sensory play

Halloween Sensory Bottle

When we think of Halloween, we may think of dark, black, or scary, but the October holiday can also be celebrated with cheerful colours like purple and orange. That’s what I like about this Halloween sensory bottle. This is a simple activity to do in a preschool class or at home. Because the glitter and confetti travel slowly through the glue and water, it makes a great calm down bottle for kids to observe when their emotions get too big.

Halloween Sensory Bottle:

Supplies needed:

1 (16 oz.) plastic bottle
2-3 bottles Elmer’s Glue in clear, 6 oz. each
approximately 1 cup warm water
Halloween foil confetti
orange glitter
orange and purple sequins
plastic aquarium rocks, orange and purple
optional: hot glue
optional: washi tape or duct tape

Directions:

Empty one bottle of clear glue into the plastic bottle.
Fill the empty glue bottle about half full with warm water and seal with the lid. Shake well to combine the remaining glue with the water. Pour into jar with glue and shake to combine.
Add some of the glitter, sequins, and aquarium rocks.
Seal the jar and shake well. If the glitter or confetti do not move easily, add more warm water. If the glitter or confetti move too quickly, add additional glue. Continuing adding in layers of water and glue with the glitter, sequins, and orange and purple rocks until you achieve the desired effect.
When the contents of the bottle move the way you want them to, seal the bottle with the lid.
You can use a hot glue gun to secure the lid in place to avoid spills.
If you want to make the sensory bottle more festive, you can cover the lid with Halloween themed washi tape or glow in the dark duct tape.

Are you looking for more easy sensory play ideas? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Check out these other Halloween sensory ideas:

Black Glitter Slime perfect for Halloween

Hallowe’en Sensory Game Spider Emotions Matching Game

Spider Web Slime

Black Glitter Slime Easy Recipe

By Sharla Kostelyk

Use this easy recipe to make your own black glitter slime. It’s great for Hallowe’en or just for sensory play. The glitter gives it a unique look.

If you’re looking for a fun Hallowe’en activity that uses slime, check out our Hallowe’en Sensory Game for kids. It’s easy to put together and great for the classroom or for parties.

Black Glitter Slime Recipe:

Supplies needed:

1 (6 oz.) bottle black glitter glue
¼ cup warm water
½ tsp. baking soda
1½ Tbsp. contact lens solution that contains boric acid
1 Tbsp glitter (if you want a more glittery slime)
optional: pumpkin confetti

Directions:

Empty the black glitter glue into a medium sized bowl.
Add 1/4 cup warm water to the empty glue bottle and seal with the lid. Shake well to combine the remaining glue with the water.
Pour into the bowl with the glue and stir to combine.
Add the baking soda to the glue and stir to mix thoroughly.
If you are adding extra glitter or confetti, stir them into the glue mixture at this point.
Add contact lens solution to the glue mixture and stir well.
Remove the slime from the bowl allowing any excess liquid to remain in the bowl. The slime will be sticky. Begin to play with the slime, kneading it as if it were bread dough, to bring the slime together. The slime is ready when it is no longer sticky.

Note: Glitter glue requires more contact lens solution than making slime with regular clear or white glue. Add the contact lens solution slowly, mixing between additions, and add only enough to bring the glue together into a soft ball.

Slime should be stored in an airtight container or resealable bag when not being played with.

Possible Variations of Glitter Slime:

To make this black slime more appropriate for Hallowe’en, you can add different types of Hallowe’en confetti.
You can change the look of this slime by adding different colours of glitter.
Try adding tiny Hallowe’en themed erasers.

Are you looking for more easy sensory play recipes to try? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

You might also be interested in checking out these other easy slime recipes:

Camo Fluffy Slime Googly Eyed Monster Slime

Stretchy Butterfly Slime

Apple Tree Colour and Counting Playdough Game

By Sharla Kostelyk

Playdough is one of my favourite sensory materials. It lends itself well to all kinds of fine motor practise and leaning opportunities. As you may know by now, learning through sensory play is something I am a big advocate for. This apple tree colour and counting playdough game is a great example of that.This easy activity is suitable for preschoolers who are just learning these concepts or even for children in Kindergarten or early elementary to help reenforce colour and counting concepts.

