Making Sensory Snow from a Disposable Diaper!

There are a few recipes floating out on Pinterest on snow, but the most common and easy seems to be the one made from a diaper. I know you are thinking two things:

1. Why Snow when there is snow outside
2. A Diaper?!

The "Snow"

Here in Arizona it barley become cool enough for jackets, so snow for us is an experience! Come to think of it, I have only seen snow about three times in my adult life!

Yes, a Diaper! We cloth diaper, but I was able to get my hands on three samples of a national brand via a friend. Some people were vocal about the chemicals in diapers-I would suggest if your little one has sensitive skin to avoid this project. For us I felt it was fine.

It is easy enough; you want to rip out the inner lining of the diaper, the "Fluff." And word to the wise, it is dusty. So dusty I felt that was more  dangerous than handling the fluff with our hands. So I did it away from Tegan and held my breath. I then just added water, and some blue glitter for effects! I then let chill in teh freezer for about 30 minutes.

The Water Table

Tegan skipped her nap, so I decided to amp it up a little bit by added soapy water and cotton balls for a fun "winter" exhibit featuring her little arctic animals. I actually got all her animal from Goodwill, a tip keep your eyes open the next time your there! I scored her collection of about 80 animals for about $6.

Of course, the water ended up being her favorite activity. Our backyard is under construction so when she started wanting to wander off, I brought the table in.

I left it up for awhile, and she ended up tossing the "snow" into the water in which it dissolved, fine by me it was a easier clean up!

Leave a comment if you stop by and tell me what you think! Thank you!

Pumpkin Sensory Fun

So; who doesn't love pumpkin? It is the time of year! When your grabbing pie pumpkins, don't forget to grab your child one too! I got this pumpkin for only $1, and we had an hour worth of fun with it!

                                   

Now, pumpkin play is one of the messier plays! Tegan was reserved at first and it took me getting into it for her to really flourish. So don't be fooled that your baby isn't enjoying it, let them relax and explore it on their own.

Not sure of the slime just yet!

 It was simple enough; I first cut the top off and let Tegan scoop up the seeds. Since we used a pie pumpkin the seeds were small enough I wasn't worried about Tegan chocking on one if she did eat it (which she didn't!)

Putting the top back on-how smart!

Helping scoop out the seeds

The fruit scoop was awesome for this

After awhile I cut the pumpkin in half so she really could go at it. I had to put the camera down because we were getting so messy! But I helped her scrape the skin and we loved playing with the pumpking slimy goop! She also would squeeze the seeds and see them slip out of her grip! 

Sooo slimy in the best way! When she started to get board I brought out some small containers with water and we made pumpkin scoop! It was fun to see the seeds float! She dumped the water on the tablecloth and splashed around, almost making a seed river!

Clean up was simply enough; I used a towel to dry off the water, swept up the seeds, and the best part?

Our pet rabbits loved the pumpkin leftovers!!!

Thank you for reading!

Cranberry Play Dough

I am always looking for easy recipes for play! This one was extremely easy. As you may know, cloud dough (Flour or corn starch with a type of oil) is extremely popular here. Tegan loves this stuff and keeps her busy! This is a fun spin. 

I simply used 1 can of cranberry sauce and a box of cornstarch! Fair warning: I followed a fellow bloggers recipe and I do NOT recommend this proportion! I had a lot of cornstarch left over. You either need another can of cranberries or 1/2 box of starch. 

It was a little more crumbly than cloud dough, but if I had fixed the ratio it would have had great molding properties. 

I also added some cranberries I had left over from the water bin I posted the other day. These have been sitting out; they are not rotten but have "fermented" with lactic acid and now "pop" when squeezed! This was a wonderful added sensory experience as Tegan, who is 14 months, loved popping them! I also added regular cloud dough scented with Peppermint EO! 

There goes the pan!

Squeezing the cranberries

Tegan had outgrown the play pool we were using to "Contain' the mess, so I found this Target brand plastic table cover and I simply put it on the kitchen floor. I then swept up anything that fell out of the sheet. I imagine one of these days Tegan might try to lift up the cover too and flip it over, like she did with the pie pan pictured above! :)

Look at that fine motor!

Play Date and Gelatin Shapes Sensory Play

Today we had our best friend Bryden come over to play! They were born on the same day and I love seeing them interact! I made a simple activity they could do. I prepared the gelatin shapes the day before by simply following the directions. I realized then I only had green food coloring!!

I made the gelatin by preparing it in the directions and adding the food coloring after I added the hot water. I then scooped them into the molds I got secondhand. When I went the next day to take them out, the flamingos and fish didn't make it! It was too hard to take them out of the mold. Only the ducks and circles made it intact. The 4 gelatin packets (one box) filled six molds.

                                              Then we simply added water to the water table!

These were so much fun to grasp and tear apart!

I think it would be fun to get ABC and number molds and do a alphabet and number theme water table! And def get more food coloring for better colors! Thank you for reading!

Contact Paper and Foil Paper: Multi Sensory Play!

Contact paper is one of my favorite mediums. It is cheap, fun to work with, and has a multitude of uses. I found a large roll of contact paper at Target for $5, but you can get smaller rolls at the Dollar Store.

I simply cut to fit the window, and peal off and tape the edges since my contact paper is one sided. If I wear to do this project again, I would place the paper horizontal! I forgot how tall my windows are vs how short Tegan is!
                                                       

Tissue paper is the normal material used in contact paper. I used cotton balls once at our Farm Sensory Party to make "sheep!" but at the Dollar store I saw these:

 It is foiled filler paper. I loved this! I thought it might be a nice change from the normal. Well, not only was it a nice change but it had a added element to this activity: The crinkle! It sounded exexactlyike tin foil with the texture of tissue paper. Tegan had just as much fun crinkling it as she did putting it on the window.

She also had fun sticking her own hand to the  contact paper and peeling it off. At 14 months, Tegan was less worried about making shapes and more taking the paper on/off. The foil paper wasn't easy to remove but it wasn't hard either.  It took some effort which Tegan found interesting.

Even better, she created a really awesome 3-D effect by pulling them on/off. She went back to this on and off all day, but the initial activity kept her busy for almost 20 minutes! And if you buy the contact paper from the dollar store as well, it was less than $4 and reusable! 

Thank you for ready and remember, Let them be messy!

Cranberry and Water Beads!

We have had some leftover fresh cranberries, and what better Fall sensory activity than watching them float on water?

I am so happy I found this water table at a thrift store for only $8, we've been using it quite a lot. It is deeper than our sand table and I love we can reserve just water activities for it.

I can't stress how much I personally love the sensory element of touch water beads add to any activity. We left these uncolored and Tegan had fun feeling them in the water, invisible but something was there!

We scooped cranberries and beads to each side, and then just had fun feeling the water!