5 Simple Sensory Play Ideas to Try at Home
Looking for simple and engaging ways to keep your little one entertained while boosting their development? Sensory play is the perfect solution! Sensory play is a fantastic way to support your little one’s early development while having fun, creating connections, and bonding! Messy play helps improve fine motor skills, preparing your child for early writing, encourages creativity, and engages all the senses. The best part? You don’t need fancy materials to continue this learning at home — You can use just a few simple household items! And all of these activities are quick and easy to make. Here are five easy and affordable sensory play ideas to try at home.
Sensory Rice
Sensory rice is a classic, colourful, and engaging activity that ALL kids love. It’s really simple to dye dry rice! Add some rice, food colouring, and a splash of vinegar to a large sandwich bag, and shake. Once the rice is covered in colour, pour it onto a baking tray and let it air dry.
Sensory rice bins are a great way to keep the rice contained. Add spoons, scoops, funnels, cups, and small toys to encourage exploration. This activity promotes hand-eye coordination, transfer skills and fine motor skills.
Water Play
Water play is an easy, mess-free way to keep little ones entertained. Simply fill a bucket, a bunnings clam shell (have you seen the new pretty colours in their range?) or even the bath with water and provide cups, funnels, and sponges. You can also add food colouring, ice cubes, or bubbles for extra fun! This is a great activity for sensory exploration and understanding concepts like pouring, buoyancy, and measuring.
Spaghetti
Cooked spaghetti is my favourite sensory material — It’s actually the first activity I tried at home with my little ones! Spaghetti is squishy, stretchy, and so much fun to
explore! To make it even more exciting, I love to dye the spaghetti with food colouring, just add a drop or two of food colour to your spaghetti and mix!
Let your little one squish it between their fingers (practicing that pincer grip), add some tongs, or some plastic scissors to practice cutting. This activity helps with tactile exploration and strengthens hand muscles for future writing skills.
Play Dough
Play dough is a must-have for sensory play AND it is so easy to make! When little ones roll, squish, and mold play dough into different shapes they are working on enhancing their fine motor skills, creativity, and hand strength – all of which are essential for writing!
To make taste safe play dough;
● Add 2 cups of flour
● 1⁄2 cup of salt
● 2 tbs of cream of tartar
● 2 tbs vegetable oil
● 2 cups of water
● Food colour
Mix all the ingredients together until it forms into a dough, if the mixture is too dry add small amounts of water until you reach the desired consistency, if too wet add some more flour.
Oobleck
Oobleck is one of the most fascinating sensory play materials! Made from just corn flour (corn starch) and water, it behaves as both a solid and a liquid depending on the pressure applied. Simply mix 2 parts cornstarch with 1 part water and watch the magic happen!
Oobleck teaches basic science concepts to your little one while providing endless sensory fun.
Bonus Activity: If you let Oobleck dry in your tray you can simply rehydrate the Oobleck with water to play again!
Want to try Messy Play, but just not keen at home?
Sometimes we just want to play with our babies without having to clean up the mess! To experience messy play without the clean up Join our weekly sensory play classes in South of the River, Perth!
Our sessions offer an open-ended, creative learning experience where children can
explore and engage with sensory materials in their own way. This fosters development in fine motor skills, problem-solving, and early learning, social interaction, and endless fun.
Book your spot today and let’s get messy!
Written by Katherine Gray – Little Messy Learners – Kwinana, Cockburn & Melville