Apple Tree Colour and Counting Playdough Game:

Supplies needed:

red, yellow, green, and brown playdough (you can use store bought or make your own)
number dice
colour dot dice

Directions:

Form the trunk of the tree using brown playdough by rolling it into a long rope. If you don’t have brown playdough, you can mix equal parts orange and blue playdough to create kind of a grey-brown.
Tear off sections of the green playdough and flatten them out. These will form the leaves of the tree.
Invite your child to place the leaves on the tree trunk.
Have your child roll small balls of yellow, red, and green playdough. These will be the apples.
Set out one colour dot dice and one standard number dice.
Have the child roll both dice.
Encourage them to count the number on the dice and name the colour shown on the other dice.
The child can then add that number of “apples” to the tree in the colour that was rolled.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Through the tearing, shaping, rolling, and squeezing of the playdough, the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems are engaged.

Kids get fine motor practise by shaping the small “apples” and carefully placing them on the tree.

This playdough game is a great way to learn or reenforce colours as the child matches what is rolled on the colour block dice to the coloured balls.

Early math skills are worked on both by counting up the numbers on the dice and by counting out the corresponding amount of balls to place on the apple tree.

If more than one child plays this game at a time, it can also work on social skills such as turn taking and encouragement.

Vocabulary and communication are also improved in children by playing games such as these.

Colour Dot Dice Regular Dice Play-Doh Modelling Compound

Get a set of free printable alphabet playdough mats by entering your email address below. You’ll also be signed up to receive our email series Sensory Activities and Solutions.
You may also be interested in these playdough activities:

Rainbow Colour and Counting Playdough Game

Rainbow Playdough Fine Motor Activity

Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats (free)

How to Dye Noodles for Sensory Play

By Sharla Kostelyk

Remember the days of making macaroni necklaces at school to present to your mom for Mother’s Day? Coloured pasta is just as fun now as it was back then! Once you learn how to dye noodles, you can use them for sensory play or a variety of other activities with kids. In our house, we do a lot of sensory play. I keep a variety of materials on hand for this including dyed noodles and dyed rice. Read our instructions on how to dye rice.

How to Dye Noodles:

Supplies needed:

macaroni noodles (or other small noodle)
food colouring*
rubbing alcohol or white vinegar
plastic resealable sandwich bags (you’ll need one for each colour that you want to make
paper towel lined baking tray

*A note about the food colouring: You can use regular food colouring or for more vibrant colours, you can use Wilton food gel.

Directions:

Add 1 cup of dry noodles to each zipper bag. Do not seal the bags yet.
Pour 1 Tbsp. rubbing alcohol or 2 tsp. vinegar into each bag.
Into each bag, drop 10-20 drops of one colour of food colouring.
Seal the bag well.
Mix the noodles around in the bag by moving with your hands and shaking gently until they are is evenly coloured.
Open the bags and pour each colour of macaroni (or other noodle shape) onto a tray to dry.
Check on the macaroni noodles during the drying process and stir around to ensure the noodles are drying properly. It can take several hours for them to dry. I usually leave mine overnight to be sure.
The coloured noodles are now ready to be used in sensory play.
When not in use, store your dyed pasta in an airtight container or sealed bag.

You can now use your brightly coloured noodles for art activities, preschool crafts, stringing onto yarn to make a necklace, or all kinds of sensory play. Dyed noodles make a great sensory bin filler or can be used in sensory bags or sensory bottles. You can make a simple sensory bottle by filling an empty bottle with coloured noodles or you can make an I-Spy type bottle by “hiding” other items in among the noodles for kids to find.

This method can be used to dye pasta of any shape. For larger noodles, you may find that you need slightly more food colouring. I find that you get the best colour results from using small pastas such as orzo, mini shells, Alphabet noodles, and macaroni.

