by Certified Early childhood Educator
Every activity that activates the young child’s senses, such as touch, scent, taste, action, balance, sight, and hearing, is considered a sensory activity. When playing, creating, investigating, and exploring, sensory activities promote experimentation and naturally inspire children to use scientific methods for discovery.
Sensory activities facilitate motor skills and problem-solving abilities to achieve success in complex learning.
Ultimately, Sensory activities is the method to use when we want children to learn a subject because it engages different areas of the brain resulting on easier and more effective to remember.
In addition, engaging in sensory play plants the seeds of scientific thinking, making learning more fun. Sensory activities help children learn new lessons about themselves and their environment every day by developing endless encounters and presenting them with various new and varied experiences.
We have shortlisted five great sensory play activities for your tods:
5 Sensory Play Activities for Toddlers
Sand for Toddlers
Toddlers absolutely love spending time playing in the sand. Sand play is fantastic to increase your toddler’s hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and creative skills.
You can add loose parts such as lids, popsicle sticks, toy trucks, or whatever toy your child loves for more fun. You can also interact with the children as they play to help with language development.
If you live in or around a coastal town, do make it a point to take your children to the beach more often- with their beach toys, of course. However, if you don’t have access to a beach, you can build a miniature by making a sandbox for them to play in your backyard.
Kinetic Sand for Toddlers
Kinetic sand is the ideal stimulating material for children who like or are responsive to tactile stimulation. Kinetic sand can be gleefully grabbed, squeezed, and played with by children who want to touch everything and actively find sensory feedback. It might seem that they will be unable to get enough of it! It often doesn’t air out. You can use:
Kinetic sand can be used in molds. You may also put it in cups or buckets and use the cylinder molds to create a sandcastle.
When it comes to playing with kinetic sand, the options are endless. Learning may also be incorporated into this form of sensory play.
Stamping magnetic letters in the sand to make words is a lot of fun. They leave a lasting impression!
Aquafaba Sensory Play
For people engaged in vegan recipes, Aquafaba is a staple egg substitute. But it has more to it – being non-toxic and awesome for your child to play! Aquafaba Sensory play is excellent for developing sensory skills in children at a young age. At the same time, it is imperative to have a healthy environment for toddlers to touch and discover so here is the recipe for making Aquafaba for your kid:
All you’re going to need for this is two cans of chickpea flour, ¼th tbsp Cream of tartar and some food coloring. Just mix the food coloring of your choicen with the water you drain from the chickpea cans and the cream of tartar.
Next, you will need to whip both the ingredients with an electric whip at high speed. Continue until you see soft peaks appear. Once the foam is ready, add some food coloring and VOILA! It is ready for your toddler to dig in!
Shaving Cream Art for Toddlers
Sinking their fingertips in soft shaving cream is a sensory activity that children enjoy. It’s fantastic (and cheap to buy). You can even use it to make simple art objects. Shaving cream is a remarkably flexible product to have on hand for crafting afternoons if you’re looking for a simple project to set up to keep the kids occupied.
The best thing is that when you’re playing with it, some smell fantastic! or you can add scent to it. I go to Walmart to get the shaving cream for my little ones, I have found some to be as cheap as $2 and last for at least 5 activities!
Spaghetti Slime
Slime is such a fun activity to do; however it is nor recommended for children under 3 so we have an exciting option, which is safe, non-toxic, mess-friendly, and equally fun! Spaghetti Slime!
The two-ingredient recipe takes no confusing proportions to remember. Just boil some spaghetti, drain the water, and rinse them with cold water.
Next, you can divide the spaghetti and dyed them different food-colors, making them attractive and hard to resist to the touch. Use pastel colors to obtain the colors shown in the picture, and add some cups for the little ones to work their fine motor skills.
Our slime kit is also great option, but requires supervision if used for children under 4 years old.
Final Words
All in all, engaging your child in safe sensory play helps them increase their memory, concentration, fine motor skills and creativity! so don't wait, pick an activity and start the fun today!
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