In our sensory table right now…

It has been awhile since I last shared our sensory table here on the blog! I still rotate our materials in the table about once a month, depending on popularity. This month we have pasta - in various shapes, pompoms, marbles, marker lids, and plastic eggs.

This sensory tub has been really great, we have been able to do so many different activities from it. So far we have sorted the items by objects, by colour, and by sound.

Above are the eggs set up with the different materials inside, and Lucas shaking them to hear the sound. Below is Lucas working on sorting out the materials by colour – this is an activity that I didn't think would interest him, but he has worked on it several times over the past few weeks!

finger paint gone wrong

I made a batch of finger paint this morning from the recipe I found in the book First Art by Maryann Kohl, I followed the recipe/directions but it did not turn out quite right - I think maybe I over cooked it....

It looked great but when we tried to use it, it was too thick and jelly like to paint with.

Luckily Lucas like the jelly glops of  gloop…

and our painting activity turned into a sensory activity…

We played in this squishy mess for a good part of our morning

I hope to recreate this mess again soon ‘cause this little man had a blast!

In our sensory table right now…

It has been a long time since we had our sensory table out, Lucas was so excited when I brought it out from storage. He has been playing in it almost non stop!

I went through the pantry to find some simple and engaging materials to fill our tub! I choose Rice, Lentils – mostly orange, but some yellow and green as well, and a bit of penne pasta. For his tools I gave him a large scoop, and a pie tin.

Lucas loves to pour the mix into the tin to hear the wonderful noise it makes… he tells me its raining :)

The tin is also great for making birthday cakes!!

This sensory item requires lots of sweeping, so Lucas has been learning to sweep as well!

In the sensory tub this week...

For our sensory tub this week I rounded up some (waterproof) toys and then threw them into a plastic bowl with some water and froze it over night.

not the best picture, but you get the idea!

Then I filled our sensory table with water, food colouring, and baby soap.

I gave the kids some cups, spoons (big & small) and some other kitchen utensils, a ladle, silicone brushes, a whisk etc...

The kids really enjoyed this! We had a little friend with us for this activity, she loved using the whisk to make the bubbles reappear, and Lucas just liked being able to dump cups full of water on the ground without getting yelled at  - being told no. Dominic really liked using the brushes to melt away the ice he said he was an "archaeologist discovery new dinosaur bones and other ancient artifacts."

In the sensory tub right now...

My kids looove their sensory table! I am always trying to come up with new ideas on what to put in it. To keep interest levels up I tend to change the materials every week, or two weeks if its something really popular.

This week we did puzzle pieces. I had some old puzzles that I was saving for crafts but I thought it would work well in the sensory table as well.

It has been a hit so far. The last material we had in here was lentils, the puzzles pieces are much easier to tidy up compared to that : )

I would love to hear what other Mama's are using in their sensory tables!

Water & Ice Cubes in the Sensory Tub

A few days ago I set up this activity to introduce Lucas to spooning objects.  At first he was a little discouraged because he was having some trouble getting the ice cubes to stay on the spoon but after some encouragement he got right into it.

Sensory Table Fun!

Yesterday I put some shaving cream in our sensory table, the kids really enjoyed it!

Especially Mr.Lucas

Once they had played with it for awhile I added some yellow and red paint and let them explore the colours.

We had fun making a BIG mess!