Some schools don’t allow food to be used in classrooms for play. If that’s the case, we also have a list of non-food sensory bin fillers.

Looking for other sensory play recipes to create fun options for your kids? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

You may also want to read:

How to Dye Rice for Sensory Play

Frog Sensory Bin with Dyed Pasta

Sensory Bin Fillers and Tools

Cool Camo Fluffy Slime

By Sharla Kostelyk

One of my daughters loves camo anything. She wears it, doodles it, dreams it. So I thought it would be fun to make this cool camo fluffy slime with her. There are so many fun play options with this camo fluffy slime recipe. It also makes a great party favour for birthday parties too. When my middle son was younger, he had an army theme birthday party and I wish I’d had this recipe back then.

Camo Fluffy Slime Recipe:

Supplies needed:

2 cups white school glue (I find that Elmer’s school glue works the best for slime recipes.)
2 cups foaming hand wash
2 cups shaving cream
2 tsp. lotion
2 tsp. cornstarch
green paint
darker green paint
tan paint
black paint
2 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbsp. contact solution
optional: toy soldiers

Directions:

Pour 2 cups of white glue in a large bowl.
Add 2 cups of foaming hand wash.
Scoop in 2 cups of shaving cream.
Mix with a spatula until smooth.
Divide this mixture into 4 smaller bowls.
Into each of the bowls, add ½ tsp. each of lotion and cornstarch. Mix.
Using the paint, tint each bowl a different colour. You will end up with a green, dark green, tan and black.
Add ½ tsp. baking soda to each of the bowls and stir.
Lastly, add 1 Tbsp. of contact solution to each and stir until it pulls away from the side of the bowl. It is best to do this full step on each bowl before moving on to the next.
Knead the slimes until they are no longer sticky.
Once all of the slimes are kneaded, stretch your slimes out and then combine them into one blob.
If you want to, you can add in some plastic toy soldiers.
Play.

At first, the slime will have that marbled camouflage look but of course, eventually with play, the colours will combine. When this happens, your slime should turn an army green which is also a lot of fun.

By kneading and stretching, pulling, pinching, and squishing, kids will engage their proprioceptive sensory system with this slime. It also involves their visual and tactile sensory systems.

Looking for more easy sensory play recipes? Join us for a free five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Check out some of our most popular slime recipes:

Unicorn Fluffy Slime

Shark Edible Slime

Textured Butter Slime

Sensory Lego Letters Preschool Activity

By Sharla Kostelyk

This is one of those easy to set up activities that packs in a lot of learning. Lego Letters playdough activity combines fine motor, sensory, and letter recognition practise into one simple preschool activity.

Sensory Lego Alphabet Activity:

Supplies needed:

Lego bricks in a variety of lengths
playdough (store bought or you can use homemade playdough)
rolling pin, toy rolling pin, or can to roll the dough with
Scrabble tiles or magnetic alphabet shapes

Directions:

Make the playdough into a ball and roll it out.
Set out a selection of Lego bricks.
Select several letters to practice.
Choose one letter to start. Encourage your child to say the letter, then stamp the shape of the letter using Legos.
After your child completes one letter, have them roll the playdough smoothly again and try to recreate another letter.

It can be helpful to start this activity with letters your child is most familiar with such as the letter their first name starts with.

With curved letters, it can be best to use smaller Lego pieces.Be sure to allow your child to come up with their own way to stamp the letter in the playdough. As long as they get the basic shape of the letter, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to create it. It can be tempting to step in and show them and you may need to show them how to do one as an example, but once they get the idea, step back and allow them to create.

Ways to expand this activity:

Talk to the child about what the sound of that letter is and have them see if they can think of words that have that letter as their beginning sound.
Numbers or shapes can be stamped into the playdough.
Sing the alphabet song.
Set out books about the alphabet.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Dr. Seuss’s ABC Animalia (MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE!)Touch and Trace ABC Board Book A is for Apple (Kids Trace-and-Flip)The Handmade Alphabet Eating the Alphabet M Is For Maple: A Canadian Alphabet