpeted floor works the best, the beans don’t skatter as far.
- Encourage them to keep the beans in , but please don’t scold. If spilling makes you angry just skip this activity all together. Gently show toddlers how to keep it in but until children have lots of experience with sensory tubs use only positive guidance. Anger will confuse them and halt any play and learning that was happening.
- Feel free to have them put beans back in though !
- Into the pumpkin!
- Now for older kids add the as my son calls it ” good stuff!” We did this when my daughter was daddy so it wouldn’t be unfair for her to see her brother playing but be told she can’t.
- I challenged him to pick up the balls with the tongs – it was tricky!
- He decided to pick out all the skelletons.
- Then he decided to create a skelleton world on the playroom floor, and the eye balls were bombs? Something like that. He asked if he could play it for his quiet time. Ummm yeah! I love how fun mama directed activities almost always lead to something for him to explore and lead himself.
When I stored this sensory tub I used 2 ziplocks, and picked out all the big kids stuff into one, the toddler safe in the other and store them next to eachother for fast fun for either kid.
** Please remember that it’s your job to know what is safe for your child and what your child is ready for . All activities require adult supervision. **
I bought these fruity cheerios for a fun craft at my daughter’s birthday party and decided to use them for a few more crafts and put it all together for you. These smell awesome! Which make them even more fun to use for crafts since they add a deeper sensory experience for kids. Each of these activities are distinct but so simple you could do them all in one day or spread over years!
Fruity O Sensory Tub
This was a fun colorful tub for my daughter to play with. Using the cheerios let her explore with scooping and pouring with something that although I don’t usually have it in her diet if she did ingest it I wouldn’t be concerned. I didn’t encourage her to eat this though as I treated it like any other sensory tub where we are not suppose to eat. I should note that she’s never been fed these so they were not immediately thought of as food. As with any activity with young kids this is only to be done under immediate supervision , only you know if your child is ready for an activity, look at your child’s abilities not the age recommendation.
- Gather your materials . You will need a container ( I love light ones for babies so if they pull it off the table by accident you have a mess but no injuries). You will need a few cups of fruity cereal and fun tools to scoop with . You may also want some painters tape.
- Add a few loops of tape to your table and tape down your tray.
- Add cereal.
- Add tools and toddler !
- Watch out for fast moving preschoolers too!
Fruity Flower
This was impromptu and as you will see it evolved as we went. My original vision was not what my son wanted to make , so we changed it up mid craft. I like his vision better anyway and the end result was a really fragrant flower!
- Gather your materials. You will need some fruity cereal, a paper plate, a sheet of colored paper, scissors and white glue.
- Start by gluing the paper plate in the middle of the paper and drawing the petals with glue.
- Add your cereal to the petals. Which he did… for a bit.
- He decided that just putting one color on each wasn’t “seriously cool” but if we filled the middle , that would be.
- So that’s what we did!
There are enough power struggles in every day life with preschoolers if they don’t like the craft and want to change it go with it, it’s great if they have an idea they want to make.
- Let it dry.
- Cut out.
Fruity O Butterfly Necklaces
I loved these Butterfly treats from TeachMama and knew when I decided to use a butterfly theme for my daughter’s first birthday party that I’d need a craft for the kids to do. So I changed it up a little by turning it into a necklace craft. The craft table was busy even though the sun was out at the party, and these are a fun craft to do any time.
- Gather your materials. You will need fruity O’s cereal, sandwich baggies, and some craft lace.
- Start by filling the baggies with a handful of cereal.
- zip it and separate the cereal to the edges.
- Wrap a cut piece of craft lace around the middle and tie.
- When making it into a necklace loop the craft lace through one o first to make an easy stopper so kids can string the cereal on without them zipping off the end.
- Lace and tie . At the party we had kids from 2-8 enjoying this craft.
My mom returned from an Alaskan cruise with this super cool mining hat for my son and I knew I wanted to use it as a prop for an activity. He is all about pretend play and dress up The same way I use super heroes to get him excited to write I used this new hat for this fun sensory activity. Even though we used magnets you could do this with pinchers , a small scoop or just wee little hands! Older kids ready for magnets though will love how the wand helps them mine for the ” diamonds”.
- Gather your materials. You will need some dried beans , lentils or rice, a container, a magnetic wand with steel ringed chips or marbles .
- Pour the dried beans/ rice in the container. A lot of parents email me saying that they are shocked that their 4-7 year olds still like sensory bins. I am not surprised in the least. Especially when you have them help make them and there is a little task involved ( though never required!).
- Add the magnetic chips – we were pretending they were diamonds.
- Start mining. Count, sort do whatever you want with the treasures you mine.
- The only thing you must do is have fun!
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