Sensory Play Activities!

C has always been a fan of sensory play. She loves to touch and feel different textures, discover the various smells of herbs, spices, and flavours. And this probably explains her love for baking as well! 

So here is a list of her favourite sensory activities to share:

Oobleck!

You will need:

1 1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
(Optional) Food colouring
Mixing bowl
Large pan or tray

Note: If you would like a thicker consistency to your Oobleck, you can add more cornstarch.

The name Oobleck actually came from a book by Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. It's a story about a king who was bored with regular weather, and gets his royal magicians to create something new and exciting to fall from the sky. He ends up with green globs called Oobleck!

Well, Oobleck is actually a suspension of cornstarch in water. The cornstarch does not dissolve into the water. If we leave the mixture aside long enough, there will be a layer of cornstarch settled at the bottom, with the water on top.

Depending on how much pressure we apply to the Oobleck mixture, it can behave either as a solid or liquid, which makes it a fun sensory experience!

C feeling the texture of the cornstarch before
adding water.

Adding 1/2 cup of water with green food colouring.

Great way to learn the usage of a measuring cup,
and to have some practice pouring liquids.

No spills!

C getting her hands in to stir the cornstarch and coloured water.

Feels like a solid when squeezed hard suddenly,
but becomes a liquid when you relax your grip.

I loved playing with this too!

C having fun!

 

Oobleck can be stored in an airtight container
or ziplock bag.

We'll definitely be playing with Oobleck again! Perhaps we will try adding another colour next time!

Kinetic Sand

We bought this amazing Kinetic Sand online. It is a great way to enjoy sand play without getting bitten by sand flies or bugs, and I do wish we had more beautiful beaches here in Singapore. Anyway, this sand is wonderful because it is easy to mould, and is extremely easy to maintain. C gets a kick out of searching for 'treasure' buried in the sand, build lovely sand castles or even 'bake' pretend sand cakes.

Some sea shells to add to the mood! 

Really easy to mould!

A cherry on top of her airplane!
C can create anything with her imagination!

C can spend at least an hour playing this!

Play with Clay - Opening a Cafe!

Another fun activity that C loves is playing with clay. The texture of clay is a little different from Playdoh, and even though C also enjoys Playdoh, she really loves moulding with clay, since she gets to let her creations dry up and stay the way they are! 

Here C came up with an idea to be a cafe owner, and together we came up with a menu, and created the food items with clay!

Clay in primary colours. So we had to mix the colours to
get the specific colour we wanted.

C creating the vegetables for her salad. 

Proud of her creation!

Reading her menu to her 'customer'.

Preparing the food ordered.

It was also a fantastic way to teach C about addition, as each food item on the menu had a price listed. So we had her tally up my food order and the cost of it. Here's a printable menu that you can download to do some pretend play with your kids as well!

Spurbox Sensory Box

We got this sensory play box from Spurbox last Christmas. It came with fake snow, clay, scoops, moulds, buttons, tinsel and pipe cleaners. C loves making snowmen out of the fake snow, and decorating it with the buttons and pipe cleaners! The moulds were also great for baking gingerbreadman cookies during Christmas!

A snowman!

A blue pipecleaner as a scarf!

C having loads of fun!

 Fun Smells! Scratch and Sniff!

A scratch and sniff chart with various smells!

Scratch and sniff stickers!

C loves discovering new smells, especially in the kitchen! She has explored my pantry filled with various herbs and spices, and she simply loves the smell of vanilla! Rosemary being a close second. So I thought it would be fun to come up with a fun smell chart, using scratch and sniff stickers! There are smells like vanilla, peppermint, gingerbread, lemon meringue, etc. We have loads of fun blindfolding ourselves and guessing the smells! If you are keen to get some scratch and sniff stickers, do drop me a message as I ordered loads of extra ones!

So there, I hope this list gives you some new ideas to explore, learn and play together with your kids! Wishing all a great week ahead! :